12. The Battle with Jewish Tribes

12.1 Events between Uhud and Al-Khandaq

We will talk about events between Uhud and Al-Khandaq.

12.1.1 Tulaihah Al-Azdī

Number One: Rasūlullāhﷺ heard news that Banū Asad are mobilising forces to attack Madīnah; these are tribes in Najd and they were headed by Tulaihah Al-Azdī, and this man is quite fascinating, his story is interesting; he started out by fighting Rasūlullāhﷺ, and then becoming Muslim after that, and then after Rasūlullāhﷺ passes away he apostatises and claims to be a prophet! And then after that he changes his mind and becomes Muslim again, and he fights Fee Sabeelillāh – that was the end of his life, [dying as a] Mujāhid. So he kind of experienced it all, this Tulaihah Al-Azdī. Anyways, he was recruiting men to fight Rasūlullāhﷺ, and Rasūlullāhﷺ, as we said, would strike them [and] take them by surprise.

So Rasūlullāhﷺ sent an army led by Abū Salamah, and Abū Salamah by the way was injured in the

Battle of Uhud, so he went out in this Sariyyah and the enemy was defeated and he came back with a lot

of cattle, but Abū Salamah’s injury, which was almost going to heal, now erupted again, and he died Fee

Sabeelillāh. This is Abū Salamah.

12.1.2 Khālid Bin Sufyān Al-Hudhalī

Another tribe was mobilising force to fight Rasūlullāhﷺ, and these were Hudhail, and their leader was Khālid Bin Sufyān Al-Hudhalī. Rasūlullāh said, “Khālid Bin Sufyān Al-Hudhalī is recruiting an army to fight us, so go and kill him.” These orders were delivered to ‘Abdullāh Bin Unais  who was from the tribe of Juhailah; Rasūlullāhﷺ told him, “Hudhail are gathering men under the leadership of Khālid Bin Sufyān Al-Hudhalī, so go and kill him.” ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais asked, “Can you describe him for me so that I will recognise him?” Because he never saw him before. Rasūlullāh told him, “If you see him, you will tremble.” This man, Khālid Bin Sufyān, if you see him, you will tremble. Possibly that could be because this man, Khālid Bin Sufyān, was such a powerful figure that whenever anyone would see him he would tremble. ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais said, “I never trembled for the sight of anyone.” Rasūlullāhﷺ told him, “But if you see Khālid Bin Sufyān, you will tremble.” So this tells you that ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais was the right person to choose; he was a courageous man, he was not someone who would fear others, so he said, “I never trembled because of anyone.” But this was going to be a special sign in which he would be able to recognise who was Khālid Bin Sufyān Al-Hudhalī.

‘Abdullāh Bin Unais said, “I carried my sword and I went out.” And Rasūlullāhﷺ told him that Khālid was gathering the men in ‘Urunah, in ‘Arafāt. So he was gathering them close to Makkah, close to where his tribe lived, and obviously that territory was all supportive of the people of Quraish. Khālid is recruiting an army, so he opens up a camp and he is recruiting men to that camp. ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais said, “I was walking towards this man and when I saw him I shivered, so I knew that this man is Khālid Bin Sufyān. And he was with some women trying to find a camp-ground for them.” These were his women; wives, daughters, sisters, whatever; women from his family. He was with them, trying to find for them a camp. So ‘Abdullāh Bin Unais walked towards him and he said, “It was time for ‘Asr and I was worried that my fight with him could preoccupy me from Salāh.” Allāhu A’lam how long this fight will take, it could preoccupy me from Salāh [and] I could be killed. And since it is already time for ‘Asr, I need to pray ‘Asr, but the problem is how could I pray ‘Asr in the presence of this man? He would recognise that ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais is a Muslim. So he said, “I was praying while I was walking towards him, and my Sujūd and Rukū’ would be movement of my head.” He would move his head and that would be his Rukū’ and Sujūd. He said, “When I reached him, he asked, ‘Who are you?’” ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais said, “I am a Bedouin Arab who heard about your plans to fight Muhammad, so I came to join you.” He said, “Yes, that is what I am doing; I am gathering forces to fight against Muhammadﷺ.” ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais said, “I talked with him for a while until I felt confident that I can now attack, and I attacked him with my sword and killed him.” He said, “I left him with his women crouched over him.” So he killed him, he was lying on the ground, and all of these women came swarming around the dead body.

‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais left and he enters Madīnah. Rasūlullāhﷺ saw him and said, “Aflahal Wajh – May this face succeed.” He was making Du‘ā’ for ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais. ‘Abdullāh said, “I killed him.” Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “Yes you did, you are speaking the truth.” And then Rasūlullāhﷺ calls him indoors, he calls him into his house, and he gives him a stick. So ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais takes the stick and leaves. His people met him and asked, “Why did Rasūlullāh give you the stick?” He said, “I do not know, he just gave it to me.” They said, “Go back and ask him why he gave you the stick.” ‘Abdullāh Bin Unais said, “I went back and I asked Rasūlullāhﷺ, ‘Why did you give me the stick?’ Rasūlullāhﷺ said, ‘This will be a sign between me and you on the Day of Judgement.’” ‘Abdullāh Ibn Unais said, “I tied that stick to my sword,” meaning it was always with me. And when he died, his instructions were to bury that stick with him, and it was wrapped with him in his shroud and buried with him so that on the Day of Judgement when he is resurrected, he can have that stick as a sign between him and Rasūlullāhﷺ. And by the way, when Rasūlullāhﷺ told him that I give you this stick to be a sign between me and you on the Day of Judgement, he also told him, “And on that day, few people will have something to lean on.” The scholars say that this means a few people will have deeds on which to lean on on the Day of Judgement.

This is the story of the assassination of Khālid Bin Sufyān Al-Hudhalī, and due to his assassination, that ended the plan of Hudhail to attack Rasūlullāhﷺ. So it shows you that Rasūlullāhﷺ did not choose to fight the tribe of Hudhail, rather he chose to assassinate Khālid because the problem was with Khālid, and to spare the blood of the people, Rasūlullāhﷺ assassinated this single man. Because some people might wonder what are all these political assassinations that Rasūlullāhﷺ was involved in? Well that was to save the people from bloodshed; rather than fighting the whole tribe who would not have otherwise fought with Rasūlullāhﷺ if it was not for Khālid Bin Sufyān, Rasūlullāhﷺ wanted to take care of this problem by reducing the bloodshed, and that was by killing this man who was the cause of the whole problem. This was a man with an outstanding personality and an ability to lead the people and he was leading them into evil, so Rasūlullāh took him out of the way, and that spared the Muslims and the people of Hudhail from war.

12.1.3 The Army of Ten Sahābah

Rasūlullāhﷺ sends a group of 10 men for a mission, and their leader was ‘Āsim Bin Thābit. They reached to the land of Banū Lahyān and they were ambushed by a hundred archers; so 100 against 10. They fled to a small hill, they climbed that hill or a rock, and these 100 archers surrounded them. The archers told them, “Come down, we pledge you that we will not kill you, this is our word.” The Amīr ‘Āsim Bin Thābit said, “I do not accept the pledges of Mushrikīn.” I do not accept your word, I do not accept your pledge, and he chose to fight. So they fight; seven get killed; you have three remaining.

When ‘Āsim Bin Thābit had refused to give up and take a pledge from the Kuffār, they were killing his men and they were stripping them naked; they would take everything off them. So ‘Āsim said, “O Allāh, as I fought for your Religion when I am alive, protect my body when I am dead.” He did not want them to strip him like they would do with the rest of his men, so he made that Du‘ā’ to Allāh. When he died, they wanted to come and strip him, and in addition to that, they also wanted to cut off his head because there was a woman whose sons were killed by ‘Āsim Bin Thābit, so she made an oath that if someone would bring her the skull of ‘Āsim Bin Thābit, she would pay him one hundred camels and she would drink wine in his skull. So these men knew that the skull of this man is worth a hundred camels, so they really wanted to get it. Allāh sends a swarm of wasps to protect the body of ‘Āsim, and whenever somebody would come close to him, the wasp would jump on him and sting him. So they said, “Let us leave him and come and claim his body tomorrow.” At night, Allāh sends a flood that takes the body away and the body disappears and they could not find him. So this is a Karāmah that happened with ‘Āsim Bin Thābit.

Now you had three remaining; they surrendered and they were tied up in ropes. One of them felt that they would be betrayed, and he was able to pull out his hand from the ropes, and he drew out his sword and tried to attack these men from Banū Lahyān, but they kept a distance from him and kept on pelting him with rocks until they killed him. They took the other two men and sold them to the people of Makkah. These two men [were] Khabbāb Ibn Al- Aratt and Zayd Bin Ad-Dithannah. Now, obviously we know what the people of Quraish would do with these two men; they would kill them. So they decided that they were going to kill the two men. They take them out of Makkah because Makkah is Haram and you are not supposed to kill in Makkah, so they take them outside the boundaries of Makkah and they ask these two men, “Would you wish that Muhammad is in your place and you are safe with your family?” They respond by saying, “We do not wish to be safe with our family while Muhammadﷺ is hurt by a thorn, and we would rather die than Rasūlullāhﷺ being hurt.” Abū Sufyān said, “Mā Ra’aytu Ahadan Yuhibbu Ahadan Kahubbi As’hāb Muhammad Muhammadan – Ihave never seen a people who love their leader more than the people of Muhammad love him.”

I want to stop here and bring up this issue of loving Rasūlullāhﷺ. The love of the Sahābah of Rasūlullāhﷺ was so true and so deep that it was even known to the enemies of Muhammadﷺ, and here you have Abū Sufyān admitting [this]. You see, because it was so compelling, and the evidence was so clear, the issue was so impressive, that Abū Sufyān, the leader of the enemies of Rasūlullāhﷺ, admits publicly and says I have never seen people who love someone like the Sahābah love Muhammad. You see, if the Sahābah would claim that they love Muhammadﷺ day and night, that would not have made a difference, but the love of Muhammadﷺ emanated from their actions, it was reflected in their deeds. Here you have two men facing death, and they are asked whether you wish to be safe with your family, with your kids, with your wife in the comfort of your home, and have Muhammad here instead of you; they said we would rather give our lives than Muhammadﷺ be pricked by a thorn, be hurt by a thorn. So this issue of loving Muhammadﷺ was so well-known to everyone.

They are both killed. As far as Khubaib, we know that he was crucified, and his body remained on that cross until Umayyah Bin ‘Amr Ad-Damrī comes and takes the body and buries it. Khabbāb, before his death, asks this woman – because he was held captive in the house of this woman who [had] lost her husband, and they said that it was Khabbāb who killed her husband in the Battle of Badr so it was this family that was going to take revenge – so he was in their house and he asks this woman, “Can you bring me a steel blade so that I can prepare myself for death?” What he wants to do with this blade is to shave his pubic hair. She sends him the blade with her child, young child. In one narration it says that she gave it to him but then the child crawled on to the lap of Khabbāb. Anyway, it does not make a difference, the child ended up in the lap of Khabbāb. When the woman sees the child in his lap and he is holding this blade in his hand, what would she think? Khabbāb saw that she is worried that he might kill this child, but he told her, “Mā Kuntu Li Af‘al Dhālika Inshā’Allāh – That is not something I would do, Inshā’Allāh.” Inshā’Allāh that is not going to be something that I would do. And the lesson here to learn is that even though he was going to be killed by the Kuffār, that did not make him take revenge on a child, an innocent child. And a Muslim is not a traitor, a Muslim would not betray, and a Muslim would not take away the life of an innocent human being. And even though he had a chance, and he already knew that he would be killed, he could have taken revenge from that child, but he did not. And that woman said, “I have never seen a prisoner better than him. I would come in and see him eating from a plate full of grapes when there are no grapes in Makkah whatsoever, and I am sure that he received those grapes from the angels.” This is what a Mushrik woman was saying. Karāmāt.

Another lesson also is that it shows you that even though he was facing death, he still wanted to fulfil the Sunnah; he was going to shave his pubic hair which is one of the Sunan of Fitrah; he wanted to do that. You know, you could argue and say that well, the Ummah has more important things to think about than shaving pubic hair; let us get serious and start taking care of the important things. Well, the Sahābah would take everything seriously; everything in Islām was serious to them. So even though he is facing death, he still wants to follow the Sunnah of Rasūlullāhﷺ. Also, before he was crucified, he sought permission from his crucifiers, he said, “Allow me to pray.” They did grant him time to pray. He prayed two Rak‘ah. When he finished, he looked at them and said, “If it was not for the fear of you accusing me of being afraid of death, I would have made these two Rak‘āt longer.” So he made the Salāh short so that they would not think that he was afraid of dying. And he is the first one to start this Sunnah of praying two Rak‘ah before death; later on it became a Sunnah because of his action.

Khubaib was killed, and Zayd was killed, and ‘Abdullāh Bin Tāriq was killed, so now you had the entire group of 10 ended up dead – all of them. Seven were killed on the spot, ‘Abdullāh Ibn Tāriq was killed on the way to Makkah, and the other two were killed in Makkah, so all of them were killed.

According to Ibn ‘Abbās, the Munāfiqīn said, “How sad for those misguided people who died that way; they neither stayed with their families nor did they carry out their master’s mission.” What the Munāfiqīn are saying is that these 10 men are failures, they ended up dying for nothing. The mission was not accomplished and they ended up losing their lives for nothing. If they stayed home, it would have been better for them. Allāh  revealed the Āyah saying: And of the people is he whose speech pleases you in worldly life, and he calls Allāh to witness as to what is in his heart, yet he is the fiercest of opponents. Al-Baqarah: 204

Sothis Āyah is talking about Al-Munāfiqīn. And

Allāh says: And of the people is he who sells himself, seeking means to the approval of Allāh. And Allāh is kind to [His] servants. Al-Baqarah: 207

And this is the Āyah talking about these 10 men, that they sold themselves to Allāh. It does not make a difference if they achieved the mission or not; these men have given their lives for Allāh so they will be credited for that and they will be rewarded by Allāh greatly. And what the Munāfiqīn are saying could come in different forms; they could have presented it in the form of, ‘These men do not have Hikmah. If they had Hikmah they would not have killed themselves in such a way,’ and ‘These men were rash, and they should not have gone out and taken this unnecessary risk.’ But all of these ways of saying it are missing the important point here and that is what was your Niyyah? The Niyyah of these men was right, therefore they died Fee Sabeelillāh. Whether the mission was accomplished or not does not affect the validity of that Niyyah. The Niyyah was appropriate, the Niyyah was right, and that is how Allāh accepts the deed from a person. Not every mission will be successful, not every battle will be won, but Allāh holds you accountable to your Niyyah; what was the Niyyah?

