Seerah 001 – Intro Pt 1

Abdul Nasir Jangda

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You're listening to polam Institute podcast, visit us on the web at vollum institute.org. And join us on [email protected] slash column Institute smilo unhemmed Allah wa Salatu was Salam ala ala alihi wa sahbihi edge marine

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shala. From today we'll be starting a series on the Sierra the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

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To get started today in sha Allah, what I wanted to talk about is, as this is the tradition of scholars throughout the centuries from the past, that whenever they begin a topic, they begin a subject any type of a study, or any area of study, they always begin by providing somewhat of an introduction, what is this science? What is this study? And what are some of the basic things are the basic principles that need to be kept in mind when approaching this area of study? So we're approaching the study of the Sierra the life of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. And the very first thing that we have to understand is, what is Sierra? What does that even mean? What does it even

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refer to because a lot of times we can become so used to, we can become so comfortable with certain terminologies that we don't realize actually what it means or what it refers to. So Sierra itself the word Sierra, in the Arabic language linguistically, it literally means a path. It means a path where somebody walks a direction with somebody takes so to walk in a particular direction is seated, that's why Missy is walking, all right, or a path on which people walk like a sidewalk, a pathway. And so that's literally what car means. Now, it's used more figuratively in the meaning of referring to a person's life. A car refers to a person's life, the path somebody has walked the path that

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someone has traversed. So a path that somebody has gone in lived life in a direction of

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and and it's used oftentimes as a description as well. Like they would say in Arabic, Fulani, lucila to Hashanah, that such an such person he has a very beautiful life. He has a very excellent way of living life. And it's used in its linguistic meaning in the Koran as well. So Taha Allah subhanho wa Taala in ayah, number 21, from Surah number 20. Sort of da Allah subhanho wa Taala says, when talking to Musa alayhis salam remember when Allah subhanaw taala as musante some what's in your hand? Well, my tin can be Amina Kay, I'm also watching your right handle Moosa and he said he I saw Yeah, it's my staff. It's my stick my walking stick. And then he went on to describe it. Allah

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subhanaw taala commanded him. He said, out the Hayabusa, throw it down, let it go Moosa for alpha alpha he,

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he dropped in there become it became a rapidly moving snake or serpent. Then Allah subhanaw taala commanded in his heart, take it, grab it without the Huff, and don't be afraid. Similar Angel ha sido. Una, we very soon we'll return it to see what the what our uses, and Sera, Sera, we will return it back to its first Sierra, its first form, the first way the shape that it was. So literally your condition, the way you are, the way you live life, even your physical form, is a part of your CD ROM is a part of a person. So that's the linguistic meaning of the word seat associated, doesn't just mean that a person lives or when a person talks or walks, it includes those things, but

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even the way a person looks the way a person acts in all facets and aspects of that person's life that is all inclusive of that person see them? All right, so that's the literal the linguistic meaning of the word car. Now, in terms of more technical terminology, what does the word car refer to? What does it What does it mean? So again, the word seen over interestingly, is a literary term. It's a literary term. It's an Israelite, it's a mystery.

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It's a literary term. So like what we call biography literally translates to the word secret means biography. And there is sera shortsea. That's a biography of someone. The biography of a person is called Sierra Shazia. But they're also like an English we know we have autobiographies that in Arabic is called Sierra that he had a secret to that he has an autobiography. So it's a literary term, the word see it. Now you bring it down more. So there's literally, you know, there you there's every type of Syrah that you can imagine. All right, as many types of biographies there are, there are similarly that many types of Sita as well. So both specifically, what we're here to talk about

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is a signal to Nebo via the prophetic biography. And so what we're talking about is a sirata number. We are the prophetic biography. Now, when talking about the prophetic biography, what does that refer to what does that allude to? What does that include? What does that

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encompass. So the skeleton of a Ouija as described by the prophet by the scholars as defined by them is that it is much more in my world Elena min rapa Erie Hyatt in a biggie sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was fit

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well, more often in a half has a lot to do with Yahoo sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that the Syrah is everything, all of that which has come to us, which has been related to us from all of the occurrences of the life of the Prophet sallallahu, anything and everything that occurred related to in regards to or directly in connection to the life and times of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, some of the previous callers would refer to Sierra would define this hero by saying, men soon and he was a young he from his sin and from his practice, and from his days, meaning every single day of his life as a part of his Syrah. So all of that would be included within the Sierra of the Prophet

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sallallahu, alayhi wasallam.

