1. Introduction and Background History

1.1 Introduction to Seerah

In the Name of Allāh, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance]. And ease for me my task. And untie the knot from my tongue. That they may understand my speech.( Tā-Hā: 25-28)

All praise is due to Allāh. May the peace and blessings of Allāh be upon our master Muhammad, and may Allāh bestow upon his family and Companions much peace. We ask Allāh  to bless this gathering, we ask Allāh  to benefit us from what we learn, we ask Allāh to teach us that which will benefit us, we ask Allāh  to make us of those who will follow the way of Rasūlullāhﷺ and love him, and we ask Allāh  to make us of those who will be with him in Jannah.

1.1.1 Definition of Seerah

First of all we will start with the definition of Seerah; what does the word Seerah mean? The word Seerah has a linguistic meaning and that is a path, and walking is called Sayr; when you walk from one place to another you would say Sāra Fulān – such and such person is walking. So it is the path that a person takes during their lifetime; that is Seerah. And the Hans Wehr dictionary gives the translation of Seerah as ‘conduct, comportment, demeanour, behaviour, way of life, attitude, position, reaction, way of acting and biography.’ Allof these are meanings of the word Seerah. Seerah could be the biography of any person, it is not necessarily Muhammadﷺ, however we have used the word so much with Muhammadﷺ that when we say Seerah, we almost all the time are referring to the life of Muhammadﷺ. But you could also say the Seerah of Abū Bakr , Seerah of ‘Umar , and Seerah of so and so; it is a biography of a person, their life. So that is the meaning of the word Seerah, it is the life of a person, and in this situation we are studying the life of the greatest – Muhammadﷺ.

1.1.2 Importance of Studying Seerah

What is the importance of studying Seerah?

1. History of Islām: The life of Muhammadﷺ is the history of Islām; you are studying a concise history of Islām by studying the life of Muhammadﷺ. In his Seerah we would find situations and incidences that would help us in everything that we would need to know in our life of Da’wah. So the life of Muhammadﷺ is really the history of Islām; we are not just studying the biography of a person, we are studying the history of our religion. Muhammad Ibn Sa’d Bin Waqqās – Sa’d Ibn Waqqās is one of Al-‘Asharah Al -Mubashhirīn Fil Jannah,he is one of the 10who were given glad-tidings of Paradise, his son Muhammad says, – “Our father would teach us the battles of Rasūlullāhﷺ, he would teach us the Seerah of Rasūlullāhﷺ, and he would tell us that these are the traditions of your fathers, so study them.” And they used to refer to Seerah as Maghāzī – Maghāzī means battles – because the latter part of the life of Rasūlullāhﷺ was spent in Maghāzī, so they would use the word Maghāzī to refer to the whole life of Muhammadﷺ. And ‘Alï Ibn Husain Ibn ‘Alï Ibn Abī Tālib, the grandson of ‘Alï Ibn Abī Tālib, would say, “We were taught the Seerah of Rasūlullāh like we were taught Qur’ān.” That is how important Seerah was for them, they would study it like how they would study Qur’ān. And that makes sense, because if we want to study the life of Mūsā , where do we go? Where do we study it from? From Qur’ān. If we want to study the life of ‘Īsā , we go to Qur’ān. But if we want to study the life of Muhammadﷺ, even though there are bits and pieces of his life mentioned in Qur’ān, but we do not have as much details about the life of Muhammadﷺ in Qur’ān as we have about Mūsā , so for us to study the life of Rasūlullāhﷺ we go to Seerah. The lives of all of the Ambiyā’ were recorded in Qur’ān with the exception of Muhammadﷺ, we learn about Muhammad’sﷺ life from Seerah. So when we want to learn about the Ambiyā’, we go to Qur’ān, but when we want to learn about Muhammadﷺ we go to his Seerah, again, even though there are some references in Qur’ān made to his life. We will talk about the influence of Seerah and understanding Qur’ān.

2. Love of Muhammadﷺ: The second reason for studying Seerah: It is to develop the proper love of Muhammadﷺ in our hearts. Loving Muhammadﷺ is ‘Ibādah, it is part of our religion to love Muhammadﷺ. Heﷺ says, “One of you does not attain true faith until you love me more than you love your parents, your children, and the whole world.” W e do not really become true Believers until we love Muhammadﷺ more than anything else, s o it is part of Islām to love Muhammadﷺ. ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb  was a very honest and straight-forward person, he went to Rasūlullāhﷺ and said, “O Rasūlullāh, I love you more than anyone except myself.” Rasūlullāhﷺ told him, “Until you love me.” Meaning you do not really attain the complete faith until you love me more than your own self. So ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb came back and said, “O Rasūlullāh, now I love you more than my own self.” Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “Al-Āna Idhan – Now you have attained the complete faith.”

The Ummah today loves Muhammadﷺ. If you ask any Muslim, ‘Do you love Muhammadﷺ?’ They would say yes, but the love cannot be very deep and sincere unless you know the person. If you have shallow information about someone, you cannot really love them a lot. To love a person you need to know them more, and this is especially true with Muhammadﷺ, because the more you know him the more you would be impressed with his personality, the more you would love him. So even though the Ummah today, with the shallow information that the masses of Muslims have about him, love Muhammadﷺ , we cannot truly have deep love for Muhammadﷺ unless we know him. You know, the Sahābah , the more they knew him, the closer they were to him and the more they would love him. ‘Amr Ibn Al- ‘Aas for example, he was one of the staunchest enemies of Muhammadﷺ, he was one of the top plotters against Islām. ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas later became a Muslim, and when he was passing away, ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas started weeping, he was crying on his deathbed. So his son ‘Abdullāh Bin ‘Amr asked him, “O my father, did Rasūlullāhﷺ not give you the glad-tidings of this? Did he not give you glad-tidings of that?” It is reported in a Hadīth that Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “Āmana ‘Amr – ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas has attained faith.”

So this was a witness from Rasūlullāhﷺ that ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas was a Mu’min; not only a Muslim, but he is at the higher level of Mu’min. So his son was trying to give his father the glad-tidings that you are a true Believer, Rasūlullāhﷺ has given you all of these glad-tidings, so how come you are crying now before your death? ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas turned around and said, “I have gone through three stages in my life; at the first stage, the most despised man to me was Muhammadﷺ, and my desire was that I could get a hold of him and kill him.” That was my desire, that was my wish, my aspiration; to kill Muhammadﷺ. He said, “If I had died at that time, I would have definitely been in Hellfire, but then Allāh put the love of Islām in my heart, and I went to Muhammad and I said, ‘O Muhammad, I want to become Muslim. Extend your hand so that I can pledge allegiance to you.’” ‘Amr Ibn Al- ‘Aas says, “Muhammadﷺ extended his hand forward and I pulled my hand away.” So ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas had Rasūlullāhﷺ extend his hand, and when Rasūlullāhﷺ was ready to put his hand in his, ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas pulled his hand away. Rasūlullāhﷺ asked him, “What is wrong?” ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas said, “I have a condition to make.” Rasūlullāhﷺ asked him, “What is your condition?” He said, “My condition is that you pardon me, you give me clemency.” Because ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas knew that what he had done in the past, the great crimes that he had committed against the Muslims, was sufficient for his execution, so he wanted to make sure that Rasūlullāhﷺ would not hold him accountable for what he did in the past. Rasūlullāhﷺ smiled and he said, “O ‘Amr, do you not know that Islām erases everything before it, and Hijrah erases everything before it, and Hajj erases everything before it?” ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas said, “So I became a Muslim.” He said, “At that stage, Muhammad, who was my worst enemy, became the most beloved person to me in the world, and I loved him so much, I respected him so much, that I could not even get a full glimpse of his face; whenever I would see him, I would stare downwards.” He said, “I had so much love and respect for him that I could not even get a full glimpse of his face. And if you would ask me today to describe him to you, I could not. And if I died during that stage, I would have hoped to be in Jannah.” There are other parts of this Hadīth, but what concerns us now is that when ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas got to know Muhammadﷺ, when he became close to him, Muhammadﷺ, who was his worst enemy, became his most beloved friend.

Suhayl Bin ‘Amr was sent by Quraish to negotiate with Muhammadﷺ before Sulh Al-Hudaybiyyah. Suhayl Ibn ‘Amr was an international negotiator, he had been to the courts of the Persian Emperor, the Roman Emperor, the Emperor of Abyssinia; he was a well-connected man, and now Quraish had sent him to negotiate with Muhammadﷺ. So he went into Madīnah and he came in, and he had first-hand experience with how the Sahābah treated Muhammadﷺ. So Suhayl Ibn ‘Amr went back to report to Quraish and he told them, “I have visited the Roman Emperor, I have visited the Persian Emperor, I have visited An-Najāshī of Abyssinia, but I have never in my life seen a leader that is so loved by his followers, so much respected by his followers, like Muhammad. I have seen nothing like it in the world.” The Roman Emperor, the Persian Emperor, An-Najāshī of Abyssinia, even though they have all of the power and strength and empires, I have never seen a people love their leader so much like how the Sahābah  love Muhammadﷺ. He said, “I saw amazing things; Muhammad would be making Wudū’ and the Sahābah would be rushing to grab the water dripping from his body.” So he told them, “Do whatever you want, these are people who will never give up their leader.” The Sahābah would never give him up; they would give their lives first, they would sacrifice everything for him.

So if we want to love Muhammadﷺ, we need to learn more about him. I have already said that even though among the masses of Muslims we do not have much information about Muhammadﷺ, we do not know a lot about his Seerah, because it is not part of the curriculum that schools in the Muslim world teach, nevertheless, even though we are ignorant about him and his life, he is still the most beloved figure that ever lived in humanity, his name is the most common name in the world. How many people in the world are named Muhammad? There is no other person that ever lived in history who had so many people name themselves after him like Muhammadﷺ. When I was in college in the U.S., we had an Imām who was from Nigeria, and he was a Hāfiz and he was our Imām in the small college town in US, and his name was Muhammad Al-‘Aashir. Now, the word ‘Aashir means the tenth, so for a long time I assumed that Al-‘Aashir was his last name – Muhammad Al-‘Aashir. One day I went up to him and I asked, “What is Al-‘Aashir? Is that the name of the tribe or the clan?” He said, “No, my father would name every male child that he had Muhammad; all of his children, he would name them Muhammad. So to distinguish between us he had to number us, so there was Muhammad the first, Muhammad the second, Muhammad the third, and I am Muhammad the tenth!” His father did not want to deal with any other name; all of his children were going to be Muhammad.

