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