12.1.4 Brutal Assassination of the Seventy Sahabas (Qurrā’)

Another event that occurred between the Battle of Uhud and Al- Khandaq is Bi’r Mā‘ūnah. One of the leaders of the tribes of Najd came to Rasūlullāh and said, “Islām is spreading among my people, I want you to send me preachers who would call to Islām – Du‘āt,” so Rasūlullāhﷺ sends over 70 men. These men were called Al-Qurrā’ – The reciters of Qur’ān. They would work during the day by selling wood and they would spend the night in Qiyām Al-Layl reciting Qur’ān; this was their life. So Rasūlullāhﷺ sent them over to teach these people about Islām, so they are Du‘āt Fee Sabeelillāh. And they were given a guarantee of safety by this man Abul Barā’ who was called Mulā‘ah Bin Athannah. When they reached to his territory, his nephew ‘Āmir Bin At-Tufail invites the men of his tribe to fight against the 70 Qurrā’; his uncle refuses, but he is successful in bringing up a force sufficient to attack these 70 men. Now, this ‘Āmir Ibn At -Tufail has already met with Rasūlullāhﷺ previously and he told him, “O Muhammad, I give you three alternatives; number one, you become king over the towns and I become king over the Bedouin people.” As if this issue is all about kingdom. “Number two, you make me a Khalīfah after you.” You announce that when you die, I become king after you. “Third choice; if you refuse number one and two, I will attack you with an army of 2,000 men.” Rasūlullāhﷺ obviously refused to even talk to him and respond to such nonsense. So he was upset, [and] this was one of the reasons why he wanted to attack and kill these 70 men. And they were massacred, [all of] the 70 men [except for one] were massacred – a great disaster. The news was immediately conveyed to Rasūlullāhﷺ, and when the news reached Rasūlullāhﷺ, Rasūlullāhﷺ was greatly affected by that news and was very sad about what happened and the betrayal of these people, so Rasūlullāhﷺ started making Du‘ā’ Al-Qunūt, and Du‘ā’ Al-Qunūt was never done before; this was the first time Rasūlullāhﷺ does Du‘ā’ Al-Qunūt and he would do it in Fajr, Zuhr, ‘Asr, Maghrib and ‘Ishā’ – in every Salāh, and he would make Du‘ā’ against those people, against Rakl and Zikwān and Lahyān and these tribes that betrayed the Muslims and killed them in such cold blood, and Rasūlullāhﷺ would make this Du‘ā’ in his Salāh, in every Salāh.

Now, when Harām Bin Malhān, who was the Amīr of the group, was talking to ‘Āmir Bin At-Tufail, ‘Āmir Bin At-Tufail gives signal to one of his men to go and kill him, so this man whose name is Jabbār, sneaks from behind Harām and he stabs him with his spear in his back, and the blade comes out from the chest of Harām. So you can imagine Harām standing here and staring down and seeing this blade sticking out from his chest. What does he say? ‘Oh my God, I’m dead?’, ‘Oh no, look what happened to me?’, ‘I am worried about my kids?’ What does he say? His response was shocking to those present, he said, “Allāhu Akbar! Fuztu Wa Rabbul Ka’bah! – Allāh is Great! I have succeeded in the name of the Lord of Ka’bah!” I have succeeded – that is what he said before he falls down as a Shahīd. Now, this was a shocking statement to make. Man, you are suffering all of that pain and your blood is gushing out of your wound. It says in another narration that his hands were soaked in blood, and he takes that blood and he wipes it on his head and his face and he says, “I have succeeded in the name of Allāh.”

The man who killed him would later on say, when he was telling the story of how he became Muslim, he said, “I stabbed the man from behind and the spear came out from his chest, and he said, ‘Allāh is great, I have succeeded by the name of the Lord of Al- Ka’bah.’ So I went around asking, “What is he talking about? What do you mean you succeeded? I killed you! He was dead. How can he say that he has succeeded?’” They told him, “He is talking about Shahādah, he is talking about becoming a martyr. He has succeeded. He has succeeded in becoming a Shahīd.” And then they explained to him what Shahīd means, he said, “And that is when I became Muslim. I said, ‘Man, he has truly won, yes he did – Na‘am Laqad Aflaha.’” When he understood where this Muslim was coming from, when he understood what the concept of Shahādah is, he said, ‘Yes, that makes sense now, he did succeed,’ and he became Muslim. So Subhān’Allāh, Harām Ibn Malhān dies as a Shahīd and he also is giving Da’wah in his Shahādah and somebody becomes a Muslim because of that! His own assassin becomes Muslim because of those last words of Harām Ibn Malhān. So not only is he Shahīd, but he is also a Dā‘iyah even in his last moments; that is the Barakah that Allāh has given to Harām. You never know what is going to bring people closer to Islām; who would have imagined that this statement made by Harām would actually be the reason for somebody becoming Muslim?

‘Āmir Bin Fuhairah was one of these men. You might remember the name of ‘Āmir from Hijrah; he was the servant of Abū Bakr, he also accompanied them in the journey of Hijrah. He was also the shepherd who would bring the goats to the cave when Rasūlullāhﷺ and Abū Bakr were in hiding. So ‘Āmir was one of the 70 men, and he was killed.

Only one of the 70 men’s lives was spared, and that was [the life of] ‘Āmir Bin Umayyah Ad-Damrī. They captured him and he was freed, because when ‘Āmir Ibn At-Tufail knew that he was from Mudar, the mother of ‘Āmir had [already] made an oath that she was going to free a man from Mudar, so ‘Āmir said, “Since this man is from Mudar, we are going to free him, and that will fulfil the oath of my mother.” So he was freed. ‘Āmir said, “When they captured me, they pointed out to me a dead body of one of the 70 men and they asked, ‘Whose body is this?’ I told them, ‘This is the body of ‘Āmir Bin Fuhairah.’ They said, ‘When he was killed, his body went up in the sky and then came down.’” His body rose up in the sky and stayed there for a while and then it came down; the angels sort of lifted him up. So that is a Karāmah that happened with ‘Āmir Bin Fuhairah.

12.1.5 Hassān Ibn Thābit – The Media Effort of Rasūlullāhﷺ

Hassān Ibn Thābit, as we mentioned previously, was what we can call the head of the media effort of Rasūlullāhﷺ; he was the one who would respond back with poetry against the poets of Quraish and the other enemies of Islām. So Hassān Ibn Thābit said a lot of lines of poetry talking about the treachery and the betrayal of those tribes in Najd who killed the 70 Qurrā’ – the teachers of Qur’ān. Obviously, when translating lines of poetry into a language you lose the beauty of it, but he has some wonderful lines of poetry talking about those events.

12.1.6 Az-Zubair and Talhah Name Sons after Shuhadā’ and Ambiyā’

Az -Zubair Bin Al- ‘Awwām – and I also think I mentioned this before – he would name his children after the Shuhadā’, so he named two of his sons after two of the Shuhadā’ in Bi’r Mā‘ūnah; one of them was ‘Urwah and the other one was Al-Mundhir, so two of the sons of Az-Zubair were named after Shuhadā’. You see, Az-Zubair and Talhah were friends, and both of them belonged to the group of 10 who were given the glad-tidings of Jannah; Talhah would name his sons after the Ambiyā’ and Zubair would name them after the Shuhadā’.

12.1.7 Rasūlullāhﷺ Marries Zainab Bint Khuzaimah

Also during that period of time, Rasūlullāhﷺ got married to Zainab Bint Khuzaimah, and she is called Ummul Masākīn – The Mother of the Poor. Why? Because she used to take care of the poor and give them food, give them money; she was very caring of the poor, so Rasūlullāhﷺ married her. She was the wife of ‘Abdullāh Bin Jahsh who was killed in the Battle of Badr. And we can see here in the marriages of Rasūlullāhﷺ an element of social welfare; Rasūlullāhﷺ taking care of his followers. So after ‘Abdullāh Bin Jahsh died as a Shahīd, Rasūlullāhﷺ marries his wife and takes care of her, and we can see that throughout the marriages of Rasūlullāh and also in many of the marriages of the Sahābah; they did not want to leave any woman behind, or without a husband or without a family, and that was part of the reason, or the Hikmah, behind polygamy; one should not think that it is solely for the purpose of satisfying one’s desires, there are some other aspects to marriage; bringing up a Muslim family, taking care of one another, as Allāh  says: Waja‘ala Baynakum Mawaddatan Wa Rahmah – And He placed between you affection and mercy. Ar-Rūm: 21

12.1.8 Rasūlullāhﷺ Marries Umm Salamah

Rasūlullāhﷺ also got married to Umm Salamah. Umm Salamah is from Quraish, she is from Banū Makhzūm, an important family in Quraish – this is the family of Khālid Ibn Walīd by the way – and her husband Abū Salamah was one of the early Sahābah; he made Hijrah to Al-Habashah and he also made Hijrah to Madīnah, so he is one of those who made the two Hijrahs, and he fought in the Battle of Uhud and was injured. Now, his injury was starting to heal [so] Rasūlullāhﷺ sends him on another mission, and during that mission, his injury starts all over again and he ends up dying. Now, before that, Abū Salamah has a conversation with his wife, he tells her, “If a husband dies and his wife does not get married after him, they would be brought together again in Jannah if both of them are destined to go to Jannah.” So Abū Salamah told his wife, “How about we make an agreement; if I die, you do not get married, if you die, I do not get married.” She said, “Fine, I agree.” He then told her, “No, I ask Allāh if I die, that He replaces me with someone better who will marry you and will not harm you or hurt you.” Umm Salamah would then say, “And who is better than Abū Salamah?” Who will I find in the world better than Abū Salamah? So this shows you that they had a very good relationship. When he died, she went to Rasūlullāhﷺ and told him, “Abū Salamah is dead.” Rasūlullāh said, “Say, ‘O Allāh, forgive me and forgive him, and give me something that is better – Wa’qubnī Minhu ‘Uqbā Hasanah.’” And she made that Du‘ā’. Abū Bakr As-Siddīq proposed marriage; she refused, ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb proposes marriage; she refuses, and then Rasūlullāhﷺ proposed marriage to her, Arsala Ialihā Yakhtubhā. She said, “Marhaban – Welcome. But tell Rasūlullāhﷺ that I am a jealous woman, and I have young kids, and none of my Walī are present.” So I agree, but let Rasūlullāh know my condition; I am a very jealous woman and Rasūlullāhﷺ is already married, and I have kids and these kids are going to be a burden on him, and none of my Walī are here to marry me to you. Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “You said that you have children; Allāh will take care of those kids. You said that you are jealous; I am going to ask Allāh to take that jealousy away. And the Walīs who are absent, none of them will refuse to marry you to me; all of them would be happy that you would marry me.” So Rasūlullāh marries Umm Salamah. In another narration it said that she told him, “And then I agreed but I am an old woman, I am getting old.” Rasūlullāh said, “If you are old, I am older than you.” And I think this also shows you the intention of Rasūlullāhﷺ in his marriage from Umm Salamah, and I talked about this in my series on the life of Rasūlullāhﷺ in Makkah, we talked about his marriages and the objectives his marriages would serve, so the marriages of Rasūlullāhﷺ were marriages for the sake of the Ummah, for the sake of the Religion.

Umm Salamah narrated 338 Ahādīth, very important Ahādīth; some in Bukhārī, some in Muslim, and she conveyed to us this knowledge from Rasūlullāhﷺ. So that is one of the reasons why Allāh  destined Rasūlullāhﷺ to marry Umm Salamah , because everything happened according to the destiny of Allāh  and His plan for this Religion. So his marriage to ‘Ā’ishah was a Barakah for us, his marriage to Zainab was a Barakah for us, his marriage to Khadījah was a Barakah to us, his marriage to Umm Salamah was a Barakah to us; all of his marriages served a purpose in Islām for us.

Rasūlullāh’sﷺ Modest Mahr to Umm Salamah and Zainab :

So Rasūlullāhﷺ married Umm Salamah and he said, “I am going to give you furniture equal to that which I gave to Zainab.” So what was this furniture? Did they go to those famous furniture places like Ikea or whatever and buy a new set of furniture? [Buying] tens of thousands of dollars worth of furniture for the newly-wed couple? What was the furniture that Rasūlullāhﷺ got for Umm Salamah? Keep in mind here we are talking about the best of mankind. Rasūlullāhﷺ was getting money from all of these Ghazawāt, Ghanīmah that was coming in, Rasūlullāhﷺ could have spent that lavishly on his wives and nobody would have complained; he is the Messenger of Allāh, he deserves to have his family live the best life; who would have dared to complain about that? But Rasūlullāhﷺ was setting an example for his Ummah in Zuhd – Austerity, he said, “I will give you no less than what I gave so and so; I gave her two stone-mills, two clay jars, and a pillow stuffed with leaf.” Leaf was palm leaves. That was the furniture; two stone-mills, two clay jars, and a pillow – that was it, that was the furniture that Rasūlullāhﷺ bought for Umm Salamah; a very simple life. And he spent three days with her when he got married to her, so Rasūlullāhﷺ says, “Lil Bikri Sab’ Wal Thayb Thalāth – For a person who is married to more than one woman, as soon as he gets married to the second wife or the third or the fourth, if she is a virgin then he spends seven days with her, if she is widowed or divorced then he spends three days with her.” So since Umm Salamah is a widow, Rasūlullāhﷺ spent three days with her.

12.1.9 Al-Hasan Bin ‘Alï Ibn Abī Tālib is Born

Also during that year, Al-Hasan Bin ‘Alï Ibn Abī Tālib was born. When he was born, ‘Alï Ibn Abī Tālib brought to Rasūlullāhﷺ the good news. Rasūlullāhﷺ asked, “What did you name him?” He said, “We named him Harb.” Harb means war. Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “No, he is Hasan.” Rasūlullāh did not like these harsh names; Harb and stones, Sakhr, all of these tough names. Rasūlullāhﷺ did not like that and he changed the name from Harb to Hasan; Hasan means nice, beautiful, kind; it has all of these pleasant meanings. This is the name that he chose for his grandson Al-Hasan Bin ‘Alï. So also we see here that it is he who named his grandson Al-Hasan. He made Adhān in his ear according to the Hadīth, he asked his mother Fātimah to shave his head and then weigh it and pay the equivalent in silver as Sadaqah Fee Sabeelillāh, and also he made ‘Aqīqah for him; they slaughtered for him two sheep; that was the ‘Aqīqah of Al-Hasan .

12.1.10 Zayd Bin Thābit Learns Hebrew

We are talking here about various events that happened during the fourth year of Hijrah after the Battle of Uhud. Also during that time, Rasūlullāh calls in Zayd Bin Thābit and he tells him, “Yā Zayd, Ta‘allama Kitābata Yahūd, Fa Innī Wallāhi Mā Āmanu Yahūdun ‘Alā Kitāb – OZayd, learn the Hebrew language, because I cannot trust the Jews.” I do not trust them to read my letters for me, I do not trust in hiring any one of them to be my assistant to read the letters that I receive from them or to write back to them. Since Rasūlullāhﷺ was illiterate, he had to have these assistants to write letters for him and to read the letters that he received. So there was some correspondence between Rasūlullāhﷺ and the Jews, so he wanted a Muslim to be responsible for writing those letters and reading them for him. Zayd said, “I learnt the Hebrew language in 15 days.” Subhān’Allāh! Learning a new foreign language in 15 days; that shows you the persistence and the hard work of the Sahābah. Within 15 days he was ready to go, he learned a foreign language.