And in Pākistān and India you would have Muhammad Hārūn, Muhammad Sulaimān, Muhammad Ādam; everyone is Muhammad. There is no one in history that had an Ummah love him like the Ummah loves Muhammadﷺ, he is the most beloved figure in history. Now, what will be the situation if we study about his life? How much love will we have then for Muhammadﷺ? His name is the most frequently mentioned name. Around the clock, there will be a Mi’zanah – a minaret, that is calling to Prayer and mentioning the name of Muhammadﷺ – around the clock – because Muslims now are worldwide, so in every time zone you have Muslims. So in every minute of the day there will be a Mi’zanah that is saying, “Ash’hadu Allā Ilāha Illallāh, Ash’hadu Anna Muhammad Ar-Rasūlullāh.” His name is mentioned around the clock. And by the way, the name Muhammad means ‘The Praised One’, and there is no one who is praised like Muhammadﷺ, his name really fulfilled its meaning. He is the Praised One, he is always praised. Whenever we hear his name, what do we say? Sallallāhu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam – Peace be upon him. So we want to develop love of Muhammadﷺ, and the way we can do that is by studying his life; we will love him more the more we study about him. Allāh  says:

Say, [O Muhammad], “If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased, are more beloved to you than Allāh and His Messenger and Jihād in His cause, then wait until Allāh executes His command. And Allāh does not guide the defiantly disobedient people.” At-Tawbah: 24.

 Sothe Āyah is stating that our love for Allāh and His Messenger and striving in the cause of Allāh should be paramount to everything else; our fathers, our sons, our brothers, our mates, our kindred, our wealth – everything. Allāh, His Messenger and Islām should be the dearest thing to every one of us.

3. Follow the Way of Muhammadﷺ: Reason three why we study the Seerah is to follow the way of Muhammadﷺ. Ibn Hazm says, “Whoever seeks the pre-eminence of the Hereafter, the wisdom of this life, the just purpose, and the embodiment of morality and character, let him follow Muhammad, the Prophet of Allāh.” So Muhammad is the embodiment of Khuluq – the perfect character, and by studying his Seerah we will be more able to follow his way.

4. Deeper Understanding of Qur’ān: There are some Āyāt in Qur’ān that are independent of the circumstances of their revelation, like for example, the Āyāt about Al-Ākhirah, Ar-Raqā’iq – these are independent of the circumstances, but then there are some Āyāt that were dealing with events that were happening in the time of Muhammadﷺ. So you would have some Āyāt revealed prior to an event, some Āyāt revealed concurrent with an event, and some Āyāt revealed after an event. Seerah would give us the explanation of these Āyāt, like for example Sūrah Al -Ahzāb; many Āyāt in Sūrah Al-Ahzāb were revealed regarding the Battle of Al-Ahzāb; many Āyāt in Sūrah Āl ‘Imrān were relating to events that happened in the time of Rasūlullāhﷺ, so you have a major section of Sūrah Āl ‘Imrān which was a dialogue between Muslims and Christians based on the Christian delegation that came from Najrān to visit Rasūlullāhﷺ; these Āyāt were revealed to support Rasūlullāhﷺ in his dialogue with the Christians. And then you also have the latter part of Āl ‘Imrān dealing with Ghazwat Uhud. Now, the details of the Ghazwah are not mentioned in the Sūrah, so how can we understand these Āyāt? By going to Seerah.

5. Illustratration of the Methodological Steps of the Islāmic Movement: Rasūlullāhﷺ went through stages, he went through steps, started by a secret Da’wah, and then it became public, and then later on came Jihād, so it went through stages; these stages are important for Islāmic movements to learn and study. Murī Al-Ghardān says, “And we believe that this methodological progression of the Prophet’s life is divinely directed, for Allāh has guided His Prophet in all of his steps, and it was not a result of a reaction to emerging circumstances.” So these events that happened in the life of Rasūlullāhﷺ were not haphazard, they were planned by Allāh  so that they would be a guidance for us in our attempts to establish Islām again. So it is very important that we look at the stages that Rasūlullāhﷺ went through and the progression of his Da’wah. Rashīd Ridā says: “Were it not for the education and training, verbal direction would not suffice, for the Seerah taught them how to be guided by the Qur’ān and trained them to be just and moderate in all matters.” So we have Qur’ān and Sunnah which are verbal teachings, but how do we apply these verbal teachings? It is by looking into the application of Rasūlullāhﷺ and the Sahābah . So they took this verbal teaching into action, and that is something that only the Muslims have; the followers of all the other Ambiyā’ have lost trace of the Seerah of their Ambiyā’, but with us, we know how the Qur’ān was being practiced, we know how the Sunnah of Rasūlullāhﷺ was being practiced and applied.

There is an Āyah in Qur’ān that says that you can continue eating and drinking at night time in Ramadan until the white string is distinguished from the black string. One of the Sahābah took this literally; he had a string under his pillow, and he would eat and then he would uncover this string after picking up the pillow but he would not see the string [change in colour], so he would continue eating. He would keep on doing that, and then he went to Rasūlullāhﷺ and said [that] this is what I have done. Rasūlullāhﷺ laughed and he said that the Āyah does not mean you take a string in your room and you take a look at it, it means the white string which is the first emergence of light in the horizon, that is what is meant by it. So Rasūlullāhﷺ taught this Sahābï how to apply that Āyah, because I could be in a dark room with no windows and I have a string with me, and it would be noontime and I still cannot see it and I am continuing to eat. So the application of the Āyāt and the Ahādīth of Rasūlullāhﷺ are shown to us in the life of Muhammadﷺ and the life of the Sahābah, may the blessings and pleasure of Allāh  be with them all.

6. Studying Seerah is ‘Ibādah: We are not doing this to entertain ourselves; this is ‘Ibādah, there is Ajr – reward in studying this. We are worshipping Allāh by coming together and studying the life of Muhammadﷺ. This is the Halaqah of Dhikr – this is a session of Dhikr. When we come together and talk about Muhammadﷺ we are worshipping Allāh . And we expect that this is a gathering that will be surrounded by angels in which Allāh  will shower us with His mercy and tranquillity and we be mentioned in a gathering better than this. So it is ‘Ibādah, and Allāh  says: Say, [O Muhammad], “If you should love Allāh, then follow me, [so] Allāh will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allāh is Forgiving and Merciful.” Āl ‘Imrān: 31

7. Developing a Muslim Identity: Brothers and sisters, there is a global culture that is being forced down the throats of everyone on the face of the earth; this global culture is protected and promoted. Thomas Friedman who is a famous writer in the U.S., he writes for the New York Times , he says, “The hidden hand of the market cannot survive without a hidden fist. McDonald’s will never flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F15s.” In other words, we are not really dealing with a global culture that is benign or compassionate, this is a culture that gives you no choice; you either accept McDonald’s otherwise McDonnell Douglas will send their F15s above your head. It is a very intolerant culture that cannot co-exist with anything else; it uproots every other culture on the face of the earth, just cuts the roots of it. And you have a quote here by Alexander Solzhenitsyn who is a famous Russian historian writer, he says, “To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.” So it is really a destruction of the people of the earth, because every other culture is being demolished. So this is not a global culture that will co-exist with others; it will replace others, and the only ideology that is standing up to this global culture is Islām. But still, as Muslims, and especially Muslims living in the West, we are suffering from a serious identity crisis. You would find that even though the brother or the sister would be practicing Islām, but the Islāmic identity itself is lost; the person would have more in common with a rockstar or a soccer player than they would have with a Companion of Rasūlullāhﷺ. You would find that our youth know more about popstars than they know about the Sahābah of Rasūlullāhﷺ, in fact, even sometimes more than the Ambiyā’. How many of our youth know the names of all of the Ambiyā’ of Allāh? How many of our youth know the names of the Sahābah ? But ask the same person to name the soccer players on their favourite team or their best basketball players and they would go down the list. So there is a serious identity crisis that is going on among Muslims, and the way we can counter that, the way we can develop a Muslim identity, is by doing the following:

8. Having a Strong Study of Islāmic History: Number One: It is by having a strong study of Islāmic history which is made up of the lives of Prophets of Allāh, the life of Muhammadﷺ, the life of the Sahābah , and then learning in general the Muslim history after that. So that is number one; you develop an identity by having an attachment with history, because history is our umbilical cord; that is our lifeline. We are an extension of an Ummah, we are not separated, we are not severed from our roots; we are a part of a glorious Ummah that we need to study about.

9. Being Part of the Worldwide Muslim Ummah: Number Two: By being part of the worldwide Muslim Ummah. Our local identity should not override our Muslim identity. So my identification with Britain or America or Pākistān or Kuwait or any other country should not override my Islāmic identity. See, this “nation/state” concept is something that Islām came to abolish. We have our loyalty to Allāh  and to our religion, and we are part of a worldwide Ummah, therefore we need to study, we need to learn about our Muslim brethren all over the world. What happens in Falastīn should concern every British Muslim, what happens in Kashmīr should concern every American Muslim, what happens in every corner of the Muslim world should concern me as if it is happening within my own house.

So these are the two important elements in building an identity. Number one: by having a deep understanding of our history, and number two: by being part of the Ummah and caring about the Ummah. And again, the saying of Alexander Solzhenitsyn is, “To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots”. We do not want our roots to be severed, we want our roots to be deep. Studying the life of Rasūlullāhﷺ is the most important ingredient in our history.

10. The Life of Muhammadﷺ is a Testimony of his Prophethood: The greatest miracle of Muhammadﷺ is Qur’ān, and then Rasūlullāhﷺ has many other miracles other than that, but by just studying his life in itself is an evidence of his Prophethood. Here you have a man who for 40 years was leading a normal life. The outstanding thing about the life of Muhammadﷺ in the first 40 years was his morality and character, but Rasūlullāhﷺ did not show any signs of aspiration to power or influence – none of that at all. Rasūlullāhﷺ was leading a normal life, and then suddenly after the age of 40, Rasūlullāhﷺ brings about the greatest change that the world has ever seen; that is an irony, that is a miracle. Rasūlullāhﷺ was illiterate, he could not read or write, and then he presents the world with the greatest Book that was ever produced. And we could go on and on in a list of ironies of things that are only explained if Muhammadﷺ is a Messenger from Allāh who has divine help, otherwise it is impossible. There is no way to explain his Seerah except to admit that he was a Nabï from Allāh . It is impossible for a person to achieve what Muhammadﷺ achieved without being assisted by Allāh  through Revelation. So it is a testimony of his Prophethood, it is one of Dalā’il An-Nubuwwah. Then you have Muhammadﷺ leading a normal life for the first 40 years and then suddenly he becomes a political leader, military leader, religious leader, head of a large household, law-maker, teacher, Imām, and we could go on and on and on in the list of things that Rasūlullāh used to do. All of that was done within 23 years – impossible! This would lead us to our next point:

10. We are Studying the Life of the Greatest: We are studying the life of the greatest. Right now, we are studying the life of the greatest man that ever set foot on this earth. Muhammadﷺ is the greatest, and whatever benchmark you want to use for greatness, he will still come out the greatest. Michael Hart, who is a U.S. author, wrote a book called The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. I am sure many of you are familiar with his book. After studying the lives of leaders throughout history, it became clear to him that Muhammadﷺ is the undisputable greatest man that ever lived; he is the greatest. And in his introduction he feels compelled to respond to what the readers of the book might think, because he is mostly writing for a Non- Muslim audience, so many people would question his choice of Muhammadﷺ, therefore in his introduction he writes,

“My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels. It is this unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.”