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And all of his attributes all of his characteristics, whether they be healthy or healthier, meaning his physical descriptions are part of a car. His physical descriptions are part of a setup, but his mannerisms are also a part of his car. All of his campaigns, his expeditions, his military endeavors, his family life, his home life, everything is included within the era of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And sometimes when you look back at very early compilations, or references of the Sierra, they would oftentimes be referred to as alma huazi. Or Isaiah, like the Kitab mahasi of human body. So Imam Bukhari talks about the life of the prophets a lot easier by

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referencing an ASCII table mikaze, the book of the different military campaigns or expeditions of the prophets allottee. So in a lot of the ceto, would be included there. And, or you would have books like the casaya of a walk at a very, very early scholar by the name of rockety, he had a book or he had a collection of the references of the life of the prophet to love him and the title of Allah casaya, which is a plural level as well, which are the military expeditions. why that is, I'll explain a little bit later on the cello and talking a little bit about the early books of Sierra and the focus of Sierra that has existed within the Muslim Earth world throughout the generations.

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Now, the next thing that I wanted to talk about, which is where I think it's of the utmost importance, is why study sila that's very, very important. So, after scholars will talk about the definition of Sierra then what is the what is the technical understanding of what is Sierra then they will talk about what is the mole door of the Sierra meaning, what is the subject matter of the Sierra and that is self explanatory. As similar to number we had the study of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam. But now we reached reached the crucial critical question of why study Sera, why study Sierra and I present this question with a few basic,

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if you will, preconceived notions in mind. All right, Sierra is something that has been the subject of study since the very first day, the study of Sierra goes hand in hand with the study of the book of Allah, the study of the Quran, so it's been around from day one. And most of everybody here listening, watching, or listening to this later has probably come across Sierra in some capacity or another throughout their life. But I'm going to go ahead and present some of the preconceived notions we might have seen, or some of the history that you might have of 79 year old past, it has been presented to you in the form of various books, textbooks, even from early Sunday school, or

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what our children go through in terms of Sunday school, coming up through maybe some of the stuff that was instituted as part of the islamiat, as at some level of school education, or maybe you came across it later on as an adult study studying some type of a text, or some type of a manual that was written on the life of the Prophet ceylonese. Um, and that usually has unfortunately manifested itself in a couple of different unfortunate ways. Either number one, it's been a very dry study of just names, places, dates, basically, a collection of facts, is what it's been your number, this place number, this person number, so and so person such and such, and this incident happened, and

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then move on. So it's a very dry study of facts, names and places, all right, almost like a timeline. Or it's been presented in a way in a fashion where maybe it's been told in a story format, which is one thing that's very important, very necessary, classical scholars, and I'll be elaborating on this a little bit later. But classical scholars, traditional study of the Sierra was done in a way in a fashion that was a very flowing narrative, to say for an for us and for

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For a lot of us was the only way we knew for odd was either pure recitation on its own, or pure rote memorization on its own, or at the most those of us who are fortunate enough, we know Quran as a translation, which again left you wanting more left to desiring something more. But similarly, Sierra, for a lot of people who are fortunate enough to have some interaction with the Sierra, again, it was, it had some form of narrative to it, which was a blessing. But then it doesn't change the fact that that narrative was all that it was, it was a narrative. So it almost became relegated to being a almost like a telling of a story like a fairy tale. A long, long time ago, in a faraway

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place, a person named such and such did this, or that happened with them. It was no different than a fairy tale, a fairy tale is exactly that what it is. And this is what I always tell people. Whenever I lecture on the Sierra in any way, shape, or form, I always, almost begin by saying there's two unfortunate trends of Sierra or understandings of Sierra within our community today. One is that name, place date that just, it's like a Wikipedia page. It's just factual information. Or the second thing is it's a it's a nice story. It's a narrative that at least grips your attention for the time being. But it ends up being like I said, something that happened with somebody that I have no

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connection to a long time ago, in a faraway place, meaning what am I supposed to do with that? I was captivated for 30 minutes, I was captivated for 45 minutes. But what do I do after that? It's entertainment, basically. So we either have facts, or we have entertainment. But the purpose of the seat or like anything else was that what is the benefit that I can take home from this. So it's the facts are very important. Without the facts, we just have a story. We just have a fairy tale, the facts are very important. But then the narrative, the flowing narrative is important, because not all of us are scientists, not all of us are advanced students of knowledge are scholars that we're

