Lessons from Hijrah and Early Islam

Alright, so lessons, lessons from this Hijrah to Habesha. Number one, lesson number one, we learned from it, is that in the face of the da'wah, one's own family might be hurt because of the message that you're carrying. And so we saw in this example, Uthman radiallahu anhu, son-in-law of the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ's own daughter, Ja'far radiallahu anhu, these are like his direct family members, and they migrated to Habesha. They migrated to Habesha. Number two, second lesson, is the permissibility of leaving one's country and setting aside one's own family. seeking protection from non-Muslims. The permissibility of leaving one's country and seeking protection from non-Muslims, especially to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Right? So if a person is not able to worship Allah azza wa jal in their country, they can travel to another country where they are able to worship Allah azza wa jal. Right? But still in that other country, they're still standing up for justice. So an example of this, Abu Talib asked the Prophet ﷺ to desist from spreading the message. Abu Talib was was giving protection to the Prophet ﷺ, yet the Prophet ﷺ was willing to give up that protection if it meant that he would not be able to spread the message of Islam. Right? So understanding that, that this protection is so long as a person can worship Allah ﷻ and do their duty. Number three, you'll notice that the Muslims, they went to Abyssinia, the mushrikeen, they weren't happy that they had just left. It still bothered them that the Muslims were happy somewhere in the world. Right, so it's not that if you just go and try to seclude yourself that you know nothing's bad is going to happen to you Right so even if you go away They'll still come behind you and still try to make difficulties as they did for those Muslims So what the Muslim needs to do is not seclude themselves, but rather always spread the message of Islam We also learned that in their dawah to the non-muslims there and specific Christians in this they didn't butter up the message and Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala gave them that victory in Abyssinia because of that. They didn't butter up the message. They told it directly just like it was revealed in the Qur'an. And as I said earlier, you'll find a lot of strength in doing that rather than trying to find like some flowery words just to make people happy. Number five, you'll see the principle of shura. So before they went to speak to a najashi, they went prepared and they discussed it amongst themselves. And they had a uniform. unifying voice as well. It was just one person speaking. It wasn't everyone giving their opinions and so on and so forth. So they did shura, they came to a conclusion, and then they executed that conclusion perfectly. You know, when you do shura, and then after shura is complete, and now you have like, you're moving as one voice, there's a lot of power in that. If you have, right in the middle of doing action, I've noticed this in Islamic organization, as the action moves forward, at some point, shaitan starts playing games, someone gets a difference of a opinion inside the organization and they're like, I don't agree with this. And then they want to take the organization, they're like, they basically like you're walking with someone holding hands, holding hands, and then they sit down. And they're like, I don't think we should be walking. So now instead of the organization moving forward, now they have to deal with some internal thing, which is this guy that sat down, now we have to deal with the person who sat down. So there's not like this unifying like leadership and so on and so forth in such a case. A lot of times when I hire someone for a Maghrib Institute, this is like a lesson for you guys in like your Tao organizations. I'll put in the contract that I'm not requiring this IT person to be my mufti, okay? So meaning that if we're going we're going to do something for al-Maghrib, and let's say we're hiring some guy to change the website, I'm like, I'm not going to seek your fatwa every time I want to do something. And what I mean by that is sometimes some guy is doing an IT, and then he disagrees with something that's on the website. And then he sits down. And then we have to bring all the shiuch and try to convince this guy if we come to his feet and say, please let us, you know what I mean? That's not the type of workers that we hire. He said, the fatwa, if we're going to seek fatwa, we'll seek fatwa from the shiuch. Please understand your position. and we're not asking you. And if someone did play that game in the beginning, like if the person doesn't agree to something like that, then, you know what I mean, go start your own organization, buddy. And subhanAllah, here's another footnote to that. A lot of people, they don't pay attention to who's volunteering. They basically say, who would like to volunteer? And whoever raises their hand, bismillah, let's go. If you get to another level in your da'wah, you can actually pick and choose who volunteers and who doesn't volunteer. And you actually interview them and choose and select the proper people. Once you get a stronger team, you can go further inshaAllah ta'ala. Another lesson that you see, Amr ibn al-Aas tried to make the Muslims seem safe. scary, demonize them as we say. Three techniques that he used. Number one was he used fear. So he told the Najashi that, you know what, they're dividing in our families. They're, you know, hoodlums. They make mischief and they're like, you know, criminals and so on. So he used fear. He was trying to scare him. Number two is he used misconceptions, right? So he say, oh, ask them what they say about, you know, Jesus and so on. Using misconceptions as well. And number three, he used materialism. Those were the gifts that he gave to Najashi and the priests. So this is like, look, here's some economic benefit to you. If you just give them over, you know, here's like a bribe. Take this, take this gift, take that. These are the techniques. There's also like a fourth technique. It didn't happen here, but this is a typical technique of... the people of falsehood against the people of truth, is using mockery. Using mockery as a technique to influence the masses. If they can mock the Muslims and ridicule