So Michael Hart is compelled by the facts. There is no doubt that Muhammadﷺ is the greatest, but then he has to apologise to his readers, he has to say that it is out of my hands, there is no way I could put anyone else in front of him; Muhammadﷺ is the greatest. In fact, if we take Muhammadﷺ as a military leader, just that aspect of his personality, he would still come out the greatest. In fact, if we would take from Muhammad only the religious aspect of his life, he would still be the greatest. Muhammadﷺ the political leader; he would still come out the greatest. So even if you would dissect the different aspects of the life of Muhammad and take them piece by piece, by just taking one piece alone, he would still be greater than everyone else that ever lived. So we are studying the life of Al-Mustafā – the one who is chosen; Allāh  chose him. Al-Mustafā Min Khalqih –he is chosen out of all of the creation of Allāh. And there might be some other reasons why studying Seerah is important.

1.1.3 Sources Used

We will be using two primary sources for this course:

Source One: Seerah of Ibn Kathīr Ibn Kathīr did not write a book called Seerah, Ibn Kathīr wrote an encyclopaedia of history called Al-Bidāyah Wan-Nihāyah – The Beginning and the End,and it is literally the beginning and the end. He started from the beginning of creation and went all the way until people enter Jannah and Nār. One of his volumes is about the life of Rasūlullāhﷺ,and another volume is about the Prophets, and then he has a volume about Al-Khalīfah Ar-Rāshidah, and Al-Khalīfah Al-‘Amawiyyah, Al-Khalīfah Al-‘Abbāsiyyah, and he went all the way up to his time, and then the last volume is about Al-Fitan – The Signs of the Day of Judgement, and then the Day of Judgment, and then Jannah and Nār. So we are going to be taking his part on Seerah as a primary source, and I will talk a little bit on why I have chosen Ibn Kathīr to be our primary source.

Source Two: Sahīh As-Seerah An-Nabawiyyah : The second book that I have used in the compilation of these notes is Sahīh As-Seerah An-Nabawiyyah by Ibrāhīm Al-‘Alï.

Science of Seerah and Science of Hadīth: Traditionally, Seerah was a separate science from Hadīth, even though there are some areas where they cross each other and where there is over-lapping between them, but traditionally Seerah had a different set of rules compared to Hadīth. Scholars of Hadīth were very stringent, very strict in their rules, while the scholars of Seerah were more liberal, more flexible. The reason is, when they were dealing with Hadīth and drawing Ahkām – rulings, they wanted to make sure that they were basing rulings on Ahādīth that are sound; they did not want us to worship Allāh based on weak sources, so that is why they applied very strict rules to Hadīth. However, when it came to Seerah, they were more flexible with the rules, because they saw this as history which does not affect Ahkām, it does not affect rulings; there is no Ahkām based on it. So Imām Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, who is a scholar of Hadīth, says, “When we talk about history, we are more flexible”. So you would find that the writers of Seerah would accept narrations that they would not normally accept if they were dealing with Hadīth. So that is one track that was followed by our early scholars. The Seerah of Ibn Is’hāq was written according to these rules, the Seerah of Ibn Sa’d; all of these early scholars of Seerah followed these flexible rules in narration. Recently, there was a new trend among some of our scholars; they wanted to apply the rules of Hadīth on Seerah. Why? These scholars said that now we are living in a time when the history of Rasūlullāhﷺ is Ahkām for us. In the time of Imām Ibn Hanbal, Khilāfah was established, so when they studied the life of Rasūlullāhﷺ they were studying it to learn general lessons from it, but it was not to guide them in a methodology of a movement because Islām was already established. But now we need to go through the Seerah and learn rules from it on how to do Da’wah and how to establish Islām again, so it is becoming similar to Fiqh where it applies to us, therefore they say we should apply the same rules of Hadīth on Seerah.

The second book, which is Sahīh As-Seerah An-Nabawiyyah, is based on the rules of Hadīth. So what these scholars did was they went into Bukhārī, they went into Muslim, they went into Sunan Abī Dāwūd, they went into these books of Hadīth and they gathered the bits and pieces that were referring to Seerah and they constructed a Seerah of Rasūlullāhﷺ based on Hadīth. So rather than going to the book of Ibn Is’hāq they would go to Bukhārī, rather than going to Maqrīzī or Ibn Hishām or any other early scholars they would go to Sahīh Muslim. Sa‘īd Hawwā has written a book based on Hadīth, it is called Al- Asās Fi As-Sunnah, then there is this book we mentioned by Ibrāhīm Al-‘Alï which is called Sahīh As-Seerah An-Nabawiyyah,and there are few other books that are following this line.

Reason for Choosing Ibn Kathīr as Primary Source: Now, the reason why I chose Ibn Kathīr as our primary source is because Ibn Kathīr combined both in one book, so he would draw information from the books of Seerah and he would also draw information from the books of Hadīth, so you would find him narrating from Bukhārī and narrating from Ibn Is’hāq, and that is what makes the Seerah of Ibn Kathīr unique. There is one drawback with the Seerah of Ibn Kathīr and that is it is a bit complicated and cumbersome to use because he would mention all of the chain of narration; sometimes he would not stick to a chronological order and sometimes he would bring in information that seems to be contradicting, but it is an excellent source, and Alhamdulillāh now it is present in the English language; it has been recently translated by Le Gassick, a professor in the U.S., and it is a very good translation.

Other Sources Used: Other books that we might and we might not be using, and some of them I have got some quotations from, but I just want you to be familiar with these books: we have Al-Minhāj Al-Harakī by Munīr Al-Ghadbān. The thing about this book is that the author tried to draw movement lessons from Seerah, so he would divide Seerah into the secret stage, the public stage, then he would go through the Hijrah and then different stages of Jihād, so he tried to construct a movement curriculum from Seerah; it is a recently written book. And then you have Fiqh As -Seerah by Muhammad Ghazālī . The good thing about his book is that he has some Tarbiyah lessons. And there is also another book by the same name, Fiqh As-Seerah by Muhammad Sa‘īd Ramadān Al -Būtī, and Al-Būtī emphasizes on Fiqh, he draws many Fiqh lessons from Seerah. And then there is a book called Al-Ghurabā’ by Sheikh Salmān Al-‘Awdah, and it is dealing with the Hadīth of Tūbā Al-Ghurabā’ –the Hadīth of the Strangers, and he tries to draw correlations between the strangers in the time of Rasūlullāhﷺ and the strangers now. Al-Asās Fī As-Sunnah; we talked about this by Sa‘īd Hawwā. And then At-Tarīq Ilā Al-Madīnah by Muhammad Al-‘Abdah, which is lessons drawn from Seerah. And Fiqh As-Seerah by Al-Būtī.

1.1.4: Arabic Terminologies

Some terminologies that I would like to go over before we start, because sometimes I have the habit of using Arabic words and I forget to translate them, so let us go through their translation now so that in case I forget to translate it, at least you know what they mean.

Sallallāhu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam((Pbuh)): means ‘May the peace and blessings of Allāh be on him’. This is what we say when we hear the name of Muhammadﷺ. Now, the Hukm of saying it is that it is mandatory to say it the first time you hear the name of Muhammadﷺ;  any  other  time  after  that,  it  becomes recommended. So in this lecture, the first time you hear the name of Muhammad, it is mandatory to say Sallallāhu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam, any other time after that, as long as we are in the same gathering and meeting, it is recommended. So this is the Hukm of Salāh Wa Salām ‘Alā An-Nabï Muhammadﷺ.

Rasūlullāh: The word Rasūlullāh means the Messenger of Allāh.

Jāhiliyyah : this is a word that I would be referring to – is the ignorance of the pre-Islāmic era. So Jāhiliyyah is not only a time period but it is also a concept. Whenever you have a time that resembles the pre-Islāmic era, it is called Jāhiliyyah. And you would find that Sayyid Qutub uses this word a lot in reference to the times that we are living in, he says that there is a lot of resemblance between it and the early Jāhiliyyah. So Jāhiliyyah comes from the root word Jahl, which means ignorance, so it is the time of ignorance, the absence of the Message. Even if the Message is there and the people are not following it, it is a Jāhiliyyah.
Īmān: Faith
Jannah : Paradise
An-Nār : Hellfire
The last section is discussing the difference between Hadīth and Seerah scholars. We talked about this; Hadīth scholars were more stringent in their narrations fearing wrong rulings, Seerah scholars were less stringent because they wanted to get the stories and were flexible in the narrations. And we mentioned that we are using a combined approach, so I will use Hadīth, and in the situations where there is no Hadīth, we will fill in the gaps by referring to Seerah.

This is an introduction to the series. Inshā’Allāhu Ta‘ālā, in the next session we will start talking about some background history.i

1.2. Background History of the Prophetﷺ

We talked about the importance of studying Seerah and now we will start with the first session on Seerah itself. Now, usually the authors or the scholars who write about the life of Muhammadﷺ do not start by talking about his birth, they would go a little bit before that – actually, about a few thousand years before that – and they would talk about his father Ibrāhīm ; that is usually where they would start talking about Rasūlullāhﷺ, they would talk about his ancestry starting from Ibrāhīm . The emphasis is on the Hājar and Ismā‘īl side of the story rather than the Is’hāq and Sārah, because that is the lineage of Muhammadﷺ. So they would start by talking about the story of Ibrāhīm , Hājar and Sārah, when they travelled to Hijāz.

1.2.1 Ibrāhīm  Migrates to Arabia and Leaves Family in the Desert

Ibrāhīm , his wife and his newborn son travelled into Arabia, into the land of Hijāz, and Ibrāhīm took them to present day Makkah. At the time there was nothing there; nobody was living there, there was no cultivation, it was a dead valley. But the place where the House of Allāh is built, the place where Al-Ka’bah was built, was sacred since the world was created. In fact, there is a difference of opinion on who was the first one to build Al-Ka’bah; the majority opinion is that it was Ibrāhīm , but there are some scholars who say that Ādam  was the first one to build it. Now, regardless of whether Ibrāhīm  or Ādam  built it, the place itself – whether there was a building on it or not – was holy and sacred from day one.

Ibrāhīm  and his wife and son arrived to the valley, and in the place where Zamzam is currently –obviously there was not Zamzam at the time –Ibrāhīm  left his wife and son Ismā‘īl. He left with them some water and a leather bag of dates and he walked away; he just turned away and left. Now, Hājar  knew that Ibrāhīm  was going to leave them but she did not expect to be left in such a place, in the middle of the desert. So she followed him and she said, “Ibrāhīm, are you going to leave us in a place where there is no cultivation and there is no one living?” Ibrāhīm  did not answer back. She asked him again; no response. She asked him a third time; he did not answer back. And then Hājar  said, “Āllāhu Amaraka Bi’hādhā? – Did Allāh tell you to do so?” Ibrāhīm  said, “Yes.” [She said], “Then Allāh will take care of us”. If this is a command from Allāh, then I have trust in Allāh that He will take care of us. Look at the faith of this woman; [she is] in the middle of nowhere, but if this is the command of Allāh, I have trust in Allāh, Allāh will take care of us. “ Falam Yudayya’nallāh – Allāh will not waste us.” Allāh will not neglect us.