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going to be invigorated. And we will be refreshed and will be rejuvenated and energized by simply knowing the facts and the pure data, when not all of us can read code, basically. So when I pull up code of some type of coding in terms of a website or something, all I see is mumbo jumbo, it doesn't make any sense to me. a programmer is Wow, that's amazing. Right? a programmer looks at them. It's it's one man's trash is another man's treasure, right? So he looks at it, and he goes, Oh my God, that's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It's I don't know what you're talking about. Right? So. So for some people, the facts might work. But that typically involves being a very advanced

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student of knowledge, some scholar, right, that they get blown away when they read like, oh, wow, that really happened in this year. So behind Allah, right? That that works for them, or somebody or if we remove the narrative, it's just the dry information, we remove the dry information. It's just a narrative. It's just a fairy tale. We need those two things. But we need the third critical component, and that is the practicality and the relevance. How can I apply this to my life? What lessons can I learn from this? What can I take home from this, and that combined together is how we will try to approach this era.

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So I was saying that we need to now talk about the critical issue of why study the zero. So that gets out of the way, how Sierra might have been presented to you in the past. And what I'm going to be asking you to do is put aside those any type of preconceived notions you have any baggage, you might have any reservations, you might have about Syrah like I've been there, done that Brother, you know, I've been there done that, like when you hear it, the seer lecture, the one of the first things you have to do is yes, you read the translation of the sutra. But don't let that hold you back from benefiting from what you're about to get right now, because this is on a whole nother

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level. And that's what we're basically going to make an attempt what we're going to try to do with the life of the Prophet some of the some of the serum. So now go into why study the Sierra, I have a few basic points. Number one, when we look in the Quran as well, all right, and I'm going to make the connection with the zero with the Quran. But let's go ahead and start right at the top when we look at the book of Allah, the Quran, the instruction from Allah, very beginning, the beginning of guidance, the Book of Allah the Quran, when you look there, and when you when you observe the IRS, where Allah subhanaw taala turns our attention towards the prophets Allah lohani Center, where Allah

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subhanho wa Taala tells us to go and study the life of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, and at the center of that the epitome of that is of course in similar to the HAZOP surah number 33 is number 21. Allah subhanaw taala TELLS US law or rather, excuse me, law, the Candela confy rasulillah. He was sweating Hashanah. Surah number 33 ayah 21. Allah tells us

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that the ayah begins with two levels of two levels of emphasis. The lamb is for emphasis, the cod is for emphasis. All right, so most definitely, there is no doubt about the fact gonnella confy rasulillah. This scanner could grammatically you could grammatically make the argument that Ghana is unnecessary.

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You could, you could deliver the same basic meaning without without this extra verb of Ghana. But the kinda has a purpose. And the purpose of the kinda is that there are two things. One is emphasis. But it's not just that simple or that easy. Number two is it gives the meaning of an estimator Ah, which means that it persist. It creates the meaning of this, whatever this lesson is being given, whatever message is being conveyed, this message is eternal is universal, is continuous is consistent. So, last winter hotel is saying that most definitely there is no doubt about the fact that consistently, without any exception, for all times, fee, rasulillah, he was certain that there

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is exclusively for you, fee rasulillah, in the Messenger of Allah. The more the ultimate example, the ultimate example, the perfect role model, the most excellent role model. So when you look at the construction of the idea, there is emphasis and exclusivity built into this idea, though, the way the grammar is laid out. The last panel is saying there's no doubt, make no mistake, no doubt about the fact that within the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi salam there is for all of you, for all times, the ultimate the most excellent role model. And that is the only excellent role model that you will find, there is no role model better than the Prophet sallallahu sallam. Now, what's

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interesting, what I want to focus on, within the this ayah in the language of this ayah is the word fee. Allah says fee rasulillah in the Messenger of Allah, in the Messenger of Allah, and that word fee has certain implications. There are certain rhetorical implications, benefits of the word fee inside of in the Messenger of Allah, that basically what Allah subhanaw taala is telling us is that you will only the prophets, a lot of them will only be the ultimate role model for you, he will only be an amazing role model and an exemplar for you. When and only when you completely immerse yourself into the study of the life of the prophets, Allah, in the Messenger of Allah, meaning you have to

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immerse yourself into the life of the messenger, ceylonese. And him, you have to put yourselves in the shoes of the prophets, all of a sudden, you have to try to live the life of the prophets along the center, as he lived it day by day, event by event, occurrence by occurrence, you have to live that life, you have to walk through the that life, you have to try to walk in those shoes, at least conceptually, at least try to imagine what that was like and take a journey through his life, then only then will you realize how much of an amazing example of the prophets, a lot of them can be for you. And so that's why when we and this is something I'm going to get to later.