Importance of Learning the Arabic Language: So probably for all of those brothers and sisters who want to learn Arabic, you could learn a lot from the example of Zayd Bin Thābit. It should not take you years to just plan to take the first step; it took Zayd 15 days to learn it, the whole thing. Now, learning Arabic is important, very important, and I would urge my brothers and sisters to take it seriously. Without the Arabic language there is going to remain a barrier between you and understanding the Religion of Allāh since the original text of this religion is in Arabic language, whether we are talking about Qur’ān or Hadīth of Rasūlullāhﷺ. So it is very important that you put in the effort into learning Arabic. And if you make the Niyyah, if you make the Niyyah and you are sincere, Allāh will make a way out for you, Allāh will make it easy for you, you will be able to learn it, but make the intention, put in the effort, be willing to sacrifice time and money for it, and Inshā’Allāh  Allāh will help you. If Zayd learnt a foreign language that is not necessary as a Muslim, what about learning a language that is necessary, and that is the Arabic language? I also want to say here that Muslims are going to need experts in foreign languages; linguists. The Muslims will need people who will be able to study the literature of other nations, the political situation of other nations, the economical situation of other nations, and that is why it is important for Muslims to learn foreign languages and to have Muslim experts in each and every language of the world, or important language of the world. Rasūlullāh here had Zayd learn the Hebrew language because that was the language in which he had correspondence with Al-Yahūd; nowadays Muslims who have correspondence with many nations of the world, so it is important that Muslims learn these foreign languages.

12.2 Ghazwah Banū Nadīr

12.2.1 Umayyah Bin ‘Amr Ad-Damrī Kills Two Men

The next important event occurred in the fourth year of Hijrah: Umayyah Bin ‘Amr Ad-Damrī saw two men sleeping under a tree. He asked them, “Who do you belong to?” So they said, “We belong to so and so tribe,” and this was the tribe that killed the 70 men, the Qurrā’. He went aside until they fell asleep and he killed them; he thought he had done something right by killing these two men because they belonged to this treacherous tribe, but it turned out that these two men had an agreement with Rasūlullāhﷺ, these two men specifically had a peace agreement with Rasūlullāhﷺ. So Rasūlullāhﷺ said to Umayyah Bin ‘Amr Ad-Damrī, “You have killed two men, I am going to have to pay their blood money.” So these men were killed mistakenly; they should not have been killed, therefore Rasūlullāh is going to have to pay their blood money. Now, you see here the ruling that Lā Yaqtul Muslim Bi Kāfir – a Muslim is not killed for the sake of a Disbeliever; that is an important rule of Fiqh. So even though Umayyah here killed two men who should not have been killed, he is not executed but the Muslims pay their blood money. So this is an important rule of Fiqh.

12.2.2 Banū Nadīr Plot to Assasinate Rasūlullāhﷺ

Now, remember that Rasūlullāhﷺ had an agreement with the Jewish tribes that they would support each other in blood money; that was mentioned in the Wathīqah that we read, [that] they would support each other in blood money. So Rasūlullāhﷺ goes with Abū Bakr, ‘Umar and some of the other Sahābah to Banū Nadīr, this Jewish tribe called Banū Nadīr, and Rasūlullāhﷺ tells them, “These two men have been killed, so I want you to support me in paying their blood money.” They said, “We agree, and we will help you O Muhammad.” Rasūlullāhﷺ is sitting under this wall of theirs and they pretend that they are going to bring money to help Rasūlullāhﷺ while they went to conspire and plan on how to assassinate him, they said, “You are never going to find him in a better position to assassinate than this; he is right under your wall, have someone climb up and throw a stone on him and let us get rid of him once and for all. Let us get rid of this problem.” So they conspired to assassinate the Messenger of Allāh, something that is not new; they have tried to do this with ‘Īsā, they have tried to do that with plenty of other Messengers of Allāh; sometimes they succeeded, sometimes they failed.

Rasūlullāh ﷺ receives Revelation from Allāh; Jibrīl comes to Muhammadﷺ and warns him. So Rasūlullāhﷺ stands up and leaves without telling the Sahābah anything, he just leaves, he walks away. So the Sahābah are waiting, waiting, waiting. Rasūlullāhﷺ does not show up, [so] they go back to Madīnah and ask, “Where is Rasūlullāh?” And he told them what happened, that Jibrīl came and told me that the Jews were planning to assassinate him. Rasūlullāhﷺ sends them a letter, [and] this is in Tabaqāt Ibn Sa’d, Rasūlullāhﷺ sends Muhammad Ibn Maslamah, he tells him, “Go to the Jews of Banū Nadīr and tell them, ‘I am sent by the Messenger of Allāh, and he is telling you to leave from his land because you have betrayed our agreement by conspiring against me, and I give you 10 days to leave. Anyone seen after that will be executed.’” Notice here that Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “Nukhrujū Min Bilādī – Leave from my land.” So now Rasūlullāhﷺ is calling Madīnah his land; he is not a guest any more, this is his land. And this also shows you the obedience that the people of Madīnah gave to Rasūlullāhﷺ so that Rasūlullāhﷺ was now ruling over them even though he is not from Madīnah and this becomes his territory and it is named after him; Madīnat Rasūlullāh – The City of Rasūlullāhﷺ; that is the meaning of Madīnah, it is called Madīnat Rasūlullāh, The City of Rasūlullāhﷺ.

So you have 10 days to pack up and leave, otherwise anybody who will be seen will be killed. Now, Muhammad Ibn Maslamah was their ally in the time of Jāhiliyyah, they said, “The last person we would have expected to come and deliver this message to us would be you Muhammad Bin Maslamah.” Muhammad responded back and said, “Islām has changed us and our hearts are different. Now things are different, now we are Muslims. Now our loyalty goes to Allāh, and our covenant with Allāh is more important than our former covenants with you, and our agreement with Rasūlullāh to support him and help him and obey him is more important than our former agreements with you. Taghaiyyaratil Qulūb Wa Mahal Islāmul ‘Uhūd –Our hearts are different and Islām has abrogated the covenants.” Their initial reaction was to accept and leave peacefully, but ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ, the Head of Nifāq, the Head of the Hypocrites, he tells them, “If you stay firm and resist, we will not give up on you. If you fight, we will fight along with you, and if you are expelled, we will leave with you.” Pretty straight forward; we are going to stand side by side. Do not leave; stay put and fight, and we will help you. And he told them, “I have 2,000 men from my people and from our other Arabs who are sympathetic to our cause. Do not leave.” So this strengthened the Yahūd and they changed their mind and they decided to stay and fight. When Rasūlullāhﷺ heard the news, he said, “Hārabat Yahūd – the Jews want to fight.”

12.2.3 Banū Nadīr Surrender

Rasūlullāhﷺ lays siege to the fortresses of Banū Nadīr. Banū Nadīr were rich, and they had these fortresses, and then outside they had acres and acres of agriculture land, palm groves, which they depended on for their livelihood. So their plan was to remain in their fortresses until Muhammad and the Muslims get tired and leave them. They have water, they have food, they have money, so they can survive a long siege. And again, their livelihood, or at least part of their livelihood, was based on the palm groves. Rasūlullāhﷺ used a strategy that completely baffled Al-Yahūd and probably was the cause of their surrender; Rasūlullāhﷺ started burning down their palm trees. Now, this drove the Yahūd crazy, because, you know, what are we going to do in Madīnah if we lose all of our farmland? Why carry on the fight? Our existence in Madīnah depends at least partially on these farms, and if they are destroyed – and here we are talking about trees that take years to bear fruit – so if Rasūlullāh burns them down, how long will it take us to plant them again and how will we live until then? So this completely took them by surprise, and they sent to Muhammadﷺ and they told him, “O Muhammad, you used to forbid causing destruction and criticise those who did so, why are you cutting down and burning our date-palms?” You see, the reason it took the Yahūd by surprise is that they did not expect Muhammadﷺ to do so; Muhammadﷺ used to prevent people from causing unnecessary destruction of property, and we know that in Islām there are some commands given by Rasūlullāhﷺ not to cut down trees – Walā Taqta‘ū Shajarah, and now Muhammadﷺ is doing that himself, so the Yahūd were surprised and they asked Muhammadﷺ, “What is going on? Kunta Tanhā ‘Anil Fasādi Fil Ard – You used to tell people not to do this, and now you are doing it yourself?” Now, we will come back to this later on and talk about why Rasūlullāhﷺ did that.

So they made an offer, they asked Muhammadﷺ to allow them to evacuate and spare their lives and allow them to take their wealth with them. Rasūlullāhﷺ agreed with the following conditions; “You do not take any weapons with you; your arms, you leave them behind, and you are only allowed to carry one camel load; if your property is more than that, then you leave it behind.” And they agreed. The one responsible for the oversight of this evacuation was Muhammad Ibn Maslamah. Every three men were given one camel for transportation and one camel for taking their property.

Ibn Is’hāq said, “They therefore loaded their belongings on their camels to the extent that they could bare. Some of their men tore down their houses and removed the door lentils which they mounted on the backs of their camels and took away.” Some of them had a lot of money, they were hoarding treasures. Salām Ibn Abil Haqīq for example, filled the skin of a bull with gold and silver, and he said, “This is what we have prepared for the ups and downs of this world, and if we are leaving behind our palm groves, we will find palm groves in Khaibar.” No problem, if we are going to leave behind our farms, that is fine, but I am ready to leave, I have collected all of this money throughout the years for the misfortunate times like these. So he had this huge load of gold and silver that he was taking away with him.

Some of them went to Khaibar and some of them went to Ash- Shām. And they had a lot of pride, and Banū Nadīr were very respected among the Jewish tribes of the area, they were considered to be the learned ones and the scholars among them, and they did not want the Muslims to laugh at their [mis]fortune, and they wanted to show that what happened is something that they are not upset with and that they did not lose anything, they were trying to put on that face. So when they went to Khaibar, ‘Abdullāh Ibn Abī Bakr said, “They were received by women and young men and gifts with tamarinds, flutes and girls walking behind them singing boldly and with pride. Nothing similar is related of any tribe of people in their era.” So even though these were people who were defeated and driven out of their land, they were welcomed at Khaibar as heroes, and that is because they did not want the Muslims to feel sorry for them or to laugh at their misfortune, when in reality it was a huge setback for them, giving up their houses and their lands, and Allāh says in Qur’ān: Yukhribūna Buyūtahum Bi’aydīhim – They destroyed their houses by their [own] hands. Al-Hashr: 2

And if you built your house and you lived in your house for years and you have all of these memories attached to this house, and then you are tearing it down with your own hand, how painful is that?

12.3 Lessons from Ghazwat Banū Nadīr

An entire Sūrah was revealed talking about this Ghazwah; it is Sūrah Al-Hashr, and Ibn ‘Abbās used to call it the Sūrah of Banū Nadīr. We will go through some of the Āyāt of this Sūrah.

12.3.1 Nothing Can Stand between Allāh and Him Giving Victory to His Servants

Allāh says: It is He who expelled the ones who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture from their homes at the first gathering. You did not think they would leave, and they thought that their fortresses would protect them from Allāh… Sohere Allāh is saying that the expectations before on your side and on their side is that you cannot drive them out. So their fortresses were strong and powerful, they had plenty of fighters, they had a lot of wealth to finance war, so Allāh is saying that your expectation and their expectation was that they would not leave. So the way it looked from the outstart is that it would not be possible to drive them out, nevertheless they did. W hy? Allāh did so. Huwalladhī Akhraj – It is He who expelled the ones who disbelieved. He is the One, he is the One who expelled them.

Allāh says: It is He who expelled the ones who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture from their homes at the first gathering. You did not think they would leave, and they thought that their fortresses would protect them from Allāh… And over here Allāh is talking about fortresses but this could apply to anything. Any nation or any superpower who thinks that their weapons, no matter what these weapons are, can stand between them and the Qadr of Allāh, are mistaken. Whether these weapons are nuclear bombs or aircraft carriers or powerful airplanes or bombs, a huge army, millions of fighters – whatever, if Allāh  wants to defeat a nation, that nation will be defeated; no one can stand between Allāh  and [Him] giving victory to His servants.

Then Allāh says: …But [the decree of] Allāh came upon them from where they had not expected… Yousee, no matter how strong your army is, no matter how well your preparations are, how good your training is, no matter how many types of weapons you have, there are always going to be some gaps, there are always going to be some points of weakness, and Allāh knows these, and Allāh will attack the enemies of Allāh through these points of weakness. Now, how did it happen with the people of Banū Nadīr? Allāh said: …But [the decree of] Allāh came upon them from where they had not expected, and He cast terror into their hearts… This was the soldier of Allāh that defeated Banū Nadīr; fear. They were horrified. Allāh cast fear into their hearts. So if the heart is terrified, it does not make a difference what arms you have or how well-fortified you are, and that is why Ibn Al-Qayyim says that the Romans and Persians had stronger bodies, greater numbers and more arms than the Muslims had, but their hearts failed them when they needed them most. When the Sahābah  stood in battle in front of the Romans and Persians, in terms of physical ability, they probably were not as strong as their opponents, their training was definitely less, their numbers were definitely less, and the arms assortment that the Sahābah had was very limited compared to what their opponents had, however, the Sahābah had Īmān, and that Īmān made their hearts steadfast, while the enemies of Allāh were attached to Dunyā, and Allāh  cast fear in their hearts and they lost. So Allāh says:… [so] they destroyed their houses by their [own] hands and the hands of the Believers. So take warning, O people of vision. Al-Hashr: 2

And then Allāh says: And if not that Allāh had decreed for them evacuation, He would have punished them in [this] world, and for them in the Hereafter is the punishment of the Fire. Al-Hashr: 3

SoAllāh is saying that if the people of Nadīr did not evacuate, their punishment would have been execution, which is even worse; that would be their punishment in Dunyā, and the punishment in the Hereafter would be even greater.

That is because they opposed Allāh and His Messenger. And whoever opposes Allāh – then indeed, Allāh is severe in penalty. Al-Hashr: 4

Sothis act of Allāh of defeating Banū Nadīr is because of their Disbelief in Allāh and His Messengers. So Allāh is just; Allāh did not punish them without deserving that punishment, Allāh punished them because of standing against Islām. So anyone who stands against Islām, either an individual or a nation, is calling upon themselves the wrath of Allāh.

12.3.2 Islām Will Not Allow its Tolerance to Be Used against it

Allāh says: Whatever you have cut down of [their] palm trees or left standing on their trunks – it was by permission of Allāh and so He would disgrace the defiantly disobedient. Al-Hashr: 5

Sowe go back to this issue of Muhammadﷺ telling people not to destroy property and then he did it himself. First of all, this was done by the permission of Allāh according to this Āyah, Fabi’idhnillāh – was by permission of Allāh. The ones that you cut down and the ones that remain, that was by the permission of Allāh. Why? Waliyukhziyal Fāsiqīn – so He would disgrace the defiantly disobedient.