Ibrāhīm  left, and when he reached to a place where they could not see him anymore, Ibrāhīm  turned around and faced the place of Al-Ka’bah and he made Du‘ā’ to Allāh, Ibrāhīm  said: Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, Our Lord, that they may establish Prayer. So make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful. Ibrāhīm: 37

Sothe place was known that it was secret, even though the Ka’bah was not built, and then Ibrāhīm  made a Du‘ā’.
Now, you know, the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the pyramid – what is the foundation of the pyramid, the bottom? What is the first human need that needs to be satisfied? What does it start with? The first thing is what? Physiological needs, right? That is the bottom of the pyramid, so that is the most important need for humans; that is the base of the pyramid. And then what is after that? What is the next step? Psychological [needs]. And then the third? Social [needs]. Physiological on the bottom, [Psychological], Social, Spiritual, and then the peak itself; [Self] Actualisation. So that is the pyramid. First of all as a human being, you want to satisfy the physiological necessary needs which are food and shelter. After that, you want to have friends, have a social life, have a belonging and association, so those are the social needs. And then you have the spiritual needs. So after you have achieved the physiological needs and the social needs, after that you start thinking about religion according to Maslow. Finally, you have the Self-Actualisation which is on the top of the pyramid. But According to Ibrāhīm  the pyramid is inverted; the first thing that he asked for was not food and drink, or shelter, the first thing he asked for was Rabbanā Li-yuqīmus Salāh;that was the first thing he asked for. We would assume that since Ibrāhīm  left them in a valley where there was no cultivation, the first thing he would ask for is [for Allāh ] to provide his family with food for their survival, but Ibrāhīm  started in his Du‘ā’ by saying: Rabbanā Li-Yuqīmus Salāh – Our Lord, that they may establish Prayer. Sothe first thing that he mentioned was spiritual needs; Salāh, Iqāmatus Salāh – establishing the Prayers. And then he said: Faj‘al Af’idatam Minan Nāsi Tahwī Ilaihim –So make hearts among the people incline toward them. Meaning make people love them. So he is asking Allāh  to draw people to his family and to make them love his family, so he is asking for the social needs. And then finally he said: Warzuqhum Minath Thamarāt – And provide for them from the fruits. SoIbrāhīm  is starting by asking for Salāh – spiritual needs, and then social needs, and then physiological needs. But even when he asked Allāh  to provide them with Thamarāt – fruits, he also connected it to ‘Ibādah and said: That they might be grateful. So even when he was asking Allāh to provide them with worldly things, he was still connecting it to religion; And provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful. And that is true Self-Actualisation, when Allāh becomes everything for you; when you are eating, when you are drinking, when you are sleeping, you are doing everything for Allāh. That is the true tranquillity, and that is the Self-Actualisation that neither did Maslow or anyone else achieve except the Ambiyā’ of Allāh and the Awliyā’ of Allāh .

1.2.2 Hājar  Searches for Water

And then Ibrāhīm  left. Hājar made use of the small amount of food that he left with them, but obviously after a short while they ran out of food. And Hājar  was breast-feeding Ismā‘īl and her milk was drying up because she was thirsty and hungry, and now Ismā‘īl  was beginning to cry, he was hungry. So Hājar  could not afford seeing her son agonising in pain, so she left him and she started climbing a hill, a hill which was called later As-Safā. She climbed on top of that hill to see if she could see anybody in the horizon; she would look left and right and would see no one, so she would climb down the hill, and when she would reach the valley she would tuck up her clothes and run. And then she would climb another hill, which was later called Al-Marwā , and she would reach the top and look in the horizon to see if she could see anybody. Her son was twisting and turning in pain, and Hājar  was running up and down these hills, and she did that seven times. The seventh time when she reached the top of the hill she heard a sound, and she was staring around to see where that sound was coming from, and to her amazement she saw that the sound was coming from beneath the feet of Ismā‘īl . Jibrīl  descended and was digging the well of Zamzam and the water was coming out from beneath his feet. Hājar  was rushing in happiness to the source of the water, and because it was a dry desert and it would soak up all of the water, she was making a pool around the water to contain it. Rasūlullāhﷺ, when he was narrating this story, he said, “Rahimallāhu Umm Ismā‘īl – May Allāh have mercy on the mother of Ismā‘īl. If she would have left the water alone, it would have been a flowing river.” But because of her interference, it was a well. She was trying to contain the water and she did not allow it to flow, [but] if she would have left the miracle as it was going without interfering it would have been a flowing stream. So Rasūlullāhﷺ smiled and said May Allāh have mercy on her.

Hājar  – think for a moment what were her feelings when she was running up and down those hills; her heart must have been broken, she might have been crying because of the pain and suffering of seeing her son [possibly] die in front of her eyes. Hājar was a Believing woman, she was a righteous woman, and Allāh  was testing her, and Allāh  was hiding for her something in the future that she did not know. So at the time, naturally as a mother, she must have been in extreme pain, seeing her son crying and she was in the middle of nowhere running up and down these mountains. Now, just imagine if Hājar was resurrected at the time of Hajj, and she would have a chance to see what Muslims from all over the world are doing. Rasūlullāh said, when he was mentioning the story of Hājar going up and down As-Safā Wal-Marwā, Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “And that is why we go between As-Safā and Al-Marwā.” So we are following the footsteps of Hājar , we are going up and down As-Safā Wal-Marwā to follow the footsteps of our mother Hājar . If Hājar knew that, if Hājar knew that a time will come when people will come from the four corners of the world to follow her footsteps in millions to do what she did, she would have went through As-Safā and Wal-Marwā with a big smile on her face. So dear brothers and sisters, as a Muslim, as a Believer, when you are going through these trials, you might have a certain mindset, you might have a certain feeling, but you do not know what is waiting for you on the other side, you do not know what Allāh is hiding for you in the future. This is the gift, this is the present, that Allāh  has given Hājar in Dunyā; just think about what Allāh  will give her in Ākhirah. So when we go through some difficult situations, when Allāh  puts us through trials and tribulations, let us always remember this, let us remember that Hājar went through this and Allāh  provided her with something better, that Allāh  was hiding something for her.

Mūsā , when he was with his family, when he was lost in the desert, it was a cold, windy night, and Mūsā  lost his way, he did not know [in] which direction was Egypt, and he saw a fire in the distance, so he told his wife, “I will go to that fire so that I can bring you with light and guidance.” He wants to bring light because it was a dark night and he wanted to have some warmth in the cold weather, and he wanted guidance; he expected that since there was a fire in the desert then there must be some people there, it was a bonfire and there must be some people around it, so [he thought] I will go and ask them for directions; that was all that Mūsā wanted, he wanted some light for that dark night and he wanted guidance to Egypt. But Allāh  was hiding something better for him, Allāh  tells us the story in Qur’ān; when Mūsā  went there he met Allāh, and Allāh spoke to him, and rather than Mūsā going back with light for that dark night and guidance to Egypt, he came back with light for humanity and he came back with guidance not to Egypt, but to Jannah. He went there and that was the announcement of his Prophethood, it was right then and there. Mūsā , lost in the desert, went to the fire, Allāh  told him: Indeed, I am Allāh. There is no deity except Me, so worship Me and establish Prayer for My remembrance. Tā-Hā: 14

Mūsā  wanted something but he got something better. The Sahābah  would go through difficulties but Allāh reserved for them the top levels of Jannah. So let us think about this when we ourselves go through moments of difficulties.

1.2.3 Yemen – Birthplace of the Arab People

Now, in the desert whenever you have a source of water, it will immediately attract forms of life, so now birds were beginning to hover over the well, because nothing was living there, it was a death valley. There was a tribe called Jurhum who were nomads in that particular area, and where did Jurhum come from? Jurhum was a tribe that moved out of Yemen. Yemen was the birthplace of the Arab people and the Arabic language, and that is where the Arab tribes emigrated from. And there were many mass immigrations – or waves of immigrations – that happened from Yemen in different times; one of them [happened] when the dam was destroyed, and there is a whole chapter in Qur’ān called Saba’, which was the name of that kingdom. Allāh tells us the story that these were people who built the first dam in the world, and because of that dam they had a year-round source of water. So even though you do not have a lot of rain in Arabia – the precipitation level is low – but because of this dam they had a year-round source of water, and they had a massive network of irrigation that went for hundreds of miles. So suddenly you have this semi-arid area holding a huge population because of the existence of water. And there are some stories – they might be exaggeration – but it says that a woman would go out of her house and go for a walk with a basket on her head, and she would come back home and the basket would be filled with fruits; the fruits were just dropping from the trees. But it does say in Qur’ān that because of their wealth and the cultivation that they had, they did not feel any pain in travelling, because it was a continuous series of colonies; wherever they would go there would be villages and towns, and there was so much wealth, so they did not feel the suffering and the difficulty of travelling like the rest of the people of the world would. So these people, because of their arrogance and Disbelief in Allāh, they said, “We want to feel the pain of travelling like everyone else,” and they asked Allāh, “O Allāh, make it difficult on us like everyone else,” and Allāh did make it difficult on them. And they rejected the Message of Allāh, so Allāh destroyed the dam. The dam was destroyed and it flooded the area and suddenly all of their agriculture collapsed, so you had a huge wave of immigration which spread the Arab people out of Yemen into Najd and Hijāz and ‘Irāq and Ash- Shām. So you had some tribes settling in A’mān, some of them settled in Najd, some of them settled in Hijāz, Al-Aws Wal-Khazraj settled in Madīnah, and then you have a few of the Arab tribes who went to Syria, and some of them went into ‘Irāq. So that is how the Arab people spread out of their small locality in Yemen. I am giving you this background history because Jurhum was one of these tribes. However, Jurhum might have emigrated from Yemen before the [incident of] the Dam, Allāhu A’lam, but they are one of the tribes who ended up moving out of Yemen and they went into Hijāz.

1.2.4 Hājar  Makes Deal with Tribe of Jurhum

They were familiar with the area around Makkah and they knew there was no water in that area, so when they saw birds hovering in the sky, they wondered what was going on in that particular area, so they sent one or two people to go and investigate the matter. So these two men went and they came back and reported to their clan and told them that there was a well in that area. So now Jurhum go to the place where Zamzam is located and they ask Hājar a strange question and they get an [even] stranger answer.

They asked Hājar, “Can we settle in this place?” Now, the reason why this question is strange is because this is a tribe of warriors, and here they were getting permission from a lonely woman with her child. If they wanted, they could have just pushed her away, but they were very kind to ask her for permission to stay there, even though it was an empty place, there was no one living there to start with. And her answer was even more amazing because she started to bargain and negotiate with them. Here you have a woman who is alone with no power and no strength, no weapons, no army to help her, and she is negotiating and bargaining with them and telling them, “Well, if you want to stay then I have a condition, and that is that the water belongs to us.” You can stay here but the water is mine, the well belongs to me. They agreed. Rasūlullāhﷺ says, “Deep in her heart she wanted them to stay from the beginning, because she wanted to have some company,” but she was just negotiating with them to [get] a better deal. And she did, and they ended up settling in that area which later became known as Makkah.