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But when we kind of do a synopsis of the life of the prophets, Allah, and we take a lesson here, we take a lesson there, or we take a look at a few a Hadith, or we take a look at a few different collections of the life of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, that's one thing, but to to truly understand the experience of Rasulullah sallallahu sallam, and then to be able to realize how I can benefit from that what I can learn from that. The first thing is you have to have an immersive experience, you have to live that life, you have to experience that you have to have a full understanding and appreciation for what that life was like. That's the first thing. So that's why a

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study of the Sierra in depth.

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You know, stage by stage, day by day blow by blow. That's why it's so important is that it will give you that full impact that full experience and a full understanding, at least at some level. So that's the first thing. That's why we study theater, and how we're going to approach this theater. The second thing is studying the Syrah when you just know certain facts about the profits, a lot of them again, like I said, it becomes something that is just factual information. When you have a narrative, it's that fairy tale. When you even have a Hadeeth it again, becomes something very technical, very technical. This is how, you know he prayed. This is how what the suit of doing this

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is. This is what the sin of doing that is that's beneficial, but it is technical. What we're in need of more than ever before, is to humanize the prophets a lot. You know, the common average Muslim, and this is true. This is something I haven't done like a formal survey. I don't have statistics for you, but something that I've been doing for years, people from all walks of life, men and women, old and young, especially youth and children, it's a bigger problem with youth than it is any other demographic, and even converts and reverts especially with converts and reverts and especially youth. And that means that those are many times the demographics within our community who are still

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new, they're still young, meaning they're fresh. They're being molded, they're still learning, they're still absorbing, and a lot of times and then they end up absorbing a lot about the religion, about Deen about Islam and Koran and about the messenger Salaam

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Some what we already have existed within our community.

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You find this within the demographics when you ask them about Rasulullah sallallahu sallam.

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They, they don't feel like they have a lot in common. They don't feel that even sometimes your impression of the prophets, a lot of them is not even that of being a human being. And with the with the proliferation of comic book superheroes, and you know, all this type of like, you know,

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this type of mythology and lore that we have in our communities, like Superman, and Batman and Spider Man and all these, you know, this is something that's very prevalent in our communities. So it's become very common for somebody to just go ahead and reconcile or understand that somebody is superior to them. They can't ever be like Superman was from outer space. He was from Krypton. No human being could ever be like Superman. It was just understood. Spider man got bit by a radioactive spider. That's it. Nobody else is going to be Spider Man, Spider Man, the spider man. That's it. All right. It's something that our youth are very comfortable with. I know it sounds silly to adults,

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but understand. When you're when you're four years old, and you start watching Superman and Spider Man, it becomes ingrained within your mind within your psyche. And it's it becomes very easy to reconcile. So when we present Rasulullah ceylonese him in a very non human fashion,

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in a very non human fashion. Understand that a lot of times our youth end up walking away with the same image of Rasulullah sallallahu. Some as they have a Superman. He's a man from another planet. Like he had nothing to do with us. We have nothing in common with him. Well, yeah, he was that awesome. And yeah, he would talk to people like this. And he was just charitable. And he was that amazing because of course, he was a Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam he was Mohammed Salah Lolita. And of course, he was at awesome. Like, I know Superman flies. Of course he does. Because he's Superman. But you can't expect me to fly because I'm an Earthling. I can't fly. Same way they feel like they

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have nothing in common with Mohammed Salah ism at all.

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And while and see we confuse two issues. Should there be respect for Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam? Of course, should there be reverence for the Messenger of Allah surrealism, obviously.

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But he should not become so distant to us. Where now we feel no connection. We feel no relationship at all. I don't see him as a role model for me. I just see him as somebody that I should read about that I should go ooh, and ah, when I hear about him, or I read about him, and that's it. That's the problem. And that's a problem that exists. But when you study the Sierra, the life of the Prophet salani Center.

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That's the number one thing that it humanizes him when you study his life, how he lived. And day by day, everything that was going on with him, how he was, emotionally how this day was difficult for him, and how emotionally this day he experienced joy and happiness, how he had a wife and a family.