them, everybody starts laughing, and then nobody takes those... Muslims seriously. You also see in this that in the example of Najash and the example of Jaffa and the example of Muslims, they were willing to please Allah even if the human beings would be angry. Even if a human being gets angry, so long as a person is seeking the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then that's what they need to do. And we see that the result is this, that if a person seeks out the pleasure of Allah even though they might assume that the people get angry at them because of that, Allah becomes happy with that person and the humans become happy with that person as well. Humans become happy with that person. I'll give you the example. Let's say you're in a university class. Two brothers or two sisters and one of them is going to pray Salah and everybody's going to see them. And the other one says, no, I'm embarrassed. You know, if everybody sees me, they'll ridicule me and so on and so forth. So let's say these two brothers, the one says, I don't care. Even if the people are displeased with me, I'm still going to pray. So he goes outside, maybe even... even during exam time, I've seen brothers do this as well. It's exam time, they ask permission to go pray Maghrib, the teacher that's supervising the exam says, no, you can't leave. He says, well, then I'm going to have to pray here. And the teacher's like, that's okay, you can go and pray. So in front of the whole class, basically this person has permission to pray in front of the whole class. 200, 300 people, they're in the middle of exam, they're staring at this guy doing his salah. The other guy's too embarrassed to pray. All right, so he... he decides to disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala instead. So now, what's the conclusion? What do you think would be the conclusion? The person who prayed, all the guys and girls surround him after, and they're like, what are you doing? That's so cool. We're so proud of you, standing up for your principles. Tell us more about Islam. Basically, they pump him up onto a pedestal and carry him out. The guy who didn't pray is still a jerk like he was before. He was a jerk before. He's still a jerk. And so if a person seeks out the pleasure of Allah, even if it entails the anger of the people, and believe me, most of the time, the people aren't going to be angry. They'll just be like, what are you doing? That's like all they're going to do. Visual doubt. Okay, here's the good news. Good news. Najashi became Muslim, right? You guys know that. Here's something that my guess is a lot of you might not know. Amr ibn al-As also became Muslim during this event. So in this argument, Amr ibn al-As And I've been like holding back to say Just so it doesn't mess up the story Amr ibn al-As He went back to Mecca And actually when He gave da'wah to Amr ibn al-As And told him about the truth And what the Muslims were saying was the truth And so on and so forth Islam entered his heart Now he still fought the Prophet For years after that But eventually he became Muslim And the seeds of him coming Muslim happened during this event. And so the Muslims had stood up and they said the truth and look at how much barakah came to them because they stood up for their principles. There was a woman in Habesha by the name of Umm Habiba. Her husband died in Habesha and from a distance the Prophet ﷺ married her. So Umm Habiba is one of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and it shows you that the Prophet ﷺ was following their news. All these years they've following it, her husband died, and the Prophet ﷺ from a distance married Umm Habibah, and then she traveled, and she was with the Prophet ﷺ in Medina. Allah Ta'ala Alam. Alright. The Pledge of Allegiance. So now in these three years, after like the 10th year, you have the 11th, 12th, and the Hijrah happening in like the 13th year, the Prophet ﷺ was now seeking another place. As a foundation to spread this message of Islam. The people of Mecca hadn't accepted the message of Islam, now the Prophet ﷺ was searching for someone else. There was the option of Habesha, but firstly it was like the Prophet ﷺ went to Al-Ta'if to see if they would carry the message of Islam and they rejected. And subhanAllah, whoever would accept from the Prophet ﷺ, that would be the Medina. That would be the Medina. And of course, it was the tribes of the Aus and Khazraj that accepted the message of the Prophet ﷺ. The Aus and Khazraj... These two tribes that lived in Medina At that time it was called Yathrib And the term Yathrib actually is a name That the Prophet ﷺ disliked So sometimes, you know, some guy comes to me And he's like, I got this really cool website It's called Yathrib.com And I'm like, no brother, you need to get rid of that one Because the Prophet ﷺ said There's a hadith, he said يَقُولُونَ يَثْرِبُ وَهُوَ الْمَدِينَةِ He said, they call it Yathrib But it is Medina And so it's a name that the Prophet ﷺ disliked And he changed the name Yathrib Yathrib to Medina. And there's other names for it, Tayba, Taba, and so on. So, these two tribes, the Elsin Khazars, they lived amongst the Jews in Medina. Right? They lived amongst the Jews in Medina, and the Jews, in their scriptures, they're very knowledgeable of the scriptures, it says in the scriptures that a prophet will come at the end of times. These are his characteristics, such and such. And we studied this actually in the Breach of Covenant class, the previous class that we taught, Tafsir Surah Al-Baqarah, they used to make du'a. Dua against the Aws and Khazraj tribe And they would say Oh Allah support us against The Aws and Khazraj Help us to destroy the Aws and Khazraj With the Prophet that is to be sent at the end of time This is like the Dua And they knew the Prophet As Allah Azza wa Jalla said Just like someone would know their own child They knew the Prophet And his characteristics So the Aws and Khazraj When they came to Mecca And they'd come and perform Hajj They would say They would see the Prophet ﷺ and they recognized that the person that the Jews were speaking about, this was the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. This was him. He was claiming to have revelation from God and all of the qualities that they heard from the Jews, they now recognize it in the Prophet ﷺ. So this statement here, which they came to the