1.2.5 Ismā‘īl  Grows Up

Ismā‘īl  grew up with them and he adopted their language, he learned their language which was? What was their language? Arabic. Because Ibrāhīm , his language was? What was the language of Ibrāhīm? It was Aramaic from Irāq; Ibrāhīm  was from ‘Irāq and they used to speak a different language in Irāq at the time. So Ismā‘īl  was brought up by this Arab tribe and he adopted their language and he married a woman from among them. So this is the beginning of the lineage of Rasūlullāhﷺ; through Ismā‘īl  in Makkah. Now, Jurhum had the political leadership in Makkah. Later on Ismā‘īl  grew up and his father came and they built Al-Ka’bah. The religious leadership in Makkah was with Ismā‘īl and it continued down along the line of his descendants. So Jurhum never had the religious authority over Al-Ka’bah, it was always in the hands of the descendants of Ismā‘īl , but the political leadership was with Jurhum.

1.2.6 Khuzā‘ah Fight Jurhum and Take Over Makkah

Jurhum stayed in Makkah for a very long time – 2000 years. They became corrupt, tyrannical, so Allāh  sent on them Khuzā‘ah, and Khuzā‘ah kicked them out of Makkah. This [Khuzā‘ah] was another tribe that came out from Yemen and they settled in Hijāz, they went in and invaded Makkah and they kicked Jurhum out. Jurhum, before they left, they did two things; number one, they dumped the well of Zamzam; they filled it up and they erased all of its marks, and [number two], they stole the treasures which were inside Al-Ka’bah. Khuzā‘ah now became the new leaders of Makkah, while the descendants of Ismā‘īl by that time had already increased in numbers and branched out and spread all over Arabia. But there was one branch that remained in Makkah, and that branch was Quraish. So Quraish is one of the many different tribes who descended from Ismā‘īl , they are called the descendants of ‘Adnān. So Quraish were still living in Makkah but now Makkah was ruled by Khuzā‘ah.

1.2.7 Qusaÿ Bin Kilāb Drives Khuzā‘ah Out of Makkah

One of the leaders of Khuzā‘ah was ‘Amr Ibn Lahī Al-Khuzā‘ī, and we are going to talk about his story later on when we touch upon the religious background of Arabia, but now we want to stick to the lineage of Rasūlullāhﷺ.

The head of Quraish, Qusaÿ Bin Kilāb, was able to unify Quraish and to lead a revolt against Khuzā‘ah, and he was able to drive them out completely from Makkah. So now finally a descendant of Ismā‘īl combined [both] the political and religious leadership of Makkah. Not only that, but Qusaÿ Ibn Kilāb consolidated all of the authorities, or all of the different aspects of power, in his hands. He controlled Al- Hijābah which was the guardianship of Al-Ka’bah, which was a very noble thing, so he was the guardian of Al-Ka’bah. He controlled Siqāyah and Nifādah, which is the provision of water and food to the Pilgrims.

Now, to you this might not seem like a big deal; so what if he was providing food and drink to the Pilgrims? But to them this was considered to be such a great honour, that you are the one providing for the guests of Allāh, so they used to fight on this. What this responsibility entailed was that all of the Arabs who would come for Pilgrimage would be hosted by the people of Quraish; they would provide them with food [and water] throughout their stay in the season of Hajj. So Qusaÿ Bin Kilāb was also responsible for that. He also had control over An-Nadwah; An- Nadwah was the assembly of Quraish, it was like their parliament, [so] he held control over that. And he also held control over Al-Luwā; Al-Luwā is the banner of war, in other words, he was the one who had the power to declare war. So these were the authorities that Qusaÿ Ibn Kilāb had. Basically he had every authority that existed in Makkah, so he was the absolute ruler of Makkah.

1.2.8 Hāshim Introduces Bread to Pilgrims’ Soup

When Qusaÿ Bin Kilāb died, these different aspects of authority were split among his children; some of them were with ‘Abd Manāf and some of them were with his other brothers. The grandson of Qusaÿ, his name is ‘Amr, he ended up inheriting from his father the provisions of Al-Hujjāj, providing them with food and drink. ‘Amr did something new in feeding the Hujjāj; rather than providing them with soup – you know, they would cook the meat in big containers and then they would feed the people soup, because that way you can feed a larger number – what ‘Amr did was he started crushing bread into the soup. So he would mix bread with the soup which was an upgrade to their meals; now rather than just having soup they were having soup with bread.

Now, the process of crushing the bread in Arabic is called Hashm; when you crush something it is called Hashm, so he was nicknamed Hāshim, so they nicknamed this man ‘Amr and they called him Hāshim, and this was the great grandfather of Rasūlullāhﷺ . So he was named Hāshim because of crushing bread; that was not his real name, his real name was ‘Amr. Hāshim married from Al-Madīnah, and then he went to Falastīn to do business and he passed away in Ghazzah, he died and was buried in Ghazzah. His wife became pregnant and she gave birth to a child who was named Shaybah; Shaybah means old man. Now, why would anybody call a child Shaybah? The reason is [because] he was born with some grey hair, so they named him Shaybah. And because his father passed away, the mother stayed with her parents in Madīnah, and he was brought up by his family in Madīnah.

1.2.9 Al-Muttalib Takes ‘Abdul Muttalib to Makkah

One day a man comes into Madīnah, his name is Al-Muttalib; Al-Muttalib is Hāshim’s brother. He went into Madīnah and he went to claim his nephew, because Hāshim’s son Shaybah was living where? In Madīnah. So his uncle Al-Muttalib came to claim him when he was eight years old or something like that. He said, “We want to take him back to his land in Makkah.” The mother’s side of the family refused to give him up, but then Al-Muttalib was able to convince them by saying that he belongs to the most noble family in Quraish and he has to go back and learn about his heritage and learn about his family and start assuming responsibilities in Makkah. Eventually they agreed to allow him to go, so Al-Muttalib took with him this child into Makkah.

Now, nobody in Makkah had ever seen this child before, and in those days slavery was quite rampant; you go out to the market and you buy a slave and you just walk in with that slave to Makkah. Since this boy was never seen in Makkah before, they assumed he was the slave of Al-Muttalib, so they called him ‘Abdul Muttalib, and this was the grandfather of Rasūlullāhﷺ. So his real name was Shaybah, but he was nicknamed ‘Abdil Muttalib because they thought that he was the slave of his uncle. And usually they would buy slaves at a young age so that you would raise them up and train them to what you want them to do for you, so they would usually purchase them when they were young. So they thought that he was a slave and he was named ‘Abdul Muttalib – the slave of Al-Muttalib. So this was the grandfather of Rasūlullāhﷺ. So now we got as far as the grandfather of Rasūlullāhﷺ; we talked about Ibrāhīm and Ismā‘īl, we talked about Qusaÿ, and then we talked about Hāshim, [and now] we talked about ‘Abdul Muttalib.

1.2.10 ‘Abdul Muttalib and the Well of Zamzam

Now, we will spend some time talking about ‘Abdil Muttalib because two important events happened to him, and we will talk about these two important events that had occurred with ‘Abdul Muttalib.

Remember that the well of Zamzam was now unknown, right? Because Jurhum erased all of its marks, they filled it up and just erased all of its marks, so Zamzam had not been known now for over 300 years, because Khuzā‘ah had rule over Makkah for about 300 years, and then you add to that the time from Qusaÿ Bin Kilāb all the way down to ‘Abdul Muttalib, so we are talking about 300 years plus, so the well of Zamzam was lost for over 300 years. ‘Abdul Muttalib sees a dream; someone comes to him and tells him, “Uhfur Taybah – Dig Taybah.” Taybah means pure. ‘Abdul Muttalib in his dream is responding and saying, “What is Taybah?” He did not hear anything back. That was the end of the dream. The following night the same voice comes to him and tells him, “Uhfur Barra’ – Dig the precious.” ‘Abdul Muttalib asks, “What is the precious?” He does not hear an answer back. The third night the voice comes to him and tells him, “Uhfur Zamzam – Dig Zamzam.” ‘Abdul Muttalib asks, “And what is Zamzam?” The voice tells him, “Zamzam. Lā Tafnā Walā Tudham. Tasqil Hajījil A’zam. Baynil Farsi Waddam. ‘Inda Qaryatin Naml. ‘Inda Naqrat Al-Ghurābil A’sam –Zamzam. It will never fail or dry up. It will water the grand Pilgrim. It lies between the dung and the blood. Near the nest of the crow with the white leg and the ant’s nest.” So it is symbols, and ‘Abdul Muttalib is unable to decode all of these symbols. “Zamzam. Lā Tafnā Walā Tudham – it never runs out of water.” He heard a voice in his dream telling him that Zamzam will never run out of water. “Tasqil Hajījil A’zam – And it will provide for the grand Pilgrim.” Meaning Hajj every year. And it will be sufficient to provide water for them. But then it goes on to saying, “ Baynal Farsi Waddam – Between dung and blood.” And then [it says about the] crow with the white leg [and] nest of ants. So all of these are obscure things to ‘Abdul Muttalib.

The next day ‘Abdul Muttalib was going around Al-Ka’bah and he saw dung and blood; there was a camel that was slaughtered in that place and they left its insides, and the blood was on the other side. And then he saw a crow with a white leg in the same area, and there was a colony of ants. ‘Abdul Muttalib realised that this is where the well of my grandfather is, so he calls his son Al-Hārith and they start digging. Now, Zamzam, for those of you who have been to Makkah, is not far away from Al- Ka’bah. So here you have ‘Abdul Muttalib and his son digging right next to Al-Ka’bah; obviously this would anger the people of Quraish, [they would think] what are you doing? You are digging right next to Al-Ka’bah. So they asked him, “What are you doing? ‘Abdul Muttalib continued working, and they kept on protesting and he was digging with his son Al -Hārith; at the time, ‘Abdul Muttalib only had one son. So they were digging and digging and digging and the people were wondering what is going on? What is this man digging for? What is he looking for? So they left him alone. And then suddenly they heard ‘Abdul Muttalib shout, praising Allāh , and they came rushing, and to their amazement they found that ‘Abdul Muttalib had uncovered the rim of the well of Zamzam.

So now all the leaders of Quraish came in and said, “Yes, this is the well of our grandfather Ismā‘īl, this belongs to all of us, let us share.” ‘Abdul Muttalib said, “Wait a minute, I was the one who saw the dream, I was the one who uncovered it, it belongs to me and me alone.” They said, “No way, we are all descendants of Ismā‘īl  so it belongs to all of us.” ‘Abdul Muttalib refused to give up, he refused, and they kept on insisting. So when they were unable to solve the dispute and they were about to go to war over it, someone suggested to them, “Let us solve the dispute by going to the witch of Banī Sa’d.” Banī Sa’d had a witch who claimed to have connection with the spirits, so [they said] let us go to her and seek her consultation. So they travelled to this witch and they were told that she had relocated and went to Syria. So they said, “Well, we will follow her wherever she is!”