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How he suffered injury, how he suffered loss. When you study the Sierra, it humanizes the profits a lot, he said them. And that's very, very important. And that's one of the key differences. And I'll just drop it in here almost as a tangent. But there are a few terminologies that we again, that we confuse, and they have a certain amount of overlap, but nevertheless, they refer to different things. One terminology within Islam is Hadith. Hadith is a terminology, Hadith refers to actual narrations and traditions of the prophets a lot he sent him his life. It includes what he said, what he did, what he approved of those are narrations about him. Hadees are primarily something very

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technical. It's something very technical. It's it's quotations from his life, excerpts from his life. And a lot of times a hadith will be presented to you without the context of that Hadith. And there's no, that's not a bad thing. It's meant to be done because it's a technical tool. It's a resource. Hadith is something that they had they do and they, they qualify. They verify. All right, and then the fuqaha, the jurists, the Islamic legal experts, they take and then they extrapolate rulings from there, they derive an extract ruling from there. Now based on this Hadith, what can we eat or what can we not eat? What can we wear? What can we not wear? How should we pray and how

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should we not pray? will break? sure we'll do it What does not break your will do? They bring those legalities or technicalities from there. So Hades has a role. What we've done though, is a lot of times and this goes for majority of our communities, our only interaction with the life of the prophets, a lot of them are those technical ahaadeeth. Somebody I had it will relate to do refer to some of his mannerisms and the way he's spoken talk but again, it's

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An excerpt is just taken from there. But it's not a part of that overall narrative, which again can sometimes dehumanize. Alright, so Hades has its role is very important. But it should never exclusively be studied absent of the seat of the Prophet salani center. And I would even go as far as saying, and this might sound controversial to someone, everybody needs to be aware of be familiar with the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu sallam. But if you were, I don't think that we should ever make exclusive we should never make exclusions. Only study the Quran? Don't set No, I don't think we should ever make exclusions. The Healthy Muslim is the one who has an element of every study of Deen

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within his life. He has a basic understanding and a basic learning effect from a scholar. Otherwise, you wouldn't even know how to make will do properly if you never studied fit that at any level. I know we get emotional sometimes when we say things like, Oh, you don't even know. Why should you even study fact don't study fit study Quran? Like No, no, no, you need to reevaluate yourself that if all you do is obsess over fit, and you don't even know basics of the Quran, then you have a problem, you have an imbalance you need to correct but if you all you did was study Quran and you never even took basic level fifth from a scholar from a proper source, you won't even know how to

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make will do properly, you won't even know what broke your will do, you will know. So, a healthy Muslim is the one who has a healthy dose of every field of study. He has basic basic seated all basic Hadeeth basic, and he's taking all of this and he continues to grow and graduate to different levels within these areas of study.

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But if for the purposes of practicality, if a Muslim had to make a preference of whether I should indulge within studying Hadith or Sera, when we look throughout the tradition of education

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throughout the generations of our oma and how scholarship has handled that issue.

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You will see that preference was always given to Sierra

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because within the within the study of Hadith, it wasn't studied Traditionally, the way we approach a lot of times today. Again, the Quran wasn't study the way we approach it today. But on translation, boom. That's how we move on. Right? That's how Brown was studied. They would study it, they would understand it, they will go into the depth of it. Similarly well. They would study Hadith, they would. It was in depth.

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They would study it very, very much in depth. I mean, Imam Buhari, pretty much the epitome of his life's work as a human body, which is, I believe, 6000 some odd narrations. I mean, I want you to think about man's and not just an ordinary way mumble hotties. life's work is 6000 ahaadeeth. That's very little. But that's how in depth they would approach the study of Hadith. But in reality, the study of Sierra was something that is what was universally studied. It was something that was meant for all demographics of the Muslim community, regardless of what your access to scholarship was seen or was something that was studied. So that's the one the difference between Hadith and Sira. And

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then secondly, there's the thirdly there's a terminology by the name of Suna. Now, Sunnah is a very subjective word. Salah is a very flexible word, it's a word that has almost a different meaning based on the context in which you use it. The words from the varies, so now overall includes everything. The seal of the prophets, Eliza is a part of his Sunnah. All right, good. numata Allah kabhi database, Allison wasana everything that is related to the life the personality the existence of the Prophet system is a part of the sooner so to see that's included the Hadith is also included, but also the word Sunnah. And this is a whole nother maybe lecture for another day. Because this

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create this creates a lot of problems within our communities. But the word Sunnah almost depends on the context in which you use it.

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If you use it, technically almost in the in the field in the area in the arena of theology, if you use the word Sunnah, then it's the opposite the antonym of the word VEDA. In innovation, the opposite is the word so not a tradition. That's in theological terms. But if you take it over to the area of fic, if you use it in the area of fic, then it's another category from follow the logic for the logic is something you're obligated to do and then you have sooner something that's recommended but not obligated. So you see how it took on a completely different meaning. But then if you brought it into a completely different realm, if you talked about in terms of sources, pure Islamic

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definitions, then it is what the counterpart or the, the the Companion of the Quran, you have Quran and Sunnah.