Rasūlullāhﷺ has given instructions that trees should not be cut down, women, children and old men should not be killed, he also said that monks who are in monasteries should not be killed. However, we find that with every one of these rules, there are incidents that go against the rule. So here in Ghazwat Banū Nadīr, Rasūlullāhﷺ has given orders to burn the palms down, so that is against the ruling of cutting down trees. And then there is what is called Bayāt, and this is attacking at night; you attack the dwellings of people at night and the residents are killed, and Salamah Bin Akwah said, “I myself participated in Bayāt, and I killed the residents of nine houses with my own hand,” and this is in Sahīh Al-Muslim. Now, obviously here you have men, women and children killed because it is at night and they cannot be distinguished, so this goes against the ruling of not killing women, children and old men. And then we also know that Rasūlullāhﷺ has ordered the execution of two women, and one of these women was the woman who tried to poison Rasūlullāhﷺ, a Yahūdī woman; she was executed by Rasūlullāhﷺ. And we know that there were incidences where old men were killed, and so this goes against that ruling. And with the killing of monks, we know that Salāh Ad-Dīn for example, even though he was very tolerant with the Crusaders, he would not let the members of the military religious orders, such as the Templars or the Hospitallers, he would not let them go free, he would kill them; they were all executed if they would land in his hands, and these were monks, these were religious men. So this goes against the instruction of not killing monks.

So what is going on here? How come we have this contradiction? The answer to that is the following; Islām is a tolerant religion, and the religion of Islām has laid down rules for engagement; there are rules that govern Jihād Fee Sabeelillāh, and these rules are to protect the rights of others and to protect innocent life. However, whenever the enemy tries to take advantage of these rules and harm the Muslims, these rules are suspended. So if the enemy tries to take advantage of Muslims by using these restrictions against them, then the Muslims are allowed to put those rules aside. To sum it up, Islām will not allow its tolerance to be used against it. So in this situation here, Rasūlullāhﷺ ordered the cutting down of the trees of Banū Nadīr because Banū Nadīr were planning on a long siege and they were depending on their palm trees, while they deserved the punishment because of their betrayal and because of their plotting to assassinate Rasūlullāhﷺ. So Rasūlullāhﷺ did not allow them to use his rules against the Muslims and therefore he ordered the cutting down of trees.

12.3.3 Fay’ – New Source of Income for Muslims

Allāh  says: And what Allāh restored [of property] to His Messenger from them – you did not spur for it [in an expedition] any horses or camels, but Allāh gives His Messengers power over whom He wills, and Allāh is over all things competent. And what Allāh restored to His Messenger from the people of the towns – it is for Allāh and for the Messenger and for [his] near relatives and orphans and the [stranded] traveler – so that it will not be a perpetual distribution among the rich from among you. And whatever the Messenger has given you – take; and what he has forbidden you – refrain from. And fear Allāh; indeed, Allāh is severe in penalty. Al-Hashr: 6-7

So this Āyah is talking about the rulings of Fay’. What is Fay’? Ghanīmah is the name given to spoils of war that are taken by the army after a fight, Fay’ are spoils of war that are taken by the army without a fight. Since no fighting occurred with Banū Nadīr, since they surrendered and accepted to evacuate and leave behind their property except for what they could carry, since no fighting occurred, the ruling of what they leave behind is that it goes to Rasūlullāhﷺ. So the ruling of Ghanīmah, which is to split it into five portions [and] four of those portions go to the fighters, does not apply here; the entire thing goes to Rasūlullāhﷺ and he has authority to distribute it as he sees appropriate. So these Āyāt are talking about the ruling of Fay’.

This was a new source of income for the Muslims, and Ibn Is’hāq says, “They left their properties for the Messenger of Allāh. These consisted of their palm trees and their farms. These became his personal property to dispose of as he wished.” So it was up to Rasūlullāhﷺ. Rasūlullāhﷺ calls the Ansār, Al-Aws and Al -Khazraj, and he tells them, “If you want, I can split this money among you all and the Muhājirīn continue living in your houses and working in your farms, or if you want, I can distribute this money among the Muhājirīn only, and they would leave your houses and not take any share from your harvest.” Because if you go back earlier, we said that the Ansār offered to share the harvest of their land with the Muhājirīn; something they offered, but they did not have to, but they were willing to share their harvest with Al-Muhājirūn. So now Rasūlullāhﷺ said [that] it is up to you; I could distribute this among you all and the Muhājirīn continue living in your houses, or they can move out and I will give them this money of Banū Nadīr. So the Ansār agreed and they said, “You can distribute it to our brothers from Al-Muhājirūn, and if you want us to carry on giving them a share of our farms, we do not have a problem with that either.” And this shows you the generosity of Al-Ansār. So now Al-Muhājirūn moved into the houses of Banū Nadīr, so the difficult financial situation of Al-Muhājirūn was now lifted, and their financial situation was improving; now they have the houses of Banū Nadīr, and they also have the farms of Banū Nadīr which were split among the Muhājirūn only, and only two men from Al-Ansār were given a share, and these two men were Sahl Bin Hanīf and Abū Dujānah, because they complained of their poverty, so Rasūlullāhﷺ gave them some. Ibn Kathīr says, “These were specifically for the Messenger of Allāh. He would set aside his family’s expenses for a year, and then whatever riding beast or weapons remained, he would treat as military supplies to be used in the cause of Allāh the Almighty and Glorious.” So Rasūlullāhﷺ now, also, finally had some wealth; before that he would live on gifts that he would get from the Sahābah.

12.3.4 Livelihood of Rasūlullāhﷺ

Let us talk here about the livelihood of Rasūlullāhﷺ. We know that he started out his life as a shepherd; that was his first profession. Number two, after that he worked as a businessman, and he got to Khadījah and he became her business manager, he would take care of her business for her. But when he was given the Risālah – Prophethood, he stopped working, so Rasūlullāhﷺ discontinued working as either a shepherd or in business; Rasūlullāhﷺ devoted his entire time for Da’wah. So he would live off the money of Khadījah and from his uncle Abū Tālib, and then when he moved to Madīnah, the Ansār would help Rasūlullāhﷺ. Obviously he is the Messenger of Allāh, so he cannot accept Sadaqah, but they would give him gifts. Now, since this money of Fay’, all of it goes back to him, he would take from it his expenses for a year, and then the rest he would spend it on Jihād Fee Sabeelillāh. Rasūlullāhﷺ says, “Ju‘ila Rizqī Tahta Dhull Rumhī – My provisions come from beneath my spear.” Somy provisions come from fighting in the cause of Allāh; that was the source of income for Rasūlullāhﷺ. He was not an employee, he did not run a business, all of his income would come from Jihād Fee Sabeelillāh, from the spoils of war; Ju‘ila Rizqī Tahta Dhull Rumhī – My provisions come from under my spear. Anas Ibn Mālik said, “A man might donate to him his palms or whatever else Allāh might wish, up to when Qurayzah and Nadīr were conquered for him, thereafter he began giving it back.” So now finally, Rasūlullāhﷺ has money to give back; before that he was taking; now he is giving.

12.3.5 Sūrah Al-Hashr Talks of Al-Munāfiqūn

Sūrah Banū Nadīr also talks about the Munāfiqūn. These Munāfiqīn who sent [a message] to Banū Nadīr and told them, “If you stay firm and resist, we will not give up on you, if you fight, we will fight along you, and if you are expelled, we will leave with you,” Allāh  said about them: Have you not considered those who practice hypocrisy, saying to their brothers (the Jews) who have disbelieved among the People of the Scripture, “If you are expelled, we will surely leave with you, and we will not obey, in regard  to you, anyone – ever; and if you are fought, we will surely aid you.” But Allāh testifies that they are liars. If they are expelled, they will not leave with them, and if they are fought, they will not aid them. And [even] if they should aid them, they will surely turn their backs; then [thereafter] they will not be aided. Al-Hashr: 12-12

Sothese Munāfiqūn are just talk, but they are empty, they are worthless. They promised the Jews that they will stand with them; if they are fought against they will fight with them, if they were expelled they are going to leave with them; none of this happened, it was all lies. And Allāh is revealing to us here some of the characteristics of Al-Munāfiqūn, therefore we should not be afraid of Al-Munāfiqūn. There are Munāfiqūn in the Ummah, and they are very loud, they talk a lot and they threaten a lot, but all of it is empty talk. So the Muslim should not be threatened by these types of people. And they deceived Al-Yahūd; the Yahūd were waiting for help to come from ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ and none of it showed up. Allāh says [that] even if they helped them they would have lost; it would not have made a difference anyway.

Allāh then says: You [Believers] are more fearful within their breasts than Allāh. They fear you more than they fear Allāh, and this is talking about all of Al-Kuffār, not just Al-Munāfiqīn, [but] Al-Munāfiqīn, Al-Yahūd, all of the Kuffār. You [Believers] are more fearful within their breasts than Allāh. That is because they are a people who do not understand. They will not fight you all except within fortified cities or from behind walls. And here Allāh is disclosing to us this quality of Al-Kuffār; they are not going to fight Muslims unless they are well fortified. Subhān’Allāh, this fear of Al-Kuffār translates itself into different forms. In the time of Rasūlullāhﷺ it was these fortresses, in the time of Crusades it manifested itself in architectural wonders – in the land of Ash-Shām, the most beautiful works of architecture are the castles of the Crusaders. Yes, it is wonderful work of architecture but it is also reflects the fear that they had from the soldiers of Allāh. Salāh Ad-Dīn was not building all of these castles, these castles were built by the Crusaders – and today the enemies of Allāh  will not fight the Muslims except if they are well fortified; look at this wall that is now built in Falastīn; that is a reflection of the fear. Subhān’Allāh, that wall is a fulfilment of this Āyah of Qur’ān; they will not fight except from behind a wall or from a well-protected cockpit in a plane, or from the bowels of a ship, but they do not have the courage to come out and fight like the children of Al-Intifādah – out there in the open fighting for Allāh .

Allāh continues: Their violence among themselves is severe… This is to tell the Muslims that even though they gang up against you, they come together and fight you, but their hearts are different and they have hatred among themselves. Look at what the Kuffār do to each other; in World War One you have 10 million killed, in World War Two, 50 million! Look at the wars that happened among the European nations, look at the wars in Africa, look at wars all over the world. So do not think that the Kuffār are all one; no, they have differences among themselves, but when it comes to Islām, yes, they unify and they come and fight together, but we should realise that they have differences among themselves too. Qulūbuhum Shattā – again, world World War One and World War Two are examples of that. …You think they are together, but their hearts are diverse. That is because they are a people who do not reason. [Theirs is] like the example of those shortly before them: they tasted the bad consequence of their affair, and they will have a painful punishment. Al-Hashr: 13-15

This is talking about Banū Qaynuqā’ who were driven out of Madīnah before Banū Nadīr. Banū Nadīr should have taken heed of what happened to Banū Qaynuqā’. These are some lessons from the Āyāt of Sūrah An-Nadīr.

12.3.6 There is No Compulsion in Religion

In the time of Jāhiliyyah, some of the Arabs of Madīnah had this superstition that if they have children and they keep on dying – so the mother will have a child and then the child will die, she will have a second child and that child will die – they had this superstition that if you make a vow that your next child will be a Jew, then the child will live; this was some superstition that existed among the people of Madīnah before Islām. Because of this, they had children who were growing up with Al- Yahūd as a fulfilment of those vows. So now, when the Jews of Banū Nadīr are going to be driven out, they came to Rasūlullāhﷺ and said, “We have some of our sons and some of our brothers who are with them, what should we do?” Rasūlullāhﷺ did not answer back until an Āyah in Qur’ān was revealed, and you all know this verse, it is in Sūrah Al-Baqarah, thatĀyah was: Lā Ikrāha Fid Dīn, Qattabayyanar Rushdu Minal Ghaÿ – There shall be no compulsion in[acceptance of] the Religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong. Al-Baqarah: 256

There is no compulsion in Religion, the path of good is clear and the path of evil is clear. So Rasūlullāhﷺ told them, [and] this is in a Sahīh narration, “Give these brothers and sons of yours the choice; if they choose you then they stay with you, if they choose to be with the Jews then they leave with them.” In other words, you cannot compel them, you cannot force them to stay behind and become Muslim even though they are ethnically Arabs, even though they were their own children. These issues are not about ethnicity, and we talked about this issue of nationalism and all that, Islām does not recognise this; it is what is in your heart, that is what counts. Islām is not against a particular race, whether that race is the Jewish race or the white race or any race, Islām is not against any particular race, Islām is a religion for everyone, and Rasūlullāhﷺ says, “Allāh does not look at your forms or the colour of your skin, Allāh looks at your hearts.” So these children of yours, even though they are part of your families, if they choose you then they are Muslim, if they choose the Yahūd then they have to leave with them, and you cannot force them otherwise to become Muslim, and this is the reason for the revelation of this Āyah that we all know in Sūrah Al-Baqarah, Lā Ikrāha Fid Dīn.

12.3.7 Ban on Alcohol

Also, alcohol was banned during the siege of Banū Nadīr; that was when the Āyah prohibiting alcohol was revealed, and you know that the prohibition of alcohol occurred in four stages; this was the final stage. So it was pretty late, we are talking about the fourth year of Hijrah. So Muslims continued drinking for 17 years; it was not until the last six years of the life of Rasūlullāhﷺ that alcohol was banned.

12.3.8 Dhāt Ar-Riqā’

Rasūlullāhﷺ, with 400 Sahābah, went out on a battle called Dhāt Ar-Riqā’. Now, Riqa’ means pieces of cloths; rags, and the Ghazwah was given this name for the following reason: Abū Mūsā Al-Ash‘arī  said, “We went with Rasūlullāhﷺ in a Ghazwah, and I was one of six men who were sharing the same camel.” Meaning, if you have six people sharing a camel, you only get to ride one sixth of the time, and the rest of the time you are walking on foot. So he said, “The skin of my feet was peeling off and my nails were falling down, and we would wrap rags (or pieces of cloths) around our feet.” So this was pretty tough; walking on rocks, hot sand and all of that, and in those days they did not have pretty good boots, so they had to wrap these pieces of cloth around their feet. So that was the name of the Ghazwah; Dhāt Ar-Riqā’. The enemy fled, they did not face off the Muslims, but the Muslims were careful and alert, so when they prayed, they prayed in a form that is called Salātul Khawf – The Salāh of Fear.