And they started their journey towards Ash-Shām, and along the way they ran out of water, and they were in the middle of nowhere in the desert. ‘Abdul Muttalib told them, “If we are going to die here, let us at least dig our graves, and whenever one of us dies, the rest could put him in the grave and cover him, so at least in the end we will be left with one person who is uncovered rather than have all of us die exposed. At least let us honour our dead and just have one that is without burial.” So they all dug their graves and they were lying inside their graves waiting for death. And then ‘Abdul Muttalib said, “This is not right, for men like us to sit here waiting for death. Let us do something, let us go and search for water.” So they agreed and they went in different directions searching for water.

After a short while, ‘Abdul Muttalib found water, so they came to him and said, “If Allāh has saved you in this desert and provided you with water, and Allāh has shown you a dream in which you uncovered the well of Zamzam, this is surely an indication that it is a blessing for you and it belongs to you. We give up our claim, it is all yours. Let us go back.” So they gave it up and they agreed to submit to ‘Abdul Muttalib and the well was his. So this is one important story that happened with ‘Abdul Muttalib.

1.2.11 ‘Abdul Muttalib and the Blood-Money

Now, when the whole incident happened, when they pressured, when they came to him and said, “This belongs to all of us,” ‘Abdul Muttalib felt that he was weak because he had only one son to defend him. You know, in tribal societies, your strength is based on how many men you have on your side, and you can only count on your relatives – that is how life in the desert is. Your strength is based on how many sons, how many men, you have with you, how many brothers, how many uncles – that is your strength. So ‘Abdul Muttalib felt weak; he had only one son on his side, Al-Hārith, so he said, “O Allāh, if You bestow me with 10 sons, I will sacrifice one of them for Your sake.” And Allāh  did bless him with 10 sons; he had 10 sons and six daughters. So when he had 10, now it was time for him to fulfil his promise to Allāh that he will sacrifice one of them. So they had these arrows next to Hubal – Hubal was one of their large idols – and they believed that these arrows were divine, so they would cast lots and they would leave their choices, they would leave the decision up to this random way of casting lots.

So ‘Abdul Muttalib had the name of every one of his 10 sons on these arrows, so it came on who? ‘Abdullāh. He did it a second time; it came on ‘Abdullāh. Third time; it came on ‘Abdullāh. So ‘Abdul Muttalib took his son ‘Abdullāh with him right next to Al -Ka’bah and he was ready with a knife to slaughter him. Abū Tālib, one of the elder sons of ‘Abdul Muttalib, went to his father and said, “We cannot allow you to kill your son.” And then the maternal relatives of ‘Abdullāh came and said, “We are not going to allow you to kill our son.” And people were coming in and they were telling ‘Abdul Muttalib, “If you do it, then it will become Sunnah for the Arabs after you,” because ‘Abdul Muttalib was their leader, so if he did something it would become a trend after that. And they said, “If you do it, then any one of us after that who has 10 sons will follow your footsteps and we will be killing each other.” They were already killing their daughters, and now they would start killing their sons. So they insisted on ‘Abdul Muttalib not to do it. ‘Abdul Muttalib told them, “This was a pledge that I made to Allāh, I cannot give it up, I cannot break my promise.” They told him, “No, you have to stop it,” and they had a dispute.

How could they solve the dispute? “Let us go to the witch!” So they decided to go and visit the witch again. They went to the witch and they told her, “This is the situation.” She said, “Alright, come back to me tomorrow so that I can consult my spirits this evening, tonight I will speak to the Jinn.” They came back the next day and she had an answer for them, she told them, “What is the retribution that you pay to a person that was killed?” Diyah, the blood- money, “How much is it?” They said, “10 camels.” She said, “Then put 10 camels on one side and put ‘Abdullāh on the other side, and cast a lot. If it points towards the camels, then slaughter the camels, if it points towards ‘Abdullāh, then add another 10 camels.” So they agreed and they went back. So ‘Abdul Muttalib, with all of the people of Quraish, came together, ‘Abdullāh on one side, the camels on the other side. They threw the arrows; it pointed towards ‘Abdullāh. They added another 10 camels; it pointed towards ‘Abdullāh. They added another 10, so now we are up to 30… 40… 50… 60…, and it was pointing towards ‘Abdullāh – all the way until a hundred. They had a hundred camels on one side, ‘Abdullāh on the other side, and finally it pointed towards the camels. The people of Quraish said, “Finally, we can release your son.” ‘Abdul Muttalib said, “Not yet, we will have to do it another time.” They cast lots a second time, they cast lots a third time, and it was consistently pointing towards the camels.

So he slaughtered the hundred camels, and he had to pay for it all. And ‘Abdul Muttalib was a very generous man; he refused to take any of that meat, he gave it out, and there was so much meat and the people would take so much of it but there was still enough to feed the birds and to feed the beasts. So later on it became famous among the Arabs that ‘Abdul Muttalib is the one who fed the humans and the animals; Mut‘im At-Tayr Fissamā’ – he is the one who even fed the birds in the sky. And we will talk about an incident when this saying was brought up in a conversation with Abū Bakr and one leader of a clan.

Now, the people of the Quraish were right when they told ‘Abdul Muttalib, “If you kill your son, it will become a tradition among the Arabs after you.” Because when ‘Abdul Muttalib sacrificed a hundred camels to save his son, the blood-money among them changed from 10 camels to a hundred because of what happened with ‘Abdul Muttalib, so the retribution now that was paid was a hundred rather than 10. And by the way, this tradition was kept and reserved by Islām, so the Diyah is still today a hundred camels, however, now they would calculate it in terms of currency, but it is still based on that concept. This is the story of ‘Abdullāh.

1.2.12 Muhammadﷺ – Son of the Two Sacrificed Ones

Now, ‘Abdullāh and Āminah are the parents of Rasūlullāhﷺ. Later on, they would tell Muhammadﷺ that you are the son of the Two Sacrificed Ones. And who are they? Who are the Two Sacrificed Ones? Ismā‘īl and ‘Abdullāh. So Rasūlullāhﷺ is the son of the Two Sacrificed Ones; his father ‘Abdullāh was sacrificed and his father Ismā‘īl  was sacrificed.

‘Abdullāh married Āminah Bint Wahb. And we are done with the ancestry of Rasūlullāhﷺ.

1.3. Religious Background in Arabia

we will talk about the religious background of Arabia so that we  know  the  environment  in  which  Rasūlullāh ﷺ lived.  Now, obviously they started on Tawhīd because of the Da’wah of Ismā‘īl  – he was their Prophet and they followed him – so the Arabs of Arabia started out as Muslims, as Believers in the Oneness of Allāh. So what went wrong down the line for them to reach the level that they were at when Rasūlullāh was sent to them? In the time of Rasūlullāhﷺ there were three religions in Arabia; Idol-worshipping, Christianity and Judaism, so we will talk about how these three religions came into existence.

1.3.1 Idol-Worshipping

‘Amr Bin Lahī Al-Khuzā‘ī – do you remember him? He was the leader of Khuzā‘ah – this man was very generous, very strong, very much respected by his people. They used to respect him so much and admire him so much that his words were taken as law – Kāna Qawlahū Yu’khadh Kash-Shara’. ‘Amr Bin Lahī Al-Khuzā‘ī travelled to Syria, to Ash-Shām, and I am translating Ash-Shām as Syria even though it is not a correct translation. Ash-Shām refers to Syria, Falastīn, Lubnān, and Jordan; that land is called Ash-Shām, and the centre of Ash -Shām is Jerusalem – Bait Al-Maqdis, but it has been translated in English as Syria, so we will just go by that translation for now.

So here we have ‘Amr Ibn Lahī Al-Khuzā‘ī travelling to Ash-Shām, to Syria. He goes there and he finds these idols, so he asks the people, “What are these?” So they told him, “Well, these are intermediates between us and Allāh – Yuqarrimūna Ilallāhi Zulfah.” So when we want to ask for rain, we ask them; they appeal on our behalf to Allāh. When we want children, we would go to a different idol, when we want this we would go to that idol, in war we have a certain idol, and they appeal on our behalf to God and they perform things for us. ‘Amr Ibn Lahī said, “ Excellent! This is what we need; we need someone to appeal to our Lord to provide us with rain, to provide us with wealth. How about you hand me over one of these idols so I can take it back home?” So they gave him a pretty good idol – big, huge – called Hubal. So he carried Hubal with him back to Makkah and he established it next to Al- Ka’bah in Al-Haram, and he told his people, “These will intercede on your behalf to Allāh , ask them whatever you want.”

Now, Makkah being the centre of Arabia, the religious authority of Arabia, bringing an idol to Makkah carried with it such a heavy weight. You had the Arabs coming from all over the Peninsula to make Hajj, so all of them were exposed to this new Bid‘ah – innovation in religion, and it started spreading like a wildfire because it was coming from the religious centre, and it was also adopted by ‘Amr Ibn Lahī Al-Khuzā‘ī who was so respected by his people. So now it became a business; in Makkah they would make idols to export to the other tribes. So now every tribe would come to Makkah and they would carry with them an idol to take home because they could not come all the time and ask from Hubal, so they would have these idols that they would carry with them, and then this concept was developed further – it starts out small and then it grows – the concept was carried further so now they were making portable idols; you carry it in your backpack, whenever you are travelling you have one with you.

Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb  Laughs at Foolishness of Eating Idols: I do not know if you remember the story of ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb; he was once seen crying and laughing, so he was asked, “Why were you crying and why were you laughing?” He said, “The reason why I was laughing was because I remembered in the time of Jāhiliyyah, in the time of Ignorance, I was travelling and I wanted to pray, but then I remembered that I had forgotten to bring my God with me, so what I did was I tried to think of a way that I could pray. So I had some dates with me, so I moulded the dates into the form of an idol and I worshipped it. Later on that night I became hungry, so I ate my idol.” He said, “That is why I am laughing.” You know, now he was looking back and he was saying, ‘What was I doing? How could I do that?’ You see how Islām changed them. See who was ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb [before] and who he became after Islām. You know, these giants, the Sahābah, when we read about them and their wisdom, this is where they were. So this shows you how Islām had the power to change them from being nothing to being the best, how Islām transformed them in a very short period; that is a miracle! That is a miracle of Islām that it had the capacity to bring such a people, and to bring about in their lives such a change, and make out of them these giants. And ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb; who would ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb be without Islām?! ‘Abbās Mahmūd Al- ‘A’qād asked that question in his book about ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb, he says, “Who would ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb be without Islām?” He said, “Maybe he could have grown to be the leader of his clan, his family of Banū ‘Udaÿ who were a very small branch of Quraish, or maybe he could have been one of the prominent leaders of Quraish, or if we extend it further then he might have become the head of Quraish,” which is a far-fetched assumption because the other clans of Quriash who held power in the past would never allow such a thing to happen to start with, so he said, “We would be stretching it too far to say that he would become a leader of Quraish. But the most likely scenario was that ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb would have died at a young age; he used to drink a lot before Islām.” So most likely he would have died at a young age and ‘Umar Ibn Al -Khattāb would have been an obscure figure of history. But with Islām, not only did he become a leader of Quraish or Arabia, but he became the ruler of two thirds of the world at that time – one of the greatest men that ever lived in history. That is the transformation that Islām brought in their lives.