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Right? Kitab Allah was Suna to Nabhi as a professor Sallam said and hydrated with a book about what do I leave with you The Book of Allah

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Under, so nervous profit. So you see three different definitions or three different applications as you'd rather say, for the word sooner based on the context and how you use it. And that's the reality of the word cinema and how to use that word cinema. So having said all of that, the point of it was is that cinema has a place. And it's, moreover, also known as a terminology and depends on how you use it. But then Hadeeth has a place has a context, and has a place where it applies. And then you have CRM, and the primary role, the primary function of the cedaw. Again, like I said before, is to humanize the profits a lot easier to make the common average person feel a sense of

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connection to the Prophet sallallahu sallam. The third reason, or the third benefit, these are more than anything the benefit of setting this era. Why should you study this? You know, what is in it? What's in it for me, if I study the zero, the 30 of it is to extract lessons like I said this previously, studying the Sierra the life of the prophets, a lot of them and it's more, I guess, this goes more back to how you approach how you study the Sierra, it allows you to extract lessons, extract lessons, make it relevant, practical lessons, on what how it applies to your life, to extract practical, relevant lessons for every demographic of our community, and more importantly,

00:31:19--> 00:31:19

our

00:31:20--> 00:31:37

dilemma, our condition, what we are going through as individuals, as families and as communities. What can I learn from this, what guidance is provided to me in terms of this. And now, this leads me into another side little issue that I wanted to approach here.

00:31:38--> 00:32:09

And that is that this not only relates to how we study the Sierra, that we have to study in a way, but also what we take from it. And the lessons that we extract from it that are relevant, and that are practical. Because again, going back to the original topic, and going back to where we started from, that when we study the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. It's, it's, it's a practical guide. It's a practical guide on how to live your life. And

00:32:10--> 00:32:11

when we look at our,

00:32:12--> 00:32:34

our exact predicament and our situation, and this, what I'm going to give you is a little bit of a brief insight onto how Sierra has been studied throughout the centuries, for the majority of Islam of Muslim history, Islamic history. When you look within books of Syrah, you'll find that the mccunn era is oftentimes is presented

00:32:35--> 00:32:38

in a lot is presented a lot more briefly than the Medina and period.

00:32:39--> 00:33:02

The Medina period has been the fascination of Muslim civilization for the last 1400 years. When in reality, let's take it into consideration. Generally speaking, it's rounded off and we're gonna get to that when we get to that probably much later on in sha Allah, Allah Subhana Allah allow us to get there. But when we get there, we'll get there but rounded off how long was the meccan period?

00:33:03--> 00:33:48

of prophethood? I should clarify how long was the marking period of prophethood 13 years? How long was the Medina in period of prophethood 10 years. Obviously, you don't need to be a mathematician. A child can tell you the Macan period was longer than the median period. But it doesn't change the fact that when you look at books of Syrah, the Macan period will be presented in 5060 100 pages, and the Medina in period will be presented in two to 300 pages. In a sample zero book, if a zero book is about 400 pages, 100 pages, a fourth of that will be compared three fourths of it 300 pages will be the Medina in period. All right, that's very interesting. How did that happen? When one is obviously

00:33:48--> 00:33:59

longer than the other. So there's a couple of things to take into consideration. And even though maybe this is better tackled as we go through, but I think almost as an introduction, and this needs to be presented.

00:34:01--> 00:34:44

Number one, is that it'll be to be fair to the discussion to the conversation. I'll put this as point number one, then the first explanation for this is there, there is a lot more narrated about the Medina period than there is about the Moroccan period. That's just a cold, hard facts. All right, why? Well, there were more Muslims. There were more Sahaba. So obviously, plus the life and the practice and the the message of the profits a lot, he said was a lot more open in the medallion period, than it was in the marking period marking period. Remember, first three years were super covert, very private, there was no public data, there was no public message. There was a private

00:34:44--> 00:34:59

data that was going on with between personal networks. All right, just like anything begins, you start on a very, very close with the people that are closest to you. All right, even after that, the prophets a lot of them would practice and would preach

00:35:00--> 00:35:14

We teach privately within the house of our club. All right, Darla, calm, it was still something that was very close, very private, very quiet. There was a lot of oppression during that time. All right, the medieval period versus that was wide open.

00:35:15--> 00:35:18

I mean, the entire life of the Prophet system was now on full display.