Prophet ﷺ with, they said, we've left our community for no tribe. It's so divided by hatred and rancor as they are. Allah may cement our ties through you, so let us go and invite them to this religion of yours. And if Allah unites them in it, no man will be dearer than you. So these are the Aus and Khazraj. These two tribes, they hated each other the most. And amongst the Jewish tribes as well, the Jewish tribes are kind of like running, you know, one Jewish tribe was, you know, was friends with like, you know, the Aus, and the other Jewish tribe was friends with the Khazraj. And they would just like run them. And the Aus and Khazraj were always getting into fights. It didn't take too much to provoke them. All it would be like, remember that time? And they would just get angry and they'd start fighting. This is before Islam came to them. And so they came, there's two pledges that happened with the Prophet ﷺ. Again, this is in Hajj time. Hajj time, Mecca, one of the names of Mecca is Umm al-Qura. Umm al-Qura. The mother of like all valleys. And Medina actually, there's a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said, أُمِرْتُ بِقَرْيَةٍ تَأْكُلُ الْقُرَى I was commanded to migrate to a valley or to a place that will eat all the other places. يَقُولُونَ يَثْرِبُهُمْ الْمَدِينَةِ And it's Medina. So now you have, so they came in Hajj time, when people would come for Hajj, all these people would come from different areas and they would, you know, during Hajj, the Prophet ﷺ would give them the message of Islam. Tell them, لا إله إلا الله تُفلحوا and you'll be successful. And the Prophet ﷺ said, who will support me until I fulfill this message of my Lord and give it to the people. And so, so many of the people would reject the Prophet ﷺ when the Al-Sin Khazraj saw the Prophet ﷺ and they recognized him. Based on what the Jews had told them, they accepted the message of Islam. You know what's something interesting about Mecca as well? If you look at a map, you know they'll say Mecca is the center of the earth. Now, I thought to myself, anywhere you stand on earth is the center of the earth, right? But there's more to it than that. Why do they call it the Middle East? The Middle East is because if you look at all the different countries, and most of them surround Mecca, right? So you're talking about, like, say you have, like, Russia, you have Africa, you have Europe, all of these countries surrounding right in the middle is Mecca. From all directions, if you just step back and look at the map, they're all... all going into Mecca. And if you take another location and say, oh, if the Kaaba was like, say, in Australia, right? Australia is like, you know, in the middle of nowhere. Or even in like North America, it's like, it's still in the middle, nobody has access to it. But if you look at Mecca... It's such a strategic position in the world. And that's where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decided to put His Ka'bah. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So they came the first time, and they pledged allegiance with the Prophet ﷺ. And then... Then Mus'ab ibn Umair radiallahu ta'ala anhu, the Prophet ﷺ sent him to Medina with the Khazraj tribes. And he went to Medina to teach the people about Islam. Basically to prepare and condition the area. So the Prophet ﷺ, also part of the strategy, he didn't just, you know, like these few people accept Islam. And then he just went to Medina and now he has to deal with everybody. He had someone go there and teach the people about Islam. So Mus'ab radiallahu ta'ala anhu, He was like that delegate to Medina. When he went to Medina, you know, on his own, the people of Medina, they were starting to get very angry and agitated that someone was coming here, spreading this message of Islam. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, who later became Muslim, but he was a chief in Medina. And he heard that Mus'ab was going around spreading these beliefs and stuff like that and causing to divide families. So Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, he's a chief. And like we said... the Arabs, they're going to choose the most courageous of people. He took out his sword, he went to Mus'ab, and said to him, you either desist from what you're speaking about, or I'm going to kill you. And now when they say, I'm going to kill you, what do they mean? You know, like when we say, man, I'll kill you. What does that mean? It means I'm just a talker. But they have swords, and when they say, I'm going to kill you, they mean it. Meaning like, you tick them off in the wrong direction. And all these battles, battles that have taken place. They've killed many people before. And they were going to kill Mus'ab radiallahu anhu. Mus'ab radiallahu anhu said a beautiful statement to him. He said, even though this person is coming to kill him, he said, أَوَلَا تَجْلِسْ فَتَسْمَعْ فَإِن رَضِيْتَكُمْ أمرنا قبلته وإن كرهته كففنا عنك ما تكره He said to him In the most sweetest Even if you hear it in Arabic It's how you would welcome A mihman It's how you'd welcome your guest to your house. أَوَّلَا تَجْلِسْ Like, would you care to have a seat and listen? And I'm trying to find some nice words in English. English isn't like that. Right? Would you care to sit down and listen? فَإِنَّ رَبَّكُمْ If what I'm going to, you know, our affair, if it pleases you, you're welcome to accept it. And if it displeases you, if you dislike it, We will hold back from that. that which you dislike. So what do you think Sa'ad radiallahu anhu did at that point? He put his sword back in the sheath and he sat down. And now he's getting da'wah from Mus'ab ibn Umair. Right? And he's listening. And the more Mus'ab is explaining about the Prophet ﷺ and what he's coming with and the message that he came and to worship Allah alone and saying the message, Sa'ad's face, Sa'ad ibn Umair, his face started illuminating. And he was getting... getting more excited and more excited until his face became like a full moon of brightness illuminated and then at the end his question, it's like question time his question is this, you know the question he brings up, what does one need to do in order to become Muslim and Mus'ab radiallahu anhu says to him he's like, well take a bath and then you say your shahada and so Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh radiallahu anhu, he said