So idols were being exported and now they were being made in different shapes and forms, and you had a different idol for a different purpose, and Al-Ka’bah was polluted, surrounded with idols – 360 idols were surrounding Al-Ka’bah. Shirk now was in every direction; what started out as one idol imported turned into a huge exporting business and [with] Shirk in every direction in Makkah. So that is how the religion of Ismā‘īl changed down the line. Rasūlullāhﷺ says, “I have seen ‘Amr Bin Lahī Al-Khuzā‘ī dragging his intestines in Hellfire, because he was the first man to change the religion of the Arabs.” So Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “I saw him in Hellfire going around his intestines, trying to pull them back in his stomach.” So this is how idol-worshipping was introduced in Arabia. What about the Jewish faith and Christianity?

1.3.2 Judaism

The King of Yemen, Tabbān As‘ad, was traveling to do business in Ash-Shām. When he passed next to Al -Madīnah, he left his son in Madīnah to do business until he came back from Syria. The people of Madīnah killed him; [they] killed his son. So when Tabbān As‘ad came back and heard the news that his son was killed, he decided to destroy Madīnah. So he attacked, and his army was overwhelming compared to the small armies of Madīnah, so he could have crushed his opposition, but two Jewish rabbis came out of Madīnah. Now, how did Jews get there in the first place? When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the Jews dispersed. There were some of them who came down into Arabia in search of the Promised Land where the Nabï would be sent, because they had in their books signs of the Awaited Prophet, so they were looking for the place where he would emigrate to. They saw these signs in Madīnah and in a few other places, in Hajar and other places, and these are where the Jews settled, because these places had the resemblances or the signs of the place where the Prophetﷺ would be sent, so that is why they settled in Madīnah, the three Jewish tribes; we had Banū Qaynuqā’, Banū Nadīr, and Banū Qurayzah. So that is how they reached Madīnah, so they were ethnically Jewish [and] they emigrated when the Romans sacked Jerusalem.

So these two Jewish Rabbis came out and they went to Tabbān As‘ad and they told him, “This place is protected by God, if you attempt to destroy it, Allāh will destroy you.” And they were able to convince him. Tabbān As‘ad not only agreed to withdraw his army and stop attacking Madīnah, but he was also impressed by their religion and wanted to become Jewish himself, and then he invited these two Jewish Rabbis to go with him to Yemen, and they agreed, and he became Jewish. Now, on his way south heading back to Yemen, the tribe of Hawāzin had a problem between them and Quraish, Hawāzin had a problem with the people of Makkah, so they wanted to make

Fitnah –to start a division or cause a problem, between Tabbān As‘ad and [the people of] Makkah, and they had succeeded, so Tabbān As‘ad was contemplating attacking Makkah.

Now, these two Jewish Rabbis told him, “This is another town that is protected by Allāh, you should not attack Makkah; in fact you should go into Makkah and make Tawāf around Al-Ka’bah.” Tabbān said, “Well, let us go.” They said, “No, we cannot join you.” [He asked,] “How come?” They said, “We are scholars, and it is not appropriate for us as scholars to go and make Tawāf around Al-Ka’bah when it is surrounded by idols.” So he went in and he made Tawāf, and Tabbān As‘ad was the first person ever to clothe Al -Ka’bah, and he would clothe it once a year, and the way they would do it in the past is they would bring the new clothing and place it over the old, because they considered the clothing of Al-Ka’bah to be sacred and that they cannot take it off, so they would keep on piling up one cloth over another until the sheer weight of it was so heavy [that] eventually they decided that they were going to have to take it off and just place one clothing at a time.

Tabbān As‘ad then went with these two Jewish Rabbis to Yemen and they were given freedom and encouragement to spread their religion among the Yemeni tribes, and many of the tribes in Yemen did embrace the Jewish faith. So you have two types of Jews in Arabia; you have ethnic Jews in Khaibar and Madīnah, but then you have Jews by conversion in Yemen. So the Jews of Yemen were ethnically Arab, but they adopted the Jewish faith. So you can see that at some moments of time, Jews did preach their religion, and now they might not do that, but there were points in history where they did preach their religion to others, and an example is Yemen. So that is how the Jewish religion was introduced into Arabia. What about Christianity?

1.3.3 Christianity

When ‘Īsā  was sent, some of his followers dispersed in the land and Christianity was dividing into many sects very early on, and very early on many of these sects became Disbelievers, there was Dalālah – misguidance, [which] was introduced very early on into the sects of Christianity. However, there were pockets of Believers here and there who were able to retain the true Christian faith that was preached by Sayyidinā ‘Īsā [or] Jesus ; believing in the Oneness of Allāh, believing that ‘Īsā is the Messenger of Allāh rather than being the son of God – these were concepts that were retained by some of the Christians around the world. One of these men made it into Yemen and started preaching in the area of Najrān, and the religion was spreading, but secretly and privately and slowly. By that time, Tabbān As‘ad was dead and the King of Yemen was his son Dhū Nuwās. News of this new religion reached to the King and he banned it and he persecuted the followers.

The King and the Young Boy: There is the story in Sahīh Muslim of the King and the Young Boy; many scholars would attribute this story to the events between Dhū Nuwās and the Christians in Yemen, they would say that the King was Dhū Nuwās, and that story is in Sahīh Al-Muslim, we will go over it. It says that the King used to deal with magic, and he had a sorcerer as his advisor. This sorcerer was growing old in age and he told the King, “I might pass away at any moment so I need to train someone to take my place, I need to inherit my skills to someone who would carry it on.” So they tried to find a very bright and intelligent young man and they handpicked a young man and they assigned him as apprentice with this sorcerer. So the Boy was supposed to leave very early on in the morning from his house and go and study under the sorcerer and then come back home at night.

Now, this young man, on his way towards the Sāhir – the sorcerer, saw a worship place, and he heard prayers coming out from this place which were different, so he decided to go and visit, and it was a church of Tawhīd – of unity of Allāh, preaching the true religion of ‘Īsā  . And he was very impressed by what he was hearing, but he was supposed to be studying with the sorcerer, so he asked the Priest, “What can I do?” The Priest told him, “When you leave home, visit me and come and study with me, and then go to the sorcerer, and if he asks you how come you were late, tell him because my parents delayed me. On your way back, visit me, and when you get home, when your parents ask you how come you were late, tell them that the sorcerer delayed me.” So you could take a class in the morning and take a class at evening. So he continued doing that for a while.

One day in the marketplace, a certain beast entered into the marketplace and caused chaos among the people and no one was able to deal with it. So this young man said, “O Allāh! Today I want to know whether the path of the Priest or the path of the Sorcerer is the truth, so O Allāh, show me the truth.” And everyone was attempting to kill this beast and no one succeeded. And then this boy picked up a rock and he said, “O Allāh, if the path of the Priest is the truth, then kill this animal.” And he then threw the rock and it killed the animal immediately. He went back and reported this to the Priest, he told him what happened. The Priest told him, “My son, today you have attained a very high status, therefore, you will be tested, you will go through trials.”

No one can reach such a high status without being tested by Allāh. [For example], in exams, the better the student the more difficult the exam should be, because you want to tell the difference between the levels of the students. So you have easy questions which everyone is able to answer, and then you have medium difficulty, and then you have difficult, and then you have very difficult, because you want to distinguish the A+ from the A- , you want to tell the difference. Same thing; Allāh  has brought us on this earth for a test, and according to your level you will be tested. Rasūlullāhﷺ says, “The ones who go through the most difficult tests are the Ambiyā’, and then it goes down according to your level.” So this Priest was telling the young man, “You will be tested.” And then he told him, “And when you are tested, do not disclose my name.” Because the Priest was doing his Da’wah in secret and he did not want his name to be exposed. This was not out of fear; this was for security of the Da’wah. So he told him, “And when you go through trials, do not mention my name.” And down the road you will see that the Priest was a very courageous man, because you might wonder, ‘Oh, why is he saying do not mention my name? What is he afraid of? How come he cannot just go outside and say, ‘Here, I am a Muslim,’ and invite everyone openly? Why is he afraid? Why is he keeping it secret?’ But we will see that the Priest was a very courageous man, but he was a wise man too.

The associate of the King was blind and he came to this young man to cure him, because now the young man had studied under the sorcerer, so now he was the expert, people went to him. So when he went to the young man, the young man told him, “I cannot heal you but Allāh can heal you. Allāh can do it.” And he healed the man. So the blind who was now cured went to the King and the King asked him, “Who cured you?” The man said, “Allāh.” The King said, “And do you have a god other than me?” The man said, “Yes, Allāh is my Lord and your Lord.” The King tortured this friend of his and told him to disclose the name of the person who taught him this, and under the persecution, he gave up the name and said, “It is the Boy.” Now they brought in the Boy and they started to torture him, and the Boy, under duress and pain, did give up the name of his teacher, the Priest. He could not sustain the pain and suffering that he was going through, so he disclosed the name. So now they brought the Priest, and they told the Priest to give up his religion, and he refused. So they brought a saw, and they placed it on top of his head, and they cut him into two, but he refused to give up his religion.

This was the courage that he had, and this was the perseverance and the patience [that the Priest had]; he gave up his life, he was tortured brutally, but he never gave up his religion.

And now they were left with the Boy, so the King ordered a group of his soldiers to carry this Boy and throw him from the top of a cliff. They carried the Boy, and Subhān’Allāh, Allāh was performing Karāmāt on the hand of this Boy. Karāmah is a miracle that would occur to a non-Prophet, and miracles [Mu’jizah] happen to the Prophets; that is the difference between Mu’jizah and Karāmah. Mu’jizah happens to a Prophet and Karāmah happens to a person who is not a Prophet, but they are both supernatural events. So this Boy made Du‘ā’ to Allāh and said, “O Allāh! Ikfinīhim Bimā Shi’t! – OAllāh! Take care of them the way you want!” Iam going to leave it up to you. O Allāh, take care of them the way you want. Allāh  made them reach the top of the cliff and then the cliff started to shake, and all of the soldiers fell down except he. And now the Boy was walking back and he entered into the palace of the King; here I am again. So the King appointed another group of soldiers to take him – obviously soldiers are disposable with this King – so he appointed a new group of soldiers to take him into a ship, and when they reached into the deep waters, [the plan was to] just throw him in the water. So they were on this boat and he made the same Du‘ā’ again, “O Allāh! Take care of them the way you want to!” The boat capsized and they all drowned except he. He went back to safety.