00:35:19--> 00:35:30

All right, that's why you had the mercy of the prophets, a lot of them were all of the activities to place. And then even the residents of the process, it was right next door. So it was like you have full access to them. Now, not only that, but

00:35:31--> 00:36:13

from a certain from a very surface level perspective, the Medina period seem to be a lot more eventful than the marking period, even though the market bear that's a major, major events, there was a lot going on. But the Medina period from a very surface look seems to be very eventful Battle of other battle, a battle of the trench. All right, you have traveling out to haber and bonavista. luck, and all of these different areas and regions as far as the book. And then you have solar davia. You have Baba, you have had jetten ouida to Makkah, I mean, it's very, very eventful. All of this is going on. Plus, so you have just a lot more narrated about the life of the prophets, a lot

00:36:13--> 00:36:21

of summon Medina versus the life of the Prophet says I'm in Mecca. Plus the other thing, and this goes back to that distinction between Hadith and Sira.

00:36:22--> 00:36:46

Hadees has a very different criteria than Sierra does. The level of which we're happy to critique the Hadith, because they know that later on after the body to put the body through their filters, it's got to be handed over to the legal experts to footbaww. And then the fuqaha will make decisions based on what we hand to them important decisions like heroin and heroin.

00:36:47--> 00:36:52

So Hadeeth has a very different criteria by which is is judged, then Sierra does

00:36:53--> 00:37:05

sea rise overall the life the life events, which do not always have legal implications, which are morals and objectives and lessons and sometimes not even that sometimes it's simply emotional consolation.

00:37:06--> 00:37:19

When you know, when you can simply know the fact that the prophets a lot, his son died, and he cried, and he was sad, and he got choked up, and he had trouble talking to people on the day that his son died.

00:37:21--> 00:37:56

You don't even make any type of a halal haram distinction from that Do you know that is provides emotional consolation that the prophets a lot of them lost a family member, the prophets, a lot of them felt pain, that when somebody child dies, they're able to find comfort and solace in the fact that my messenger Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam felt my pain, and he was able to wake up the next day and continue living and I will be able to wake up tomorrow and keep on going, this will not destroy my life, this will not end my life. I can continue, I can wake up tomorrow, I can move on from this, I can recover from this. It's emotional.

00:37:57--> 00:38:29

So that's why the same filters that are in place to critique Hadith don't necessarily need to be applied to Sita. And this is the other thing. So number one, you just have a lot more abundance of narrations for Medina period versus mccunn. Period. So that's it. That's the fair observation. So obviously, brother, Medina, and periods going to be a lot more elaborative than mccunn. period is. But number two, we do have a lot about the marking period. But the problem occurred when we started crossing these lines together,

00:38:30--> 00:38:47

when we then started judging everything by the criteria of Hadith, that even the life and times of the profits a lot of time, just as human experiences, we started critiquing them, that all we're not getting this through the same type of chain of narrators that we expect the Hadith to come through.

00:38:48--> 00:38:50

Now all of a sudden became a problem.

00:38:51--> 00:39:31

Not understanding that everything has a place everything has a role to play, that these are very distinct features of the life of the Prophet ism, and they needed to be treated as such. So what we ended up doing was we ended up filtering out a lot of the seerah, which ended up being the mccunn period. And what did we do, we deprived ourselves, we deprive ourselves of an entire era of the life of the prophets, Allah de Sena, which is very, very relevant to us. And this is where this conversation is coming from we as Muslims, and I know that maybe other people might listen or might benefit from these recordings. But I'm stating this within the context that I am in the only context

00:39:31--> 00:39:55

that I know, being born and raised here, here, exactly here in the Dallas area, live having lived my entire life in this area. This is the social context that I know. This is life as I know it. So we as a minority, living amongst a Muslim majority, oftentimes being understood and more recently being very, very misunderstood.

00:39:57--> 00:39:59

That the marking period holds a lot of gems holds

00:40:00--> 00:40:12

A lot of insight for us. It holds huge insight for us on how to conduct ourselves on how to thrive on how to continue on how to spread on how to flourish and how to blossom. As a community.

00:40:13--> 00:40:40

The muddiman period was very different than our circumstances, our situations were not completely in the MCing period. I agree. All right, we're not having to hide, if you the people that are just listening, if they could see the mustard that I'm sitting in, we obviously do not have to hide. All right, you can see this machine from miles away. I actually have seen it from the plane. All right, I was told you could and I've actually seen it. All right. So we're not hiding. So it's not completely the Macan experience, but is that completely the Medina and experience either,

00:40:42--> 00:40:52

it's almost like we have to have a full rounded, a full, well rounded appreciation of the life of the prophets allows them to be able to benefit from it truly, and be able to make sense of where we're at and what we're going through.