Sayyidina Sa'ad Sa'd ibn Mu'adh radiallahu anhu, he took a bath, he gave a shahada, and then he went out to the people, he went out to his tribe, and he said, what is my position amongst you? They said, you're our chief, you're the son of our chief, and so on. He said, verily all of you, you know, all of you are haram upon you until you believe in Allah alone and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And they say that night, everybody in Medina went to sleep as a Muslim. So Mus'ab ibn Umair, in his beautiful da'wah techniques, this is a person basically, like sometimes... you'll be treated aggressively, right? Someone will shout at you in the street and so on and so forth. It's a da'wah opportunity. How many people recognize it as a da'wah opportunity? But it is. Someone is being aggressive with you to turn that around and guide that person to Islam. And so the area had been prepared for the Prophet ﷺ. The next year, the Pledge of Allegiance took place. This is the statement of al-Abbas. رضي الله عنه In the second year, basically, Basically, it's like... During Hajj, and they went during the night because they didn't want the Mushrikeen to see them. They went during the night and they gathered with the Prophet ﷺ, and presenting the Prophet ﷺ was his uncle, al-Abbas, radiallahu anhu. And he made this statement to the aws... and Khazraj and he said to them, O people of the Khazraj, you all know the position that Muhammad holds amongst us. We have protected him from our people as much as we could. He is honored and respected amongst his people. He refuses to join any party except yours. you think that you can carry out what you promise while inviting him to your town, and if you can defend him against the enemies, then assume the burden that you've taken. But if you're going to surrender him and betray him after having taken him with you, you had better leave him now because he is respected and well defended in his own place. This is a statement of Al-Abbas radiallahu anhu. This is what was involved in the Pledge of Allegiance. What were they pledging allegiance to? Basically, that they would listen and obey the Prophet's advice. said, Allah is in all circumstances. So a key point here is the Prophet, said, Allah is in him, wasn't just traveling to Medina. He was traveling to become their leader. Okay. It's a key difference. He's not just going to Medina. And then later on they say, Hey, why don't you be our Imam? And there's like, okay. And so on. No, he's entering from day one as the leader of Medina from day one. So part of the promise there, their pledge, the Prophet, said, Allah is in him, is to listen and obey in all circumstances. Why does it say This is another side point Why is it always To listen and obey Because some people don't listen Right You know they're not attending They're not listening They're always closing their ears And so on and so forth Some people listen But they don't obey And then there are others Who listen and obey Right So they've listened to the commandment Of the Prophet ﷺ And they follow those commandments Of the Prophet ﷺ In all circumstances They would spend in plenty as well well as in scarcity. So no matter what the financial situation would be in Medina, they would still give for the sake of the dawah. Number three, to enjoy the good and forbid the evil. Number four is in the path of Allah, they would not fear the criticism of any criticizer. That's number four, which is a critical one as well. Because remember we said at the bottom of people's intention is to get love of other human beings, right? So now part of the pledge of allegiance is that they will use human love. you know, of one another, they will criticize you, they will mock you, they will put you down for following this path. And so in the path of Allah, you will fear no criticism of any criticizer. And they pledged allegiance to that. Number five, to defend the Prophet ﷺ in case he seeks their help and protect him from anything that they protect themselves, their spouses and their children. So basically, if they were going to protect their wives and protect their children, whatever they would protect their wives and children from, they would protect the Prophet ﷺ in the same way. from any army. So basically, if an army came and was attacking Medina, they're never going to say, oh yeah, you can take the Prophet ﷺ. Just like they would never give up their women, nobody's ever giving up their wives and their mothers and so on to anybody. They're never going to give up their children to anybody. Similarly, they would never give up the Prophet ﷺ in the exact same way that they would never give up their wives and their children. So they said in response, they said, if we do this, we agree to this, basically we will have to go to war with all the Arab tribes. They'll probably lose all their money and they'll go to war with all the Arab tribes. And so they said to the Prophet ﷺ, if we do this, what will we get in return? And the Prophet ﷺ said, you will get Jannah. What did the Ansar say in response? They said, sounds good. And they pledged allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ. It's actually interesting, in their pledge of allegiance, the contract is being written and this is what they're pledging allegiance to. One of the Ansar said to the Prophet ﷺ that, you know, we... will defend you against anyone except the Persians. Those crazy Iranians. Except that we can't fight the Persians. Nobody can fight the Persians. And the prophet... So they were saying, we will defend against everybody, but the Arabs, they never fought with the Persians. The Byzantines, they didn't. Those are like the Romans, the Europeans. They're not that big a deal. But the Persians, nobody touches the Persians. They're crazy. So the Prophet said, Allah... Any Persians here? The Prophet said, Allah said to them in response, that this deen... Okay, the statement of the Prophet ﷺ was, إِنَّ دِينَ اللَّهُ لَنْ يَنْصُرَهُ إِلَّا مَنْ حَاطَهُ مِنْ جَمِيعِ الْجَوَانِبِ The Prophet ﷺ said that the deen of Allah, the religion of Allah, cannot be championed except by someone who protects it from all directions. And so when the Prophet ﷺ said that, then they agreed, they said, yes, even against the Persians, we will defend you. بِاللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمُ And that was the Pledge of Allegiance.