12.3.9 Salātul Khawf – The Salāh of Fear

This Salāh is prescribed in Qur’ān, Allāh says: And when you are among them and lead them in Prayer, let a group of them stand [in Prayer] with you and let them carry their arms… Sothey are standing in Salāh with their arms …And when they have prostrated, let them be [in position] behind you and have the other group come forward which has not [yet] prayed and let them pray with you, taking precaution and carrying their arms. Those who disbelieve wish that you would neglect your weapons and your baggage so they could come down upon you in one [single] attack. But there is no blame upon you, if you are troubled by rain or are ill, for putting down your arms, but take precaution. Indeed, Allāh has prepared for the Disbelievers a humiliating punishment. An-Nisā’: 102

So there are two opinions on the way this Salāh is performed; one opinion is that one part of the army prays behind the Imām while the other part of the army is guarding. So this half that is praying with the Imām would pray with the Imām one Rak‘ah, and then the Imām would stand up for the second Rak‘ah and would not move, while they would finish their second Rak‘ah and give Salām, which means that they prayed with the Imām one Rak‘ah and the Imām is now waiting. The next group – the group that was guarding – would then step in and they would pray with the Imām the second Rak‘ah, and then they would finish their second Rak‘ah alone; this is one opinion. The other opinion is that the Imām leads the first half in the two Rak‘ah, and then they make Salām, and then the next group comes in and prays another two Rak‘ah with the Imām; so the Imām would end up praying four Rak‘ah while each half of the army would have prayed two Rak‘ah. So these are the two opinions of how Salātul Khawf is performed.

12.3.10 Importance of Salāh

The lesson here to mention is the importance of Salāh, that even if you are afraid that the enemy might ambush you, you still have to pray. So if this is the case with the ones who are fighting in the path of Allāh, who are afraid of death [yet] they still have to pray the Salāh, what about someone who has really nothing urgent and nevertheless they neglect the Salawāt? You see, in Islām, in every ‘Ibādah – every ‘Ibādah – there are conditions in which you do not have to do it, except Salāh. So for example, the poor do not have to pay Zakāh, the ill do not have to fast, the financially incapable does not have to make Hajj, and so on. This could go on for every ‘Ibādah, except Salāh; you are not excused at all. No matter what, a Muslim has to pray. If you cannot pray standing up, you pray sitting down; you cannot pray sitting down, you pray laying down; you cannot pray laying down, you move your head; you cannot move your head, you move your finger; you cannot move your finger, you blink with your eye; the point is, Salāh needs to be done, it must be done, and a Muslim is not excused from not praying.

12.3.11 The Khushū’ of ‘Abbād Bin Bishr

Rasūlullāhﷺ appointed guards that night, and the two guards were ‘Ammār Bin Yāsir and ‘Ubādah301, and ‘Abbād Bin Bishr. So they would alternate; ‘Abbād Bin Bishr would take his turn while ‘Ammār would sleep and then vice versa. While ‘Ammār was sleeping and ‘Abbād was the one guarding, he occupied himself with Salāh, he started praying, and while he was reciting, one of the enemy shot an arrow at him but he did not move, so he shot another arrow at him; he still did not move, he shot the third arrow at him, and then ‘Abbād woke up ‘Ammār Bin Yāsir. When ‘Ammār woke up and saw that ‘Abbād has three arrows sticking out of his body, he told him, “Subhān’Allāh! Hallā Labbahtanī? – Glory be to Allāh! Why did you not wake me up?!” He said, “I was reciting a Sūrah and I did not want to stop until I finished it, but when he kept on firing arrows at me, I made Rukū’ and then I woke you up, and in the name of Allāh, if it was not for that I would have been considered to be neglectful of my responsibility which was given to me by Rasūlullāhﷺ, I would have rather died than stop my Salāh, or I would have finished it.”

Now, this is an impressive story; you see how much he loved Qur’ān, he did not want to stop. And you know, these arrows are striking at him, and even though he is suffering all of that pain, he still has the concentration and Khushū’ in Salāh to carry on reading the Āyāt of Qur’ān! This is truly amazing. But this shows you the level of Īmān that these Sahābah had. We also see here that he said, ‘I did not want to neglect the responsibility given to me by Rasūlullāhﷺ’, so now he was weighing these two things; one, he wants to carry on with his Salāh, [and] number two, he is responsible for guarding the Muslims and he does not want them to be attacked from his side. And this word that he used, Taghr, Taghr means hole, so you can imagine it as if there is this hole or this opening which the enemy could come through and he is responsible for that Taghr, and this word repeats a lot in Arabic, that every Muslim is on a Taghr, every Muslim is at this opening, and you do not want the enemy to approach the Ummah from your opening. We need to imagine ourselves as if every one of us is standing next to an opening; every one of us is responsible not to let the enemy approach us from that opening, whether the enemy is Shaitān or whether the enemy is Kuffār; whatever the enemy is, you do not want to be the one who opens the door for the enemy to come through. And every one of us has a responsibility and we need to take that responsibility seriously, and your responsibility depends on the gifts that Allāh has given you, so if Allāh has gifted you with knowledge, then you want to make sure that you are responsible, if Allāh  has gifted you with physical strength, you want to take care of that responsibility, if Allāh  has blessed you with wealth, you want to make sure that you are responsible and you do not allow Shaitān to attack us through your gate and that is by withholding your money. So we ask Allāh to make us understand what our responsibilities are and fulfil them accordingly.

12.3.12 Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh

During this Ghazwah, an interesting conversation happened between Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh and Rasūlullāhﷺ, and we will go through it. Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh was riding a feeble weak camel, and his comrades were getting ahead of him, so Rasūlullāhﷺ approaches him and asked, “What is wrong Jābir?” So he said, “O Messenger of Allāh, this camel of mine is slowing me down.” Rasūlullāhﷺ told him, “Make it kneel,” and then Rasūlullāhﷺ also made his camel kneel, and Rasūlullāhﷺ dismounts and he tells Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh, “Give me that stick of yours or get one for me from a tree.” So Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh gives him the stick. Rasūlullāhﷺ prodded the camel with that stick and then he told Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh, “Mount up.” Jābir mounts the camel and he said, “My weak camel was now competing with the fast camel of Rasūlullāh!” So this is a miracle of Rasūlullāhﷺ that occurred in this Ghazwah; by just prodding the camel with that stick, now it suddenly became vigorous and strong. And then Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh was conversing with Rasūlullāhﷺ, they were talking, so Rasūlullāhﷺ asked him, “Would you sell me this camel of yours Jābir?” So now Rasūlullāhﷺ likes the camel and he wants to buy it! Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh said, “I will just give it to you.” The reason why it is fast now is because of you, so I will just give it up, I will give it to you. Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “No, I want to buy it. Just sell it to me” Jābir said, “Make me an offer.” Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “One Dirham.” He said, “No way Messenger of Allāh – Taghbunnī.” Ghaban means you would be cheating me, ya’nī obviously he does not literally mean it here, he was joking with Rasūlullāhﷺ, he said you would be cheating me if that is the deal you are offering me. Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “Then I will give you two Dirhams.” He said, “More.” And he kept on raising the price on Rasūlullāhﷺ until Rasūlullāhﷺ offered one ounce of gold, and then he said, “Would that be agreeable to you?” He said, “Yes.” Then Jābir said, “Then it is all yours.”

And then Rasūlullāhﷺ asks Jābir, “Jābir, are you married yet?” So here Rasūlullāhﷺ, in this journey, is talking with the Sahābah, learning about their private lives, enquiring about them, and by now the Ummah is pretty large; in Bay‘atul Ridwān there were 1400, so we are not talking about a small number, and Rasūlullāhﷺ is asking about each and every one, knowing their condition, knowing their situation, their family life; he was very caring about his Sahābah. So he is here asking Jābir, “Did you get married yet?” Jābir was young, he said, “Yes, I am.” Rasūlullāhﷺ asked him, “To a woman previously married or to a virgin?” He said, “I married a woman previously married.” Rasūlullāhﷺ told him, “Why not a young girl who could play with you and you could play with her?” Why did you not get married to a young girl? Tulā‘ibuhā Wa Tulā‘ibuk – You would enjoy her and she would enjoy you; you would play with each other. Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh  said, “My father was killed at the Battle of Uhud and left seven daughters, so I married a mature woman to look after them and bring them up well.” That is the reason why O Rasūlullāh I did not marry a young virgin woman, that is why I did not marry a girl, I married an older woman because of this reason; my father fought alongside you in the Battle of Uhud and he died as a Shahīd and he left behind seven daughters and I am responsible for them. So Rasūlullāhﷺ told him, “You did well, let us hope to Allāh.” Then Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “And when we get to Sirār, we will slaughter a camel and stay there and she will hear about us coming and she will dust off her cushions for us.” Before Rasūlullāhﷺ would enter Madīnah, he would stay outside of Madīnah and let his family know that he is coming in, he would not surprise them, that is not appropriate; he would let them know so that they would get ready and prepare themselves to meet him. So Rasūlullāhﷺ said [that] we are going to stay in Sirār, slaughter camels, eat there, and then we are going to enter Madīnah, and your wife is going to hear about that and she will dust off the cushions for you. Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh said, “We do not have cushions!” So the situation was tough with Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh; large family, very poor. Rasūlullāhﷺ told him, “You will have some. And when you get back, act wisely.”

Now they get back to Madīnah, and Rasūlullāhﷺ comes out of the Masjid and he sees this camel tied up [and] he asked, “What is this?” They said, “Jābir brought it to you.” This is the camel that Rasūlullāhﷺ bought. So Rasūlullāhﷺ called for Jābir, he said, “Go and bring me Jābir.” They brought him Jābir, Rasūlullāhﷺ told him, “Cousin, lead your camel away, it is yours.” And then he called Bilāl and told him, “Take Jābir away and give him an ounce of gold.” So Jābir said, “I went with Bilāl and he gave me an ounce and a little more as well. And by Allāh, my financial affairs improved constantly thereafter until we suffered recently in what befell us.” So Rasūlullāhﷺ was negotiating that deal with Jābir about buying the camel when he did not really want to buy it, he just wanted to give Jābir money because of his condition. Or probably when Rasūlullāhﷺ knew about the difficult situation of Jābir, he decided to give him the price of the camel and the camel as well. And when he told him that she will dust off the cushions for you and he said we do not have any cushions and Rasūlullāh said you will have some, yes, Rasūlullāhﷺ gave Jābir money, and that money was invested and it kept on growing constantly, Jābir says, ‘Until we suffered recently’, and what he was referring to in that recent suffering was the Yawm Al-Harrah, which was the worst day on the people of Madīnah; many of them were massacred; that was during the Khilāfah Al-Amawiyyah. This was a civil war that occurred during the Khilāfah Al-Amawiyyah and it was against the people of Madīnah and many of them died, and Jābir is saying that is when we suffered financially.

12.3.13 Badr Al-Maw‘ud

The Muslims won in the Battle of Badr and the Kuffār won in the Battle of Uhud, so they agreed that they were going to meet in the following year, same time, same place, for the third battle, because they were even; it was a tie, 1:1, so now they agreed that they were going to meet again, and that was called Badr Al-Maw‘ud – The Appointed Badr. So Abū Sufyān with a 2,000 strong army left from Makkah, but when they left Makkah and travelled for a while, Abū Sufyān said, “Men of Quraish, it is right for you to make such an expedition only in a fruitful year when you can pass your own trees and drink milk. This year it is barren; I am going back, you do the same.” So Abū Sufyān bailed out along with his army, they were too afraid to meet the Muslims and they walked away, and the excuse he used is that it is a barren year, it is infertile and we are going to suffer along the way, so let us just go back.

Rasūlullāhﷺ shows up at the appointed time and appointed place. The Kuffār of Quraish do not show up so he stays there for a few days and then leaves. While he was there, he met with Makhshī Bin ‘Āmir Ad-Damrī from the tribe of Banū Damrah, and these men had a peace agreement with Rasūlullāhﷺ, or we could call it an alliance. So he comes to Rasūlullāh and asked, “Muhammad, have you come here to this well to meet with Quraish?” Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “Yes brother from Banū Damrah. But if you want, we will release you from your agreement with us and we will battle you until Allāh decides between us.” He said, “No, by Allāh, Muhammad, there is no need for that.” Rasūlullāhﷺ is telling this man that if you want us to end this agreement between us, we would not have any problem with that and we are ready to fight you, and this shows you something about the personality of Rasūlullāhﷺ and what he projected to people. If Rasūlullāh entered into a truce or a peace agreement with anyone – and it is more proper by the way to call it a truce, because that is what it really is, or an alliance – if Rasūlullāhﷺ entered a truce or an alliance with any people, it is because they needed that, not because he needed it; not because of a point of weakness, not because Rasūlullāhﷺ was weak and eager to make a truce. Rasūlullāhﷺ was strong and he made that very clear to the people; if you want to end the agreement, we would be happy to do so. And this is important for Muslims to realise, that as Muslims, our religion is strong and we need to be strong, and when we enter into a truce or an agreement with Disbelievers, it has to be from that point of strength, and not due to weakness.

12.3.14 Ghazwat Dawmat Al-Jandal

Another Ghazwah is Ghazwat Dawmat Al-Jandal. Dawmat Al-Jandal is about 450 kilometres north of Madīnah. Al-Wāqidī states, “He (Muhammadﷺ) therefore organised his men and left with a force of 1,000 Muslims. They travelled by night, keeping undercover by day. He had a guide with him from Banū ‘Udhrah named Madhkūr, who was a skilled tracker.” Rasūlullāhﷺ travels this long distance of 450 kilometres to go and meet with the people of Dawmat Al-Jandal whom he heard were gathering a force to advance towards Madīnah and attack him. So we see again and again that Rasūlullāhﷺ does not even give them a chance to march towards him, he would go and meet them on their own territory and fight with them in their own territory, he would not even allow them to come close to Madīnah, and that is again to show the strength of the Muslims. This happened in the fifth year of Hijrah and it was against the tribe of Qudā‘ah. And they ran away when they heard that Rasūlullāhﷺ approached, and because the movement of Rasūlullāhﷺ was stealth – he was travelling at night and sleeping during the day – he surprised them. When they were unaware, he took over some of their cattle and they just ran away from him, and he stayed there for a few days and none of them showed up to fight.

So Rasūlullāhﷺ comes back victorious, and these Ghazawāt served a lot of different objectives; it was surveillance of new territory; the Muslims would learn about this new territory, they would travel through it and learn about the topography and the paths, and the people who were along the way, the different tribes. It was physical training for them; these Ghazawāt represented lessons in discipline. They also served the purpose of bonding of this Ummah outside the realm of family and tribe; that was everything for the Arabs; family and tribe, [but] now there was this new bond developing between an Ummah, and such journeys were an opportunity for this bonding to develop because they spent more time together, as we have seen for example Rasūlullāhﷺ was talking with Jābir Ibn ‘Abdillāh, having that conversation with him during the Ghazwah of Dhāt Ar-Riqā’. Also, he was establishing political presence, making agreements with different tribes along the way, it was an expression of strength, people would hear about that, the news would spread all over that Rasūlullāhﷺ travelled this long distance to go and meet an enemy 450 kilometres away from Madīnah, and it also shows that Rasūlullāhﷺ was very daring and willing to take risks in these Ghazawāt, but at the same time they were very well-planned and executed, so there is a difference between being daring and willing to take risks and being rash. So Rasūlullāhﷺ would plan out very elaborately these Ghazawāt and would take the necessary risk; he is travelling a long distance and he is getting far away from Madīnah, and if an enemy heard about that they could attack Madīnah, but the thing is that Rasūlullāhﷺ planned it out very well, so it was very stealth and quiet, and even his enemy did not hear about it let alone the other people in Arabia.