So he went to the King and the King was ready to appoint a third group of soldiers to take him, [but] the Boy told him, “Wait, you are not going to be able to kill me unless you do what I tell you.” The King asked him, “What is that?” The Boy said, “You tie me to a tree and you gather everyone, and you bring an arrow and you say, ‘Bismillāh – the Lord of the Boy’, then you will be able to kill me.” So the Boy told him the prescription of how to kill him, and this is one of the many evidences given for the justification of what is referred to as ‘suicide bombings’; this is one of the evidences that is given [to say] that it is allowed. Obviously there are restrictions on when it is allowed and where, but the concept itself of a person giving up their life for Allāh  is a valid one, based on this evidence and many others. Because he told the King how it was possible to get rid of him; if he had not, he would have survived, so he basically told the King how to kill him, but the Boy did it for a noble cause. What happened was the King followed the instructions and publicly said, “In the name of Allāh – the Lord of the Boy,” and the arrow hit him right in his head and he immediately died, but the result of that action was that everyone who attended became Muslim. So he did it for Da’wah, he gave up his life so that everyone else would live, because a person is dead without Islām. The advisors of the King told him, “What you were afraid of has happened.” The whole purpose of killing this Boy is to get rid of this religion, and here we are stuck with our whole nation becoming Muslim. Actually, in this situation Christian, but it is Islām, it is the Oneness of Allāh .

As’hāb Al-Ukhdūd – People of the Trench: Dhū Nuwās instructed his soldiers to dig trenches. After they dug the trenches they would fill them with wood and ignite them, and anyone who refused to give up their religion they would force them into the fire. And they would bring a lot of people and burn them alive, and these were people who were holding firm to their faith and they did not give up. And then Rasūlullāhﷺ says that there was a woman with her child in her arms, an infant, and she was walking towards the fire but then she hesitated. Imagine; a mother carrying her infant. So she hesitated for a while and then Rasūlullāhﷺ says, “But the infant spoke and said, ‘O mother, be patient, because you are following the true path.’” And she jumped in the fire. Rasūlullāhﷺ says, “There are three who spoke in young age; this infant was one of them.”

This story was recorded in Sūrah Al-Burūj; Sūrah Al-Burūj is referring to this story. Sūrah Al-Burūj talks about the ones who were burned, As’hāb Al-Ukhdūd –the People of the Trench. Now,even though these people were burned alive and they ceased to exist, and the King won, but Allāh  said that the Muslims were victorious. Now, that is interesting, these people were killed; they did not establish any Khilāfah, the King won; how come Allāh said: Dhālikal Fawzul Kabīr – That is the great attainment? Al-Burūj: 11

Allāh  did not only call it victory, Allāh said that is the great victory. Why? How come these people lost in terms of worldly standards, nevertheless they are still called victorious? Victory in their regard is the fact that they were able to hold firm on their faith until the last moment, they never gave up – that is victory. Entering Jannah is victory. So even though they did not survive in Dunyā, but they were able to hold firm on to their religion. So the father of ‘Ammār Yāsir has won, Sumayyah has won, Hamzah Bin ‘Abdul Muttalib, even though he was killed in the battlefield, he has won; they have won in the eternal sense of winning, even though they might have lost in a temporary battle in Dunyā, but the eternal battle, they have won it, because they have entered Jannah and Allāh  says: Dhālikal Fawzul ‘Azīm – That is the great attainment. Al-Mā’idah: 119

An-Najāshī Sends Army who Defeat Dhū Nuwās : There was one person who survived, and this person travelled all the way to visit the Roman Emperor. Now, he went to the Roman Emperor because the Roman Emperor was Christian. Even though these two people would be from different Christian sects – because by that time the Romans might have already adopted the trinity and the divinity of ‘Īsā – but they still considered themselves to be followers of ‘Īsā. So he went to seek help from the Roman Emperor, he said, “This is what happened to us; we were persecuted, we were killed, we need your help.” The Roman Emperor said, “We are too far from Yemen, but what I could do is send a message to the Najāshī – the Negus of Abyssinia who is also a Christian, and he can help you.” So the Roman Emperor did that, and they sent a message to An-Najāshī, in English the Negus, and he sent an army led by a general named Aryāt. And Aryāt invaded Yemen and fought with Dhū Nuwās, and Dhū Nuwās, when he lost, he committed suicide; they say that he was on his horse and he just jumped into the Red Sea and killed himself. So he lost, and now the Abyssinians were ruling over parts of Yemen, and they did this as a revenge for the Christians who were killed by the Jews of Yemen.

Aryāt and Abrahah have Duel: Aryāt ruled over Yemen for a while and he was very strict. One of his army generals staged a revolt against him and the Abyssinians in Yemen were divided now; a group of them were with Aryāt and the other group were with the new leader called Abrahah, and they were fighting. Aryāt told Abrahah, “If we kill each other the people of the land will take over, so how about we have a one-on-one fight? A man-to-man; me and you.” Abrahah agreed, but Abrahah made a secret agreement with some of his security guards that if you see me winning leave me alone, but if you see that I am losing then jump in and help. So you had all of these people surrounded, and Abrahah and Aryāt were in the middle. Now, Aryāt was described as a tall and thin man and Abrahah was short and chubby, so Aryāt was able to strike Abrahah from the top and he chopped off his nose, so Abrahah was called Abrahah Al-Ashram;Ashram means his nose is chopped off. When that happened, the bodyguards jumped in and they killed Aryāt. He betrayed him. Obviously this is against the rules, but the issue was over now, Aryāt was dead.

1.4 Abrahah Marches with Army to Destroy Al-Ka’bah

Abrahah now took over and he was the one who was ruling over Yemen. Abrahah wanted to change the religion of the people and force them to become Christian, and since the Arabs were attached to Al -Ka’bah, he decided to build a counterpart to Al-Ka’bah in San‘ā’ in Yemen, so he built a huge cathedral called Al-Qullais, and this [building] was described as a wonderful piece of art; huge, great. He had access of wealth from Abyssinia so they built this huge cathedral in San‘ā’ to compete with Al- Ka’bah. Now, one man did not like this idea, what he did was a bit crude; he went into Al-Qullais and he defecated, and then not only that, but he took his stool and he spread it all over the walls – imagine stool all over the walls – and he ran away. Abrahah was furious! What is this guy doing?! He was so angry that he decided that he must get rid of Al-Ka’bah; I am going to put an end to this and destroy Al-Ka’bah. He mobilised an army and marched towards Makkah. There was some resistance along the way – one of the chiefs of a tribe whose name was Nufayl put up some resistance – but he was defeated [as] Abrahah had a huge powerful army, and they captured Nufayl as a prisoner of war.

When Abrahah reached to At -Tā’if, the people of At-Tā’if assisted Abrahah and one of them offered to be a guide for Abrahah for the rest of the journey, and this man’s name was Abū Rughāl. So Abū Rughāl went out with the army, but then immediately when they got out of At-Tā’if, he died. So then the Arabs were so upset with Abū Rughāl that they built in place of his death a monument that they would stone because of his betrayal. Anyway, Abrahah made it to the outskirts of Makkah and there were some shepherds with camels grazing; he took possession of them. 200 of these camels belonged to ‘Abdul Muttalib, the grandfather of Rasūlullāhﷺ, so ‘Abdul Muttalib came out of Makkah to meet with Abrahah. Now obviously with Abrahah you could not just walk in and meet him, he was such an important figure, so ‘Abdul Muttalib had to have some connections to get in. ‘Abdul Muttalib happened to be a friend of Nufayl who was captured as a prisoner of war. Nufayl was carried with the army and he became friends with a man called Unais, and this man Unais was such an important person in the army, he was the pilot of the elephant which was their most valuable piece of equipment, so Nufayl now was very well-connected, he knew Unais. So ‘Abdul Muttalib came to Nufayl and told him, “I want to meet with Abrahah,” and Nufayl told him, “Sure, I will arrange for you a meeting through my friend Unais.” So Unais arranged a meeting with Abrahah, and Abrahah welcomed ‘Abdul Muttalib.

1.4.1 ‘Abdul Muttalib Meets Abrahah

‘Abdul Muttalib walked in, and ‘Abdul Muttalib was described as being a man with a very strong presence; by just seeing him a person would become impressed, be in awe. So when ‘Abdul Muttalib came in, Abrahah held him in high esteem, even though they did not even talk yet. Now, the rules were that Abrahah sits on a very high throne and people sit under his feet, so [if] you come and have a meeting with Abrahah you were sitting under his feet. Abrahah, when he saw ‘Abdul Muttalib, he did not feel comfortable at all having ‘Abdul Muttalib sit under him, but he could not also allow ‘Abdul Muttalib to sit with him on the throne because nobody should sit on the throne except he, so what he did was he came down from his throne and sat with ‘Abdul Muttalib on the floor, and he told the interpreter to ask ‘Abdul Muttalib what does he need. ‘Abdul Muttalib straight ahead told the interpreter, “Abrahah has taken possession of 200 of my camels, I want them back.” Abrahah responded and said, “When I saw you, I had so much respect for you, but I have lost it all. I am coming to destroy your honour and the honour of your fathers, I am coming to destroy the centre of your livelihood, I am coming to destroy Al-Ka’bah, and you are asking me about camels?!” ‘Abdul Muttalib responded and said, “I am the owner of the camels so I am responsible for them, and this House belongs to Allāh and Allāh will protect it.” I am here to ask for what is under my authority, my responsibility; the House belongs to Allāh, Allāh will take care of it and Allāh will protect it. Abrahah said, “Give him back his camels.”

1.4.2 Abrahah’s Elephant Refuses to Move

‘Abdul Muttalib went back to Makkah and he told the people of Makkah, “Do not fight, withdraw out of Makkah.” ‘Abdul Muttalib gave them clear instructions; we are not going to fight Abrahah, we are going to leave. And they all went up to the mountains, and ‘Abdul Muttalib was the last one to leave, and before he left, he was hanging on to the handle of the door of Al-Ka’bah and he was praying to Allāh  to protect this House, and then he left. So everyone had evacuated Makkah and Abrahah now issued his instructions to march forth, but the elephant refused to move. They turned the elephant to a different direction; he would stand up [and start] running, they turned him towards the direction of Makkah; he would sit down. How come? A miracle from Allāh, but it is said in the story that this man Nufayl who was a prisoner of war, released himself from his chains and he jumped to the ear of the elephant and he said to the elephant, “This is the House of Allāh, do not attack it,” and he ran away. But whether that was the reason or not, the elephant refused to march in the direction of Al-Ka’bah. And they would beat it, they started poking it with their spears and the elephant was bleeding, but it refused to move. Eventually they decided that they were going to have to leave the elephant and they made their move forward.

1.4.3 Allāh  Sends Birds to Destroy Abrahah and his Army

Allāh  sent on them an army. No one knows the soldiers of Allāh, anything can be a soldier of Allāh; water, which is the source of life, can be a soldier of Allāh; water is what killed the tyrant Fir‘aun. Wind is a soldier of Allāh. Allāh  says:

And none knows the soldiers of your Lord except Him. Al Muddaththir: 31

SoAllāh  sent an army of birds, every bird carrying with it missiles, that were sent on the army of Abrahah and destroyed them all; they were all killed. And this event was recorded in Sūrah Al-Fīl: Have you not considered, [O Muhammad], how your Lord dealt with the Companions of the Elephant? Did He not make their plan into misguidance? And He sent against them birds in flocks. Striking them with stones of hard clay. And He made them like eaten straw.

These are the events up to the year in which Rasūlullāhﷺ was born. Rasūlullāhﷺ was born in the Year of the Elephant.