Number two, second lesson, is the permissibility of leaving one's country and setting aside one's own family. seeking protection from non-Muslims. The permissibility of leaving one's country and seeking protection from non-Muslims, especially to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Right? So if a person is not able to worship Allah azza wa jal in their country, they can travel to another country where they are able to worship Allah azza wa jal. Right? But still in that other country, they're still standing up for justice. So an example of this, Abu Talib asked the Prophet ﷺ to desist from spreading the message.

Abu Talib was was giving protection to the Prophet ﷺ, yet the Prophet ﷺ was willing to give up that protection if it meant that he would not be able to spread the message of Islam. Right? So understanding that, that this protection is so long as a person can worship Allah ﷻ and do their duty. Number three, you'll notice that the Muslims, they went to Abyssinia, the mushrikeen, they weren't happy that they had just left. It still bothered them that the Muslims were happy somewhere in the world.

Right, so it's not that if you just go and try to seclude yourself that you know nothing's bad is going to happen to you Right so even if you go away They'll still come behind you and still try to make difficulties as they did for those Muslims So what the Muslim needs to do is not seclude themselves, but rather always spread the message of Islam We also learned that in their dawah to the non-muslims there and specific Christians in this they didn't butter up the message and Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala gave them that victory in Abyssinia because of that. They didn't butter up the message. They told it directly just like it was revealed in the Qur'an. And as I said earlier, you'll find a lot of strength in doing that rather than trying to find like some flowery words just to make people happy.

Number five, you'll see the principle of shura. So before they went to speak to a najashi, they went prepared and they discussed it amongst themselves. And they had a uniform. unifying voice as well.

It was just one person speaking. It wasn't everyone giving their opinions and so on and so forth. So they did shura, they came to a conclusion, and then they executed that conclusion perfectly. You know, when you do shura, and then after shura is complete, and now you have like, you're moving as one voice, there's a lot of power in that. If you have, right in the middle of doing action, I've noticed this in Islamic organization, as the action moves forward, at some point, shaitan starts playing games, someone gets a difference of a opinion inside the organization and they're like, I don't agree with this.

And then they want to take the organization, they're like, they basically like you're walking with someone holding hands, holding hands, and then they sit down. And they're like, I don't think we should be walking. So now instead of the organization moving forward, now they have to deal with some internal thing, which is this guy that sat down, now we have to deal with the person who sat down. So there's not like this unifying like leadership and so on and so forth in such a case.

A lot of times when I hire someone for a Maghrib Institute, this is like a lesson for you guys in like your Tao organizations. I'll put in the contract that I'm not requiring this IT person to be my mufti, okay? So meaning that if we're going we're going to do something for al-Maghrib, and let's say we're hiring some guy to change the website, I'm like, I'm not going to seek your fatwa every time I want to do something.

And what I mean by that is sometimes some guy is doing an IT, and then he disagrees with something that's on the website. And then he sits down. And then we have to bring all the shiuch and try to convince this guy if we come to his feet and say, please let us, you know what I mean?

That's not the type of workers that we hire. He said, the fatwa, if we're going to seek fatwa, we'll seek fatwa from the shiuch. Please understand your position. and we're not asking you.

And if someone did play that game in the beginning, like if the person doesn't agree to something like that, then, you know what I mean, go start your own organization, buddy. And subhanAllah, here's another footnote to that. A lot of people, they don't pay attention to who's volunteering. They basically say, who would like to volunteer? And whoever raises their hand, bismillah, let's go.

If you get to another level in your da'wah, you can actually pick and choose who volunteers and who doesn't volunteer. And you actually interview them and choose and select the proper people. Once you get a stronger team, you can go further inshaAllah ta'ala.

Another lesson that you see, Amr ibn al-Aas tried to make the Muslims seem safe. scary, demonize them as we say. Three techniques that he used.

Number one was he used fear. So he told the Najashi that, you know what, they're dividing in our families. They're, you know, hoodlums. They make mischief and they're like, you know, criminals and so on. So he used fear.

He was trying to scare him. Number two is he used misconceptions, right? So he say, oh, ask them what they say about, you know, Jesus and so on. Using misconceptions as well.

And number three, he used materialism. Those were the gifts that he gave to Najashi and the priests. So this is like, look, here's some economic benefit to you. If you just give them over, you know, here's like a bribe. Take this, take this gift, take that.

These are the techniques. There's also like a fourth technique. It didn't happen here, but this is a typical technique of...

the people of falsehood against the people of truth, is using mockery. Using mockery as a technique to influence the masses. If they can mock the Muslims and ridicule them, everybody starts laughing, and then nobody takes those... Muslims seriously. You also see in this that in the example of Najash and the example of Jaffa and the example of Muslims, they were willing to please Allah even if the human beings would be angry.

Even if a human being gets angry, so long as a person is seeking the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then that's what they need to do. And we see that the result is this, that if a person seeks out the pleasure of Allah even though they might assume that the people get angry at them because of that, Allah becomes happy with that person and the humans become happy with that person as well. Humans become happy with that person. I'll give you the example.

Let's say you're in a university class. Two brothers or two sisters and one of them is going to pray Salah and everybody's going to see them. And the other one says, no, I'm embarrassed.