12.4 Ghazwah Banū Mustaliq

Another famous or well-known Ghazwah is Banū Mustaliq. Banū Mustaliq are a tribe from Khuzā‘ah, and Rasūlullāhﷺ attacked them for the same reason; they were planning on attacking Madīnah, so he attacks them and it was such a surprise, it was such a surprise that he attacked them and he took over their wealth and their women and children as slaves and they did not even have a chance to fight back; it was that fast. So he ended up taking their cattle, all of their livestock, and their women and children as slaves.

Now, his army constituted of 700 Muslims. A lot of things happened during this Ghazwah and we will talk about them, and there are also many lessons to learn.

12.4.1 Attack without Notice is Allowed if Da’wah Has Reached the People

The First Lesson: It is allowed to attack a people without advance notice if Da’wah has already reached them, so they do not have to give them a chance to become Muslim. Usually the Muslim armies would give the enemy three days, and they would give them three choices if they are People of the Book and two choices if they are not. The three choices of the People of the Book is to become Muslim; that is number one, if you refuse then you pay Jizyah, if you refuse then we will fight. If they are Mushrikīn, then number one, you become Muslim; if you refuse then we fight. And they are given three days to make up their mind, they are not given years and years of continuous Da’wah, it is only three days; that is the Sunnah of Rasūlullāhﷺ and that was the way of the Khulafā’ after him. But here, they were not even given a moments chance to think about it. Why? Because Da’wah has already reached them. They live in the Arabia, they already knew about Islām, they heard about Rasūlullāhﷺ, so it is not something new, so they were ambushed. ‘Abdullāh Ibn ‘Umar says in Bukhārī, “He attacked them while they were unaware, while their livestock were drinking water, so he killed some of their men and he took their families as slaves.”

12.4.2 Use of Battle-cries

They would use battle-cries, and in this battle their battle-cry was “Yā Mansūr, Amit! Amit! – OConqueror, Kill! Kill!” That was their battle-cry.

12.4.3 Practice of ‘Azl – Male Withdrawal before Ejaculation

Also, Fiqh; a lot of Fiqh was learned during the Ghazawāt, so this is another objective that was served by travelling with Rasūlullāhﷺ, they learned Fiqh from him. So during the Ghazwah of Banū Mustaliq, the ruling of Tayammum was revealed in Qur’ān, and the Fiqh of it was learned from Rasūlullāhﷺ right then and there. Also, to show you another example of how they would learn Fiqh in this Ghazwah, in Bukhārī, Abū Sa‘eed Al-Khudrī said, “We went forth with the Messenger of Allāh on the expedition to Banū Al-Mustaliq, we took many of the Bedouin captive and we desired the women because celibacy was very hard on us. We liked the practice of ‘Azl.” ‘Azl is the interruption of sexual intercourse by the male withdrawal before ejaculation, so we can say that it is a form of contraceptive. So he says, “We liked the practice of ‘Azl but wondered whether we should do this without asking the Messenger of Allāh. So we asked him about it, he said, ‘There is no difference in you doing that, for any soul that is going to exist till Judgement Day will so exist.’” So Rasūlullāhﷺ said that it would not make a difference if you do that or not because Allāh has already made Qadr, has already ordained every soul that will be created. Now, some ‘Ulamā’ use this Hadīth as evidence that contraceptives are allowed, and I am not going to get into the Fiqh of it, but among our classical scholars there is a difference of opinion on whether it is Mubāh or Makrūh or Harām. And then there is also a difference of opinion on whether this is relating to a free woman – a wife – or a slave-girl. Now, the reason why they wanted to practice ‘Azl here is because if a man owns a slave woman and she becomes pregnant and has a child from him, then he cannot sell her. So she remains with him now because of the children and she is called Umm Walad – A Mother of Children, and she becomes almost like his wife. However, if they are practising ‘Azl, then they would have sexual relations with these women but then they can sell them, so that is why they were asking Rasūlullāhﷺ about it.

12.4.4 Juwairiyyah and Slavery in Islām

Let me narrate to you what ‘Ā’ishah said about an event that happened during the Ghazwah of Banū Mustaliq, this is by Ibn Is’hāq but it is also narrated by Al-Hākim and it is a Jayyid Sanad – good chain of narrators. ‘Ā’ishah  said, “When the Messenger of Allāh distributed the captives taken from Banū Al-Mustaliq, Juwairiyyah, the daughter of Al-Hārith, was awarded to Thābit Bin Qais Bin Shammās.” There was one woman who was taken captive and she was the daughter of the head of the tribe, her name was Juwairiyyah, and she wrote Mukātabah. ‘Ā’ishah says, “She made a Mukātabah with Thābit Bin Qais.” Now, Mukātabah is a contract between the master and the slave which would allow the slave to be emancipated, to be freed, by paying a certain amount of money. So Islām does not make slavery a perpetual thing on a person, it is not permanent; a person who desires to be free does have that right and can be free. And by the way, whenever we talk about slavery in Islām, it is a completely different thing compared to slavery that existed in Europe or America, so one should not compare the two or consider them equal; slavery in Islām is different; slaves had rights, they were treated well, they were respected, they became scholars, they became kings. For example, many of these slaves became scholars among At -Tābi‘īn, and some of them even ruled and became kings like with Dawlatul Mamālīk; this was an entire dynasty that was called the dynasty of the slaves; these were slaves who became kings – that is something unimaginable in the Western institution of slavery. Plus slavery among Muslims had nothing to do with ethnicity, unlike in the West, for example in America, only blacks could be slaves and only whites could be the owners of the slaves. That is not the case in Islām; a slave could be white, could be black, could be Arab; over here Rasūlullāhﷺ enslaved people who were Arab. And we know that in the wars between the Muslims and the Roman empires, their prisoners of war were taken as slaves and these were Europeans. And you also had African slaves such as Bilāl, and Salmān Al-Fārsī was a Persian slave. So it had nothing to do with ethnicity, it is unlike the Western system of slavery which is nothing more than racism.

So Juwairiyyah made a Mukātabah, and this is something that shows you that if a slave is not pleased with that profession – because that was what it really was in Islām, it was a profession – then they have the right to change it, and that is what Juwairiyyah wanted to do; she made a Mukātabah between her and her master. ‘Ā’ishah said, “She was a very sweet and attractive woman, every man who saw her fell for her. She came to the Messenger of Allāh to ask him for help in preparing the document, and I swear, as soon as I saw her at the door of my room, I disliked her and recognised that he would see in her what I did.” ‘Ā’ishah was saying that she felt jealous because Juwairiyyah was beautiful and ‘Ā’ishah was worried that if Rasūlullāhﷺ sees her he might want to get married to her. “When she went into him, she said, “Messenger of Allāh, I am Juwairiyyah, daughter of Al-Hārith Bin Abū Dirār, the leader of his people. You can see what my plight is now, I have fallen to the lot of Thābit Bin Qais Bin Shammās, and I have prepared a deed awarding myself to him. I have come to ask your help in writing it.” Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “Would you prefer better?” She said, “What is it O Messenger of Allāh?” Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “I will take responsibility for your deed myself and marry you.” She replied, “Yes, Messenger of Allāh, I agree.” So Rasūlullāhﷺ married Juwairiyyah and he paid her ransom. Now, the news spread that Rasūlullāhﷺ had married Juwairiyyah and the people said, “Then they (meaning our captives) are relatives of Rasūlullāhﷺ,” so they released the captives. Why? Because Juwairiyyah is now the wife of Rasūlullāhﷺ, they did not want her relatives to be slaves, so they freed them. ‘Ā’ishah said, “And so by his marriage to her, he released one hundred of her relatives from Banū Al-Mustaliq. I know no woman who brought greater blessings to her people than she.” So Juwairiyyah was a blessing on her people; they were freed because of her.

12.4.5 ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ Takes Advantage of Dispute between Al-Muhājirūn and Al-Ansār

‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb had a servant and his servant was a Muhājir. They were next to this well fetching water and this servant of ‘Umar got into a fight with one of Al-Ansār; because of the crowding at this well, they got in each other’s way, and [there was] one word [and the] next word and then they had a dispute and a fight. So the Ansārī said, “Yā Āl Al-Ansār!” He was calling the Ansār to come and gang up against this Muhājirī and the Muhājirī did the same. A fight was almost going to break out between the two parties of Muslims, Al-Muhājirūn and Al-Ansār, until Rasūlullāhﷺ came in and mediated between them. Rasūlullāhﷺ would not allow such things to happen, he would immediately be on the spot; come in and stop such Fitan when they are in the bud, he would not allow them to grow. That is an important aspect of leadership; not to be unaware and neglectful of Fitan that could end up breaking up the Jamā‘ah. So Rasūlullāhﷺ steps in immediately and he stops it early before it gets out of control.

Now, the news reaches ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ, the head of Al-Munāfiqūn, and he said, “Did they really cause this? They challenge us and outnumber us in our own lands. I swear by Allāh, the old maxim well applies to us and these Quraish ruffians; fatten your dog and you it will eat.” ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ is saying we brought in these Muhājirūn into our land and look at what he said about them; it is like we fatten them and then they eat us. He is using this maxim; fatten your dog and it will eat you. [He continued,] “I swear, when we return to Madīnah, the stronger will drive out the weaker,” and in Arabic it is Al-A‘azz – the more honourable or the stronger; both are correct translations to the word A‘azz. “The stronger or the more honourable will drive out the weaker or the humble. See what you have done to yourselves? You let them settle among you and shared your property with them. I swear, if you had kept what you owned from them, they would have gone somewhere else.” This Nifāq is coming out of his mouth. A young Sahābï called Zayd Bin Arqam heard what ‘Abdullāh Bin Ubaÿ said, so he goes and conveys the news to Rasūlullāhﷺ. Some men from Al-Ansār who were present told Rasūlullāhﷺ, “Perhaps the lad mistook what was said or did not memorise it correctly.” So they were defending ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ, they said probably this young boy did not hear it right. ‘Umar said, “Let me go and execute this Munāfiq.” ‘Umar does not play around; let me go and execute him. Rasūlullāhﷺ said, “How would it be ‘Umar to have people say that Muhammad kills his own Companions? No, give orders to leave instead.” And we are going to come back to this statement by Rasūlullāh because there is Hikmah that we can learn from this statement.

Rasūlullāhﷺ told Usaid Bin Khudair, one of Al-Ansār and who is from the people of ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ, “Did you not hear what your friend said?” He asked, “Which friend?” He said, “‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ.” He asked, “What did he say?” Rasūlullāhﷺ told him what he said. Usaid said, “Well I swear by Allāh, Messenger of Allāh, you will drive him out if you wish, he is certainly the weak one and you are the strong.” And then he said, “Be kind to him O Messenger of Allāh. I swear Allāh brought you to us while his people were stringing pearls with which to make a crown for him, and so he considers that you have robbed him his kingdom.” And this is the problem with the people of authority and the people who have money; when they feel that Islām would threaten their authority or their wealth, they become Munāfiqīn. So it is very important for anyone who is in such a situation to be careful and not fall into the traps of Nifāq. ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ became a Munāfiq because he felt that his authority was threatened, because he felt that Islām robbed him something. Allāh says about this incident: They are the ones who say, “Do not spend on those who are with the Messenger of Allāh until they disband.” And to Allāh belongs the depositories of the heavens and the earth, but the Hypocrites do not understand. They say, “If we return to al-Madīnah, the more honoured [for power] will surely expel therefrom the more humble.” And to Allāh belongs [all] honour, and to His Messenger, and to the Believers, but the Hypocrites do not know. Al-Munāfiqūn: 7-8

Sohonour belongs to Allāh,it belongs to the Messenger of Allāhﷺ and it belongs to Al-Mu’minīn.

12.4.6 Lessons from Ghazwah Banū Al-Mustaliq

People Not Preoccupied with Good Will Preoccupy themselves with Evil: Rasūlullāhﷺ told the army to leave. The wisdom in this action is [that] if you do not keep people preoccupied with good, they will preoccupy themselves with evil. Now, since this Fitnah was causing a lot of talk; rumours, Rasūlullāhﷺ told the army to pack up and leave, and they marched for the entire day, and then they marched throughout the entire night, and then they marched in the morning. So when Rasūlullāhﷺ told them to stop, they fell asleep immediately as their heads hit the ground; as soon as they touched the ground, they were asleep because they were so exhausted. Rasūlullāhﷺ exhausted them out so that they would forget about talking about this incident, and this shows you how Rasūlullāhﷺ solved this problem.

Importance of Protecting Reputation of the Muslim Community: Number Two: It is important to protect the reputation of the Muslim community. Rasūlullāhﷺ said, ‘No ‘Umar, I am not going to kill him because then people are going to say that Muhammad kills his Companions. I do not want to give people this impression.’ We want to bring people closer to Islām, we do not want them to think that if they become Muslim they are going to be killed by their leader, that they are going to be oppressed or wronged, that Muslims are going to rip them off or take advantage of them or trick them or fool them; no, you want the Non-Muslim to feel that by becoming Muslim they are going to be with their brothers, and their leader will be their brother. So Rasūlullāhﷺ does not want the enemies of Allāh or the Non-Muslims to hear that Muhammad is killing his Companions, and even though ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ was not a Companion of Rasūlullāhﷺ, he was a Munāfiq, but he is counted as a Muslim among the Non-Muslims; he is part of the community of Madīnah and people think that he is Muslim because that was what he says, that was what he claims to be; he professes to being a Muslim. Even if that is not true, but people do not know that.

Using Hikmah and Thinking Long-term: Also in this statement, Rasūlullāhﷺ is thinking long-term. ‘Umar said, ‘Let me kill him.’ What did Rasūlullāhﷺ say? ‘No, I do not want people to think that I am killing my followers.’ And then Ibn Is’hāq said, “Thereafter, if anything bad happened, ‘Abdullāh’s people would blame and reproach him. So Rasūlullāhﷺ, having been informed that they were treating him this way, he asked ‘Umar, ‘Well ‘Umar, what do you think now? I swear if I had killed him the day you had suggested it, there would have been much resentment.’” And probably [there is] a better translation than the word resentment, because in Arabic it says Istaraghb Lahū Unuf – many people would fight for him out of pride and out of nationalism because he is one of them, they would fight for him and they would not be happy with what Rasūlullāhﷺ did. Why? Because ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ was not exposed yet, but since Rasūlullāhﷺ dealt with it with such Hikmah, now his own people, the same people who would have fought for him then, these people are now against him and they were the ones reproaching him. Why? Because overtime the character of ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ was showing up, he was showing his true colours, so now people were realising that he is a Munāfiq. You see, do not think that everyone then knew that he was a Munāfiq like we know now; this is something that grew overtime. Now we know that ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ was a Munāfiq, so we are assuming that everyone knew that; that was not the case, his people would think otherwise, but since Rasūlullāhﷺ left him alone, ignored him, now his own people were turning against him. Previosuly, whenever Rasūlullāhﷺ would walk towards the pulpit to give Khutbatul Jumu‘ah towards Al-Mimbar, ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ would stand up and would say, “This is the Messenger of Allāh, support him and help him!” You know, he wants to stand up and speak, he wants to give himself authority that as if I am the one telling you to support Rasūlullāhﷺ. But after his Nifāq was showing up, when he would stand up, his people would pull him down and say, ‘You sit down’, because they know that he was lying. So this is the Hikmah of Rasūlullāhﷺ. Rasūlullāh said, “But if I were to order his death today, they would all kill him.” ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattāb said, “Yes Rasūlullāh, I realise that your decision is better than mine.”