You know, if everybody sees me, they'll ridicule me and so on and so forth. So let's say these two brothers, the one says, I don't care. Even if the people are displeased with me, I'm still going to pray. So he goes outside, maybe even... even during exam time, I've seen brothers do this as well.

It's exam time, they ask permission to go pray Maghrib, the teacher that's supervising the exam says, no, you can't leave. He says, well, then I'm going to have to pray here. And the teacher's like, that's okay, you can go and pray. So in front of the whole class, basically this person has permission to pray in front of the whole class. 200, 300 people, they're in the middle of exam, they're staring at this guy doing his salah.

The other guy's too embarrassed to pray. All right, so he... he decides to disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala instead. So now, what's the conclusion?

What do you think would be the conclusion? The person who prayed, all the guys and girls surround him after, and they're like, what are you doing? That's so cool. We're so proud of you, standing up for your principles.

Tell us more about Islam. Basically, they pump him up onto a pedestal and carry him out. The guy who didn't pray is still a jerk like he was before.

He was a jerk before. He's still a jerk. And so if a person seeks out the pleasure of Allah, even if it entails the anger of the people, and believe me, most of the time, the people aren't going to be angry.

They'll just be like, what are you doing? That's like all they're going to do. Visual doubt. Okay, here's the good news. Good news.

Najashi became Muslim, right? You guys know that. Here's something that my guess is a lot of you might not know. Amr ibn al-As also became Muslim during this event. So in this argument, Amr ibn al-As And I've been like holding back to say Just so it doesn't mess up the story Amr ibn al-As He went back to Mecca And actually when He gave da'wah to Amr ibn al-As And told him about the truth And what the Muslims were saying was the truth And so on and so forth Islam entered his heart Now he still fought the Prophet For years after that But eventually he became Muslim And the seeds of him coming Muslim happened during this event.

And so the Muslims had stood up and they said the truth and look at how much barakah came to them because they stood up for their principles. There was a woman in Habesha by the name of Umm Habiba. Her husband died in Habesha and from a distance the Prophet ﷺ married her.

So Umm Habiba is one of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and it shows you that the Prophet ﷺ was following their news. All these years they've following it, her husband died, and the Prophet ﷺ from a distance married Umm Habibah, and then she traveled, and she was with the Prophet ﷺ in Medina. Allah Ta'ala Alam. Alright. The Pledge of Allegiance.

So now in these three years, after like the 10th year, you have the 11th, 12th, and the Hijrah happening in like the 13th year, the Prophet ﷺ was now seeking another place. As a foundation to spread this message of Islam. The people of Mecca hadn't accepted the message of Islam, now the Prophet ﷺ was searching for someone else. There was the option of Habesha, but firstly it was like the Prophet ﷺ went to Al-Ta'if to see if they would carry the message of Islam and they rejected. And subhanAllah, whoever would accept from the Prophet ﷺ, that would be the Medina.

That would be the Medina. And of course, it was the tribes of the Aus and Khazraj that accepted the message of the Prophet ﷺ. The Aus and Khazraj...

These two tribes that lived in Medina At that time it was called Yathrib And the term Yathrib actually is a name That the Prophet ﷺ disliked So sometimes, you know, some guy comes to me And he's like, I got this really cool website It's called Yathrib.com And I'm like, no brother, you need to get rid of that one Because the Prophet ﷺ said There's a hadith, he said يَقُولُونَ يَثْرِبُ وَهُوَ الْمَدِينَةِ He said, they call it Yathrib But it is Medina And so it's a name that the Prophet ﷺ disliked And he changed the name Yathrib Yathrib to Medina. And there's other names for it, Tayba, Taba, and so on. So, these two tribes, the Elsin Khazars, they lived amongst the Jews in Medina. Right?

They lived amongst the Jews in Medina, and the Jews, in their scriptures, they're very knowledgeable of the scriptures, it says in the scriptures that a prophet will come at the end of times. These are his characteristics, such and such. And we studied this actually in the Breach of Covenant class, the previous class that we taught, Tafsir Surah Al-Baqarah, they used to make du'a. Dua against the Aws and Khazraj tribe And they would say Oh Allah support us against The Aws and Khazraj Help us to destroy the Aws and Khazraj With the Prophet that is to be sent at the end of time This is like the Dua And they knew the Prophet As Allah Azza wa Jalla said Just like someone would know their own child They knew the Prophet And his characteristics So the Aws and Khazraj When they came to Mecca And they'd come and perform Hajj They would say They would see the Prophet ﷺ and they recognized that the person that the Jews were speaking about, this was the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

This was him. He was claiming to have revelation from God and all of the qualities that they heard from the Jews, they now recognize it in the Prophet ﷺ. So this statement here, which they came to the Prophet ﷺ with, they said, we've left our community for no tribe.

It's so divided by hatred and rancor as they are. Allah may cement our ties through you, so let us go and invite them to this religion of yours. And if Allah unites them in it, no man will be dearer than you. So these are the Aus and Khazraj.

These two tribes, they hated each other the most. And amongst the Jewish tribes as well, the Jewish tribes are kind of like running, you know, one Jewish tribe was, you know, was friends with like, you know, the Aus, and the other Jewish tribe was friends with the Khazraj. And they would just like run them.

And the Aus and Khazraj were always getting into fights. It didn't take too much to provoke them. All it would be like, remember that time?

And they would just get angry and they'd start fighting. This is before Islam came to them. And so they came, there's two pledges that happened with the Prophet ﷺ.

Again, this is in Hajj time. Hajj time, Mecca, one of the names of Mecca is Umm al-Qura. Umm al-Qura.

The mother of like all valleys. And Medina actually, there's a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said, أُمِرْتُ بِقَرْيَةٍ تَأْكُلُ الْقُرَى I was commanded to migrate to a valley or to a place that will eat all the other places. يَقُولُونَ يَثْرِبُهُمْ الْمَدِينَةِ And it's Medina. So now you have, so they came in Hajj time, when people would come for Hajj, all these people would come from different areas and they would, you know, during Hajj, the Prophet ﷺ would give them the message of Islam.

Tell them, لا إله إلا الله تُفلحوا and you'll be successful. And the Prophet ﷺ said, who will support me until I fulfill this message of my Lord and give it to the people. And so, so many of the people would reject the Prophet ﷺ when the Al-Sin Khazraj saw the Prophet ﷺ and they recognized him. Based on what the Jews had told them, they accepted the message of Islam. You know what's something interesting about Mecca as well?

If you look at a map, you know they'll say Mecca is the center of the earth. Now, I thought to myself, anywhere you stand on earth is the center of the earth, right? But there's more to it than that.

Why do they call it the Middle East? The Middle East is because if you look at all the different countries, and most of them surround Mecca, right? So you're talking about, like, say you have, like, Russia, you have Africa, you have Europe, all of these countries surrounding right in the middle is Mecca.

From all directions, if you just step back and look at the map, they're all... all going into Mecca. And if you take another location and say, oh, if the Kaaba was like, say, in Australia, right? Australia is like, you know, in the middle of nowhere.

Or even in like North America, it's like, it's still in the middle, nobody has access to it. But if you look at Mecca... It's such a strategic position in the world.

And that's where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decided to put His Ka'bah. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So they came the first time, and they pledged allegiance with the Prophet ﷺ. And then... Then Mus'ab ibn Umair radiallahu ta'ala anhu, the Prophet ﷺ sent him to Medina with the Khazraj tribes.

And he went to Medina to teach the people about Islam. Basically to prepare and condition the area. So the Prophet ﷺ, also part of the strategy, he didn't just, you know, like these few people accept Islam.

And then he just went to Medina and now he has to deal with everybody. He had someone go there and teach the people about Islam. So Mus'ab radiallahu ta'ala anhu, He was like that delegate to Medina. When he went to Medina, you know, on his own, the people of Medina, they were starting to get very angry and agitated that someone was coming here, spreading this message of Islam. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, who later became Muslim, but he was a chief in Medina.

And he heard that Mus'ab was going around spreading these beliefs and stuff like that and causing to divide families. So Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, he's a chief. And like we said... the Arabs, they're going to choose the most courageous of people. He took out his sword, he went to Mus'ab, and said to him, you either desist from what you're speaking about, or I'm going to kill you.

And now when they say, I'm going to kill you, what do they mean? You know, like when we say, man, I'll kill you. What does that mean?

It means I'm just a talker. But they have swords, and when they say, I'm going to kill you, they mean it. Meaning like, you tick them off in the wrong direction.

And all these battles, battles that have taken place. They've killed many people before. And they were going to kill Mus'ab radiallahu anhu. Mus'ab radiallahu anhu said a beautiful statement to him. He said, even though this person is coming to kill him, he said, أَوَلَا تَجْلِسْ فَتَسْمَعْ فَإِن رَضِيْتَكُمْ أمرنا قبلته وإن كرهته كففنا عنك ما تكره He said to him In the most sweetest Even if you hear it in Arabic It's how you would welcome A mihman It's how you'd welcome your guest to your house.

أَوَّلَا تَجْلِسْ Like, would you care to have a seat and listen? And I'm trying to find some nice words in English. English isn't like that.

Right? Would you care to sit down and listen? فَإِنَّ رَبَّكُمْ If what I'm going to, you know, our affair, if it pleases you, you're welcome to accept it. And if it displeases you, if you dislike it, We will hold back from that. that which you dislike.

So what do you think Sa'ad radiallahu anhu did at that point? He put his sword back in the sheath and he sat down. And now he's getting da'wah from Mus'ab ibn Umair.

Right? And he's listening. And the more Mus'ab is explaining about the Prophet ﷺ and what he's coming with and the message that he came and to worship Allah alone and saying the message, Sa'ad's face, Sa'ad ibn Umair, his face started illuminating.

And he was getting... getting more excited and more excited until his face became like a full moon of brightness illuminated and then at the end his question, it's like question time his question is this, you know the question he brings up, what does one need to do in order to become Muslim and Mus'ab radiallahu anhu says to him he's like, well take a bath and then you say your shahada and so Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh radiallahu anhu, he said Sayyidina Sa'ad Sa'd ibn Mu'adh radiallahu anhu, he took a bath, he gave a shahada, and then he went out to the people, he went out to his tribe, and he said, what is my position amongst you? They said, you're our chief, you're the son of our chief, and so on.