Also, [another lesson is] thinking long-term and the benefit of leniency – Rithq. Yousee, being lenient with your followers is important, and Allāh said that if the heart of Rasūlullāhﷺ was harsh and if he was dealing with his people in a rough way, they would not have followed him, but because Allāh made his heart soft and his dealing with others lenient, that is how he established this Ummah,ﷺ.

Fighting Nationalism: The Next Lesson: Fighting nationalism. Nationalism is an enemy of Islām and Muslims need to stand against it, this ‘Asabiyyah. Al-Muhājirūn were going to fight with Al-Ansār, Al-Aws were going to fight with Al-Khazraj, but Rasūlullāhﷺ steps in and stops that. So this is an enemy that Shaitān is using against us to sow the seeds of discord among the Ummah, so we need to be very aware. Be very careful from this thing of Arabs and Pākistānis and British Muslim or American Muslim versus [others]; they make [people] immigrants. You see, all of these titles are label tags that Shaitān can use to bring disunity among the Ummah. We are Muslim, we are one, and we belong to different nationalities and different countries. I do not want to use the word nation because a nation could be a political thing that is completely not recognised by Islām altogether, but Islām does recognise that we belong to tribes. Waja‘alnākum Shu‘ūban Wa Qabā’ila Li’ta‘ārafū – And made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Al-Hujurāt: 13

Yousee, with this thing of current nations, you know, many of these nations were drawn up by some drunk British and French men who met after World War One and World War Two and divided the Middle East and made it in such a way that if you look at the map of the Muslim world, you can see some straight lines in there that were drawn by a ruler; that is not a natural border. But we do have tribes, we do belong to tribes.

Waja‘alnākum Shu‘ūban Wa Qabā’ila Li’ta‘ārafū – And made youpeoples and tribes that you may know one another. Now,the reason why He created us into tribes is for us to know each other, because imagine if we are all carbon copies of one another, imagine that everyone is equal to each other in the way we look, from where we belong to; then how would we recognise one another? But you see, we look different, and we have different names, and that is so that every one of us would have an individual personality, and that is how we can know one another, otherwise how would we know one another if we were all exactly the same? Number one, number two, number three; we would be numbered and that is it, no one would have this individual personality that we have, everyone is unique. Allāh has created everyone unique, and there are different tribes, and every tribe is unique, and different ethnic groups and these ethnic groups are unique.

Loyalty of ‘Abdullāh the Son of ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ: Then the example of the son of ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ, and his name is also ‘Abdullāh. When ‘Abdullāh heard that Rasūlullāhﷺ might kill his father because of what he said, ‘Abdullāh went to Rasūlullāhﷺ and told him, “I heard that you want to kill my father. If you plan to do so, then let me kill him. The people of Khazraj know that I am the most obedient towards my father, I am the best among them in obedience and fulfilling the rights of my father, and I do not want someone else to kill my father and then after that I see this man walking safely and Shaitān comes to me and causes me to kill him, and then I would have killed a Believer for the sake of a Disbeliever. If you want to kill him, then order me to do so and I will do it.” Rasūlullāh told him, “No, we will not kill him. We will accompany him in this life with good company.” And Rasūlullāhﷺ made Du‘ā’ for ‘Abdullāh, the son. Now, ‘Abdullāh gives us the example of true Īmān, where your loyalty goes to; to Allāh and His Messenger. Someone willing to kill his own father for the sake of Islām. But Rasūlullāhﷺ told him do not do that, we will be kind towards him, and this shows you the heart of Rasūlullāhﷺ; he had a great heart,ﷺ.

12.5 The Great Slander against ‘Ā’ishah

During the Battle of Banū Al -Mustaliq, an important incident occurred, and its importance lies in the great lessons that the Ummah learned from this unfortunate incident. We will let ‘Ā’ishah relate to us the story of what happened, and these narrations by the way are mentioned in Bukhārī, Muslim, Ibn Is’hāq. ‘Ā’ishah said, “When the Messenger of Allāh was about to go on a journey, he would draw lots among his wives to decide who would accompany him. He did so as usual for the expedition against Banū Al-Mustaliq; my name was drawn and so he took me with him. The women on such occasions would eat light-filling foods and they would be lightweight.” In those days, ‘Ā’ishah said that we used to eat very light meals, so we were lightweight. “I would sit in my Hawdaj while my camel was being saddled.” This Hawdaj is a closed space and it is put on top of the camel for women to sit in. It is made out of wood and then they cover it, so a woman could be sitting in there without her being seen. “The men responsible for mounting it would then grasp the Hawdaj from below it and lift it and place it upon the camel’s back, tying it there with ropes, they would then lead the camel away by the head. When Rasūlullāh had completed that journey, he directed the party to return home, and when close to Madīnah, he made a halt for part of the night. A crier then called out to everyone to depart again, and people prepared to do so. I went out to relieve myself. I was wearing a necklace of onyx beads from Dafār. When I had finished, it slipped from my neck without my knowledge. Having returned to my mount, I felt for it around my neck but did not find it there, but people were beginning to leave, so I returned to where I had been to search for the necklace and eventually I found it.” It was right under the place where she was sitting. “The men who had now finished saddling my camel came back for me and raised up the Hawdaj, thinking I was inside as usual…” You see, because she was very lightweight, they could not tell the difference that she was not in there, “…and fastened it on to the camel; they had no doubts about me being inside. Then they took the camel by the head and led it away.”

“When I returned to the campsite, there was absolutely no one there, everyone had left. So I wrapped myself in my cloak and lay down, I was sure that they would return for me when they missed me. I swear, I was lying there when Safwān Ibn Mu‘attal As-Sulamī came by. He had for some reason of his own been lagging behind the other warriors and had not spent the night with the others. When he saw my form, he approached and stood over me, he had seen me before the veil was required for us. When he saw me, he exclaimed, ‘To Allāh we belong and to Him we return. Is it not the Da‘īnah of Rasūlullāh?’” Da‘īnah is the term used to refer to a woman who is sitting in the Hawdaj. “I was all wrapped up in my cloak. He then asked, ‘What made you stay behind, Yarhamukillāh – may Allāh have mercy on you?’ I did not speak to him. He then brought up the camel and said, ‘You ride.’ He kept away from me. So I mounted and he led the camel away by the head, moving quickly to catch up with the rest. I swear by Allāh, we neither caught them up nor did they miss me before morning.” So the entire night, they did not miss her and they were not able to catch up with the army.

“By the time the force had halted and made secure, the man appeared leading me, and so those who spread the calumny began talking and the men were greatly perturbed. However I swear, I knew nothing of this.” So now this man Safwān, [who was] leading the camel, and ‘Ā’ishah, [who was] riding on it, appear, and the Muslims see what is happening, they see that Safwān and ‘Ā’ishah are coming alone, so they start spreading rumours saying that why were they together, and accusing ‘Ā’ishah . “We then went on to Madīnah; there I soon fell seriously sick and heard nothing of what was going on.” You see, all of these rumours are spreading around and ‘Ā’ishah has no idea about it. “All the talk soon reached Rasūlullāhﷺ and my parents, but they told me absolutely nothing of this, all I noticed was that Rasūlullāhﷺ was not as kind as usual towards me; whenever I had been sick, he had been very kind and comforting to me, but not on this occasion. I pretended not to notice. When he came in to see me, my mother being present nursing me, he would just say formally, ‘Kayfa Tīkum? – How is she?’” He would not even speak to her. “He would add nothing more. Eventually this coldness of his bothered me and so I asked him, ‘O Rasūlullāh, if you will allow it, I would like to go and stay with my mother to have her care for me.’ Rasūlullāhﷺ said, ‘No problem.’ And so I moved in with my mother. I still had no knowledge of what was going on until I recovered from my illness some three weeks later.” So for three weeks she has no idea that this rumour is spreading around about her.

She said, “We were an Arab people and did not have in our homes those toilets that foreigners use, we find them disgusting. We would go out and use the open areas of Madīnah. Each night the women would go outside to relieve themselves. I went out to do so one night accompanied by Umm Mustah, daughter of Abū Rūm Al-Muttalib. She was walking with me when she tripped over her gown and swore, ‘Ta‘isa Mustah – Perish that Mustah.’” Mustah was her son’s nickname, his real name being ‘Awf. “I commented, ‘That is a terrible thing to say about a Muhājir and a man who fought at Badr.’” So ‘Ā’ishah here is saying why are you saying this about your son? And your son is a Muhājir and he has attended Badr. So this shows you that attending Badr was a special thing. “The mother of Mustah said, ‘Has the news not reached you, daughter of Abū Bakr?’ I asked, ‘What news?’ She then told me what those spreading the calumny were saying, so I exclaimed, ‘This is really so?’ She said, ‘Yes, it is really so.’” ‘Ā’ishah says, “I swear, I was so upset, I could not do my business and went home. I wept so much I thought my crying would burst my liver. I told my mother, ‘May Allāh forgive you for not telling me anything about what the people have been saying about me.’ She said, ‘Do not take it too seriously daughter, rarely does a beautiful woman with a husband who loves her not have her co-wives and others too speak badly about her.’”

“Rasūlullāhﷺ had stood and addressed people on this subject, but I knew nothing of that. He had praised and thanked Allāh [and] then said, ‘Why is it that people are giving me concern about my family and speaking untruths about them? I swear by Allāh, I know nothing but good of them. And they are also saying the same against a man of whom I have never known anything but good; he has never entered any of my dwellings without me being in his company.’” So Rasūlullāhﷺ here is saying that I only know good of ‘Ā’ishah and I only know good of Safwān. [‘Ā’ishah continues,] “The greatest blame for this lay with ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ Bin Salūl, some of the Khazraj, and Mustah, and Hamnah, daughter of Jahsh. Hamnah spoke thus because she was the sister of Zainab, daughter of Jahsh, who also lived with Rasūlullāhﷺ, and Zainab was the only one of his wives who would rival my status with him. Zainab herself was given Allāh’s protection through her religion, for she spoke only good of me. Hamnah spread her rumours about me to do harm for her sister’s sake, and I suffered for that.” So ‘Ā’ishah is saying that Zainab was not involved in this, but it was her sister doing it and she was doing it for her sister’s sake without Zainab asking for that. ‘Ā’ishah continues, “When Rasūlullāhﷺ made this address, Usaid Bin Hudair stated, ‘Messenger of Allāh, if they were from Al-Aws, we would deal with them for you, if from our Khazraj brethren, then give us your order and I swear by Allāh they deserve to have their heads cut off.’” Now, Usaid is from Al-Aws, [and] he is saying that if they are from Al- Aws then we will deal with them, and if they are from Al- Khazraj then tell us what to do and we will do it. ‘Ā’ishah said, “Then S’ad Ibn ‘Ubādah arose, he had previously been considered a fine man, he said, ‘You lie I swear by Allāh, you would certainly not cut off their heads, and you only made that statement because you knew that they were of Khazraj; if they had been from your own tribe you would never say that.’ Usaid said, ‘It is you who lie. I swear by Allāh, you are a Hypocrite arguing on behalf of the Hypocrites.’ People became so angry that there was almost fighting between these two tribes of Aws and Khazraj.” And Subhān’Allāh, this is four or five years after them becoming Muslim, and still the problem of nationalism is so divisive it could cause them to fight inside Al-Masjid. This shows us how dangerous nationalism is, tribalism, zealousness for one’s tribe. And Subhān’Allāh, Rasūlullāhﷺ says that is one of the things of Jāhiliyyah that will remain in you, so we need to be very careful of this problem. And these are great Sahābah, we are not talking about Munāfiqīn here; Sa’d Ibn ‘Ubādah is a great Sahābï, Usaid is a great Sahābï, the Aws and Khazraj are the Ansār, nevertheless they were going to fight.

So now Rasūlullāhﷺ has his own problem; the problem of this slander of his family. ‘Ā’ishah said, “People became so angry that there was almost fighting between these two tribes of Aws and Khazraj. Then Rasūlullāhﷺ stood down and came in to see me.” After Rasūlullāhﷺ settled the problem, he walked out and came to see ‘Ā’ishah, and he called for ‘Alï Ibn Abī Tālib and Usāmah Bin Zayd and consulted with them. “Usāmah spoke well of me and then said, ‘Rasūlullāh, this is about your family about whom we know nothing but good; it is all foolish lies.” This was the opinion of Usāmah. “‘Alï Ibn Abī Tālib said, ‘Messenger of Allāh, there are plenty of women, you can exchange them.’” In other words, if there is something wrong, what ‘Alï Ibn Abī Tālib is saying [is that] you could divorce ‘Ā’ishah and marry someone else. “He said, ‘Ask the slave- girl, she will speak the truth to you.’ So Rasūlullāhﷺ called for Burairah to ask her. ‘Alï went up to her and struck her violently saying, ‘Speak the truth to the Messenger of Allāh!’ Burairah replied, ‘I swear by Allāh, I know nothing but good. I never found fault with ‘Ā’ishah at all except that when I need dough and ask her to watch over it, she may fall asleep and the pet lamb comes and eats it.’” Meaning that ‘Ā’ishah is young and she is naïve, and that is the only thing that I can see wrong with her, otherwise everything else is fine with ‘Ā’ishah.

‘Ā’ishah said, “Then Rasūlullāhﷺ came to me. I had with me both my parents and an Ansārī woman, I was weeping and so was she. He sat down, gave praise and thanks to Allāh and then said, ‘Ā’ishah, you have been informed of what people have been saying about you. Fear Allāh. If you have indeed done wrong as they say, then repent to Him, Allāh accepts repentance from His servants.’ As soon as he said this, my tears dried up so that I could feel nothing of them. I waited for my parents to respond on my behalf to Rasūlullāhﷺ, but they did not speak. I swear to Allāh, I thought myself too humble and unimportant for Allāh to send down a verse of Qur’ān about me, when that would be recited and used for the Prayer, but I had hoped that the Prophet would have some vision in his sleep by which Allāh would prove my veracity from His knowledge of my innocence and would give some information, but as for a verse of Qur’ān being revealed about me, I swear I thought myself too insignificant for that. When I saw that my parents were not going to respond on my behalf, I asked them, ‘Will you not reply to Rasūlullāh?’ They replied, ‘By Allāh, we do not know what to reply.’ I swear, I do not know any household that ever suffered so much as did that of Abū Bakr through those days. When they were unable to respond for me, I burst out crying again, then I said, ‘By Allāh! I will never repent to Allāh for what you refer to. I swear, I well know that if I were to affirm what people say while Allāh knew me to be innocent of it, I would be affirming what had not happened, and if I were to deny what they say, you would not believe me.’ I then tried to remember the name of Ya’qūb but I could not remember it, so I said, ‘But I will speak as did the father of Yūsuf: Patience is fine, and Allāh’s help is to be sought against what you describe.’” So she recited this Āyah of Qur’ān and said, So patience is most fitting. And Allāh is the one sought for help against that which you describe. Yūsuf: 18

[‘Ā’ishah continues,] “I swear, the Messenger of Allāh had not left his seat before Allāh sent down upon him what He used to send. He was wrapped up in his cloak and a pillow of leather was placed beneath his head.” So Rasūlullāhﷺ was now receiving Wahī. “As for myself, when I witnessed this, I swear I felt no alarm or concern, I knew that I was innocent and that Allāh would not harm me. However, I swear by Him who bears ‘Ā’ishah’s soul in His Hands, that as soon as the Messenger of Allāh recovered, I thought my parents would expire for fear that confirmation of what people had been saying would come from Allāh.” Subhān’Allāh! ‘Ā’ishah is saying that her parents were worried that Qur’ān would come to confirm the accusation that ‘Ā’ishah committed Zinā’, and this shows you how dangerous these rumours could be that it reached to the extent that the parents of ‘Ā’ishah were worried. ‘Ā’ishah continues, “Having recovered, the Messenger of Allāh sat up, his face streamed with droplets like a winter’s day. He began wiping the sweat from his face and saying, ‘Rejoice ‘Ā’ishah, Allāh, Almighty and Glorious is He, has sent down confirmation of your innocence.’” ‘Ā’ishah said, “Alhamdulillāh.” [She continues,] “He then went out to the people, addressed them and recited to them what Allāh the Almighty and Glorious had revealed from Qur’ān on the subject. He then gave orders about Mustah Bin Uthāthah, Hassān Bin Thābit and Hamnah, these having been the most outspoken in their calumny, and they received the flogging prescribed by law.”

This is the story of Al-Ifk as narrated by ‘Ā’ishah. And in a different narration it says that when these Āyāt were revealed and Rasūlullāhﷺ told her the news, the mother of ‘Ā’ishah told her, “Go and walk up to Rasūlullāhﷺ and thank him.” She said, “No, I will not. I am going to only thank Allāh.” So she was still a bit upset!

12.5.1 Āyāt Revealed in Defence of ‘Ā’ishah

We will recite the Āyāt that were revealed Inshā’Allāhu Ta‘ālā, and these Āyāt are in Sūrah An-Nūr. Allāh  says:

Indeed, those who came with falsehood are a group among you. Do not think it bad for you; rather it is good for you. For every person among them is what [punishment] he has earned from the sin, and he who took upon himself the greater portion thereof – for him is a great punishment. Why, when you heard it, did not the Believing men and Believing women think good of one another and say, “This is an obvious falsehood”? Why did they [who slandered] not produce for it four witnesses? And when they do not produce the witnesses, then it is they, in the sight of Allāh, who are the liars. And if it had not been for the favour of Allāh upon you and His mercy in this world and the Hereafter, you would have been touched for that [lie] in which you were involved by a great punishment. When you received it with your tongues and said with your mouths that of which you had no knowledge and thought it was insignificant while it was, in the sight of Allāh, tremendous. And why, when you heard it, did you not say, “It is not for us to speak of this. Exalted are You, [O Allāh]; this is a great slander”? Allāh warns you against returning to the likes of this [conduct], ever, if you should be Believers. And Allāh makes clear to you the verses, and Allāh is Knowing and Wise. Indeed, those who like that immorality should be spread [or publicised] among those who have believed will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allāh knows and you do not know. And if it had not been for the favour of Allāh upon you and His mercy… and because Allāh is Kind and Merciful. O you who have believed, do not follow the footsteps of Satan. And whoever follows the footsteps of Satan – indeed, he enjoins immorality and wrongdoing. And if not for the favour of Allāh upon you and His mercy, not one of you would have been pure, ever, but Allāh purifies whom He wills, and Allāh is Hearing and Knowing. And let not those of virtue among you and wealth swear not to give [aid] to their relatives and the needy and the emigrants for the cause of Allāh, and let them pardon and overlook. Would you not like that Allāh should forgive you? And Allāh is Forgiving and Merciful. Indeed, those who [falsely] accuse chaste, unaware and Believing women are cursed in this world and the Hereafter; and they will have a great punishment. On a Day when their tongues, their hands and their feet will bear witness against them as to what they used to do. That Day, Allāh will pay them in full their deserved recompense, and they will know that it is Allāh who is the perfect in justice. An-Nūr: 12 25

Allāhu Akbar! Subhān’Allāh. ‘Ā’ishah said, “I thought of myself too insignificant for Allāh to reveal Āyāt about me,” and all of these Āyāt were revealed in defence of ‘Ā’ishah.

12.5.2 Lessons from the Story of ‘Ā’ishah

Lesson One: Accusing Muslim Woman or Man of Zinā’ is a Major Sin: Accusing a Muslim woman or man of Zinā’ is a major sin; accusing ‘Ā’ishah is Kufr, because Allāh starts the Āyāt by saying: Indeed, those who came with falsehood are a group among you. SoAllāh called it falsehood, Allāh called it a lie, so if somebody accuses ‘Ā’ishah of that, then they are actually saying that Qur’ān is untrue, so that is Kufr.

Lesson Two: There is Good that Came Out of this Evil: There is good that came out of this evil. Allāh said: Do not think it bad for you; rather it is good for you. We learned all of the Ādāb of dealing with such issues from this incident. Yes, ‘Ā’ishah  and the family of Abū Bakr suffered, but the Ummah learned a lot, and the family of Abū Bakr, because of that suffering they went through, they earned a lot of Hasanāt because of their patience. So there was good in it for the Ummah and for the family of Abū Bakr.

Lesson Three: Muslims Should Care for Reputation of Other Muslims and Think Good of them: Muslims should care for the reputation of other Muslims and think good of them. This is one of the Ādāb that is lost today; Muslims slander each other, they talk bad about each other, and sometimes you find good brothers and sisters, but they become happy when they hear bad news about so and so. Just because they do not like them or they do not agree with them, they are happy when they hear evil things about them. Allāh said: Why, when you heard it, did not the Believing men and Believing women think good of one another? ‘Ā’ishah is a Muslim like you so you need to think good of her, and this lesson applies to every Muslim. And Allāh says: …and say, “This is an obvious falsehood”? Youshould assume the best about your Muslim brother or sister, and Allāh is saying that you should accuse this rumour, accuse this lie going on, as being a lie.

Lesson Four: We Should Not Carry Rumours Around: We should not carry rumours around. Allāh said: And why, when you heard it, did you not say, “It is not for us to speak of this. Exalted are You, [O Allāh]; this is a great slander?” Muslims should have no time for this nonsense. We should not go around listening to this heresy and spread it around, even join and participate with the ones who are spreading such lies. So it is not proper for the Believers to be involved in this stuff; a Muslim is serious about his Religion and about spending his time wisely in Dunyā, we do not have time for this.

Lesson Five: It Should Never Happen Again: It should never happen again. Allāh says: Allāh warns you against returning to the likes of this [conduct], ever, if you should be Believers. If you believe in Allāh, then you should not return to such conduct again.

Lesson Six: We Should Not Talk about Such Stuff and Spread it: We should not talk about such stuff and spread it, and this is talking about all stories of immorality. You see, sometimes brothers or sisters would get together and talk about the Fasād that is in the Ummah, and they would bring up all of these examples of it and it would go beyond what is necessary to make the point. You want to talk about there being Fasād in the Ummah? Fine, you could give examples about it, but sometimes you feel that there is this desire of talking about these stories, these stories of immorality, you know, there is some attraction; some people have this attraction to such stories and they just love talking about them. Allāh says: Indeed, those who like that immorality should be spread [or publicised] among those who have believed will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allāh knows and you do not know. Sothis is like, ‘Oh,you know, what is happening in that mall? You know, the Muslim kids go there and Muslim sisters go there and this happens, and you know they go to night clubs and they drink and all of this Fasād is happening.’ And sometimes it is not to make a point that there is Fasād, this is just to fulfil this desire or lust of talking about this stuff, and that is a very dangerous thing, that is Waswasah from Shaitān.

If there is some evil going on in a certain community and no one knows about it, sometimes it is better for the community, especially when it comes to these stories of immorality of Zinā’, adultery, and boyfriend or girlfriend stories, because the more we talk about this stuff the more we start believing that the community is corrupt, and if we have that mind-set, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So it is better for us to assume that no, things are fine, things are good, and thus, if this belief is common among everyone, then the young brothers and young sisters would not want to break that, but if everyone assumes that well everything is broken, everything is destroyed, then they would try to grow up and fulfil what they believe the community is.

Now, with this issue, there is a fine line between when it is considered to be spreading stories and publicising stories of immorality and when it is forbidding evil, so you want to strike a balance; you do not want to fool yourself into believing that everything is fine. I do not want these words of mine to be taken out of context to mean that no, we should just hush-hush everything and pretend that everything is OK; that is not what I meant, but what I mean is that one should not exaggerate and one should not go to extreme lengths of talking about this stuff, one should only talk about it as is necessary.

Lesson Seven: Overlook Mistakes: This Mustah who was talking bad about ‘Ā’ishah  was a poor man, and Abū Bakr was the one who was taking care of his financial needs. So when Abū Bakr knew that this particular man was the one talking about his daughter ‘Ā’ishah, Abū Bakr was upset and he stopped spending money on him, so Allāh said: And let not those of virtue among you and wealth swear not to give [aid] to their relatives and the needy and the emigrants for the cause of Allāh, and let them pardon and overlook. Would you not like that Allāh should forgive you? And Allāh is Forgiving and Merciful. SoAllāh is saying over here that you should overlook; it was a mistake, they did not know the Hukm of it yet, so pardon them.

Lesson Eight: Allāh is Jealous about the Reputation of Muslims: Allāh says: Indeed, those who [falsely] accuse chaste, unaware and Believing women are cursed in this world and the Hereafter; and they will have a great punishment. Soyou can see that it is a serious crime to accuse a Muslim woman with adultery. Now, even though the Āyāt is talking about women, but the exact same ruling applies to [both] women and men. The reason why the Āyah mentions women, even though men are included, is because it is even worse when it is about women, but it does not mean that it is okay to slander men. Allāh says: Indeed, those who [falsely] accuse chaste, unaware and Believing women are cursed in this world and the Hereafter; and they will have a great punishment. On a Day when their tongues, their hands and their feet will bear witness against them as to what they used to do. That Day, Allāh will pay them in full their deserved recompense, and they will know that it is Allāh who is the perfect in justice. SoAllāh does not want Muslims to slander one another.

Lesson Nine: Muhammadﷺ was a Human Being and he Did Not Know the Unseen: Muhammadﷺ was a human being and he did not know the unseen. Rasūlullāhﷺ himself suffered the pain of having people talk about his wife for an entire month; this went on for a month. If Rasūlullāhﷺ knew about Al-Ghaib, he would know that ‘Ā’ishah was innocent, but he suffered just like Abū Bakr suffered, and the wife of Abū Bakr suffered, and this shows us the humanity of Rasūlullāhﷺ and that he went through what humans go through in this Dunyā, [he went through] the same feelings of human beings.

Lesson Ten: Ruling of Qadf and its Importance in Protecting the Muslim Community: If someone accuses a Muslim of Zinā’, adultery or fornication, they must produce four witnesses. If they do not, then they are flogged publicly 80 lashes, and they are labelled as Fāsiq, and their witness is not accepted. And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after. And those are the defiantly disobedient. An-Nūr: 4

Sothey are flogged, their witness is never accepted in court, and they are labelled as Fāsiq; they are considered to be Fāsiq, so it is a very serious thing, and the seriousness of the law reflects its objectives. This is to protect the Muslim community, and this shows you how dangerous slandering in issues of immorality is. So we need to be very careful, because now this ruling is not known, and sometimes people take this very lightly and they talk about ‘this sister and that brother, they did this and they did that’, when there is no proof about it and they do not realise that they are committing a major sin, just like drinking or a person himself committing Zinā’; this is a major sin and that is a major sin. So you are accusing someone of Zinā’ while you yourself, by accusing them of Zinā’, are committing an equal major sin.

Why ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ Was Not Flogged: Now, Hassān Bin Thābit and Mustah and Hamnah were flogged, but not ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ, even though it was ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ who was the one who was doing most in the effort of spreading this rumour. So how come he was not punished? Ibn Al -Qayyim gives us four possibilities; number one, because the punishment is a Kaffārah for the sin in Dunyā – it is a compensation for the sin in Dunyā, so a person who is punished for the sin in Dunyā will not be punished for it in Ākhirah, and since he is an evil man he does not deserve that, so Allāh reserved his punishment until Ākhirah. The second possibility is because probably he was only spreading the rumours and talking about it and doing it in a way where he could not be held responsible for it, so he was doing it in a clever way where he was clearing his tracks. The third possibility is that this punishment is only established through witnesses or through personal admission, and since he did not admit it, and since he would mention it in front of Munāfiqīn and they did not come forward and witness against him, there was no evidence in court. The fourth possibility is that he was not punished for a greater Maslahah; it is to bring his people closer to Islām and to avoid causing a Fitnah, and I want to note here, on this particular possibility, that it is difficult for this to be a valid possibility because if the evidence is established, then the punishment cannot be overruled; if the evidence is clear and firm, then a person must be punished, you cannot say, ‘Well, because of a certain Maslahah, he will not be punished.’ And then Ibn Al-Qayyim says that it could be all of the above.

Lesson Eleven: Enemies of Allāh Will Try to Assassinate Our Character: We see here that the enemies of Allāh will try to assassinate the character [i.e. the person] or will try to involve in character assassination. If they cannot assassinate the character then they will be involved in character assassination. They tried to assassinate Rasūlullāhﷺ, as we saw with Al-Yahūd, and since that failed, now they were involved in character assassination. And ‘Abdullāh Ibn Ubaÿ, the one who hated Rasūlullāhﷺ most, was carrying the brunt of that. So we need to keep that in mind, that the enemies of Allāh will always try to do this with our leaders, and this leads us to our next lesson.

Lesson Twelve: Importance of Protecting the Reputation of our Leaders: These stories have a special appeal and lure to them, and they easily spread and are easily accepted, and Subhān’Allāh, there is some magic to them and that is because of the Tazīn of Shaitān, so one needs to be very very careful, because the enemy of Allāh will try to design some very dangerous stories about the dangerous leaders of the Ummah, and we need to be very aware and not buy into these stories because definitely the enemies of Allāh  will try to do that; they did it with Rasūlullāhﷺ but it did not work because Allāh  was defending him, however, with the leaders of the Ummah now, no Āyāt will come in their defence, so it is the duty of the Ummah to do that and that is the whole purpose of us learning from the actual stories of the Sahābah. So this is an incident that happened; we need to learn the lesson from it and not allow it to happen again.

Āyāt of Sūrah An-Nūr were revealed talking about this issue; great lessons, very important lessons. We ask Allāh to make us of those who will benefit from them and follow them. Our next stop is the Battle of the Trench.