He said, verily all of you, you know, all of you are haram upon you until you believe in Allah alone and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And they say that night, everybody in Medina went to sleep as a Muslim. So Mus'ab ibn Umair, in his beautiful da'wah techniques, this is a person basically, like sometimes...

you'll be treated aggressively, right? Someone will shout at you in the street and so on and so forth. It's a da'wah opportunity.

How many people recognize it as a da'wah opportunity? But it is. Someone is being aggressive with you to turn that around and guide that person to Islam.

And so the area had been prepared for the Prophet ﷺ. The next year, the Pledge of Allegiance took place. This is the statement of al-Abbas.

رضي الله عنه In the second year, basically, Basically, it's like... During Hajj, and they went during the night because they didn't want the Mushrikeen to see them. They went during the night and they gathered with the Prophet ﷺ, and presenting the Prophet ﷺ was his uncle, al-Abbas, radiallahu anhu.

And he made this statement to the aws... and Khazraj and he said to them, O people of the Khazraj, you all know the position that Muhammad holds amongst us. We have protected him from our people as much as we could.

He is honored and respected amongst his people. He refuses to join any party except yours. you think that you can carry out what you promise while inviting him to your town, and if you can defend him against the enemies, then assume the burden that you've taken.

But if you're going to surrender him and betray him after having taken him with you, you had better leave him now because he is respected and well defended in his own place. This is a statement of Al-Abbas radiallahu anhu. This is what was involved in the Pledge of Allegiance. What were they pledging allegiance to?

Basically, that they would listen and obey the Prophet's advice. said, Allah is in all circumstances. So a key point here is the Prophet, said, Allah is in him, wasn't just traveling to Medina.

He was traveling to become their leader. Okay. It's a key difference. He's not just going to Medina. And then later on they say, Hey, why don't you be our Imam?

And there's like, okay. And so on. No, he's entering from day one as the leader of Medina from day one. So part of the promise there, their pledge, the Prophet, said, Allah is in him, is to listen and obey in all circumstances.

Why does it say This is another side point Why is it always To listen and obey Because some people don't listen Right You know they're not attending They're not listening They're always closing their ears And so on and so forth Some people listen But they don't obey And then there are others Who listen and obey Right So they've listened to the commandment Of the Prophet ﷺ And they follow those commandments Of the Prophet ﷺ In all circumstances They would spend in plenty as well well as in scarcity. So no matter what the financial situation would be in Medina, they would still give for the sake of the dawah. Number three, to enjoy the good and forbid the evil. Number four is in the path of Allah, they would not fear the criticism of any criticizer. That's number four, which is a critical one as well.

Because remember we said at the bottom of people's intention is to get love of other human beings, right? So now part of the pledge of allegiance is that they will use human love. you know, of one another, they will criticize you, they will mock you, they will put you down for following this path.

And so in the path of Allah, you will fear no criticism of any criticizer. And they pledged allegiance to that. Number five, to defend the Prophet ﷺ in case he seeks their help and protect him from anything that they protect themselves, their spouses and their children. So basically, if they were going to protect their wives and protect their children, whatever they would protect their wives and children from, they would protect the Prophet ﷺ in the same way.

from any army. So basically, if an army came and was attacking Medina, they're never going to say, oh yeah, you can take the Prophet ﷺ. Just like they would never give up their women, nobody's ever giving up their wives and their mothers and so on to anybody. They're never going to give up their children to anybody. Similarly, they would never give up the Prophet ﷺ in the exact same way that they would never give up their wives and their children.

So they said in response, they said, if we do this, we agree to this, basically we will have to go to war with all the Arab tribes. They'll probably lose all their money and they'll go to war with all the Arab tribes. And so they said to the Prophet ﷺ, if we do this, what will we get in return?

And the Prophet ﷺ said, you will get Jannah. What did the Ansar say in response? They said, sounds good.

And they pledged allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ. It's actually interesting, in their pledge of allegiance, the contract is being written and this is what they're pledging allegiance to. One of the Ansar said to the Prophet ﷺ that, you know, we... will defend you against anyone except the Persians.

Those crazy Iranians. Except that we can't fight the Persians. Nobody can fight the Persians. And the prophet...

So they were saying, we will defend against everybody, but the Arabs, they never fought with the Persians. The Byzantines, they didn't. Those are like the Romans, the Europeans. They're not that big a deal. But the Persians, nobody touches the Persians.

They're crazy. So the Prophet said, Allah... Any Persians here?

The Prophet said, Allah said to them in response, that this deen... Okay, the statement of the Prophet ﷺ was, إِنَّ دِينَ اللَّهُ لَنْ يَنْصُرَهُ إِلَّا مَنْ حَاطَهُ مِنْ جَمِيعِ الْجَوَانِبِ The Prophet ﷺ said that the deen of Allah, the religion of Allah, cannot be championed except by someone who protects it from all directions. And so when the Prophet ﷺ said that, then they agreed, they said, yes, even against the Persians, we will defend you. بِاللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمُ And that was the Pledge of Allegiance.

Transcript for:Lessons from Hijrah and Early Islam

Transcript for:
Lessons from Hijrah and Early Islam