00:40:53--> 00:41:23

So that's the other thing, that the Medina and period is very, very important. And that's the marking period is very important. That's where we're going to extract a lot of lessons from the life of the prophet Elijah. But then we go to a completely different thing. And that is that there's even benefit. And this is something classical scholarship was very attuned to this is something classical scholars addressed, that when arguing mccunn versus Medina, no, we're discussing McCain versus Medina. But that's 23 years of how long have a life

00:41:24--> 00:42:05

63 years. So we still have a 40, we have a 40 year period that we're not even talking about, there's even certain things that we can take from there certain things we can observe from there certain lessons we can learn from there. And if you want to be very, very strict about it, if you'd rather be very strict about it, at the least what you can take from that first 40 years, is it can give you a very good understanding of what were the circumstances and the situations at that time in which the prophets allottee, some was sent, and he was sent to be who he was, and live the type of life that he was living. So if nothing else, and that's what we can take from that. So the point of it

00:42:05--> 00:42:45

is, is that when we extract practical lessons, and relevant insight from the life of the prophets, allows him into the life of the messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, then what we need to take into consideration is the macam period, and even the life before Prophethood will provide a certain lessons. So the fourth benefit of setting the Sierra. And the fourth reason of why it's important for us to study the CETA is authenticity of the Sunnah. Now I'm going off on a completely different tangent, but these almost are addressing different issues we have in our community, you know, the dehumanization of the life of the messenger of a loss allottee somewhere, I feel no human

00:42:45--> 00:43:24

connection to him. That's one issue in our community, and that is addressed, the solution is within setting the seat up. All right, when people feel the life of the process is very irrelevant to them. Like how am I supposed to live my life based on guidance taken from the life of a man 1400 years ago in the middle of Arabia? Like how does that apply to me at all? Well, when you study the car properly, that answers that question that solution, the solutions provided? Well, there's a fourth problem in our communities. And that is, and this is a growing problem. This is a very rampant problem. This is also a very contemporary problem. It's a very modern problem. This has been a

00:43:24--> 00:44:02

fringe discussion for the for the majority of 1400 years, I would say safely for about 1200 years, the first 1200 years of our history, this was something that was talked about by some people was a fringe issue. Mainstream Muslims were never affected by it, and we're never concerned by it. But over the last 150 to 200 years, this has become front and center in our communities. And this becomes such a problem that even the common average Muslim is talking about this and is concerned about this. And the most dangerous thing is confused about this. And that is the authenticity of the Sunnah of Hadith.

00:44:04--> 00:44:06

What is the role of the prophets a lot isn't within the religion?

00:44:08--> 00:44:13

Is his life or his words? Is this hadith is a Sunnah authoritative or not?

00:44:15--> 00:44:53

Is it true or not? Even people have reached that level? That Can I believe in it? Is it made up or not? Can I trust it? And then if I can trust it at some level, does it hold any authority or not? And this is a very common issue today in the Muslim community. I'm pretty sure everybody listening, everybody sitting here, even if they haven't had some of those questions Alhamdulilah or those concerns or confusions, they know somebody who has brought up a confusion or an issue or a question like that, just today, I got an email about this. I literally probably received emails, saying everyday might be a stretch but more than an average of every other day I get an email about this.

00:44:54--> 00:45:00

In a week. I probably get about four to five emails about this. And that's not including the people who just approved

00:45:00--> 00:45:12

directly, anonymously. Just from somewhere I get emails, I get questions online. I've been tweeted questions about this. That's how common of an issue is, and that's how prevalent it is.

00:45:13--> 00:45:15

Well, where's the solution? What's the answer?

00:45:17--> 00:45:35

Since this issue has come up, Muslim scholarship, has decided has taken the approach of trying to solve this problem tackle this issue academically, intellectually, we will intellectually prove academically substantiate the Sunnah the Hadith of the Prophet ceylonese.

00:45:36--> 00:46:13

While that approach is completely valid, and honestly, intellectually, and academically, there are no responses there are no answers to it. Because the system that's been put in place to preserve the life and the sin of the prophets, a lot of the Hadith of the prophets a lot is one of the most elaborative is one of the most elaborate intellectual systems that are academically rigorous systems that's been put in place throughout the history of mankind throughout the history of humanity. It is unbelievable. The entire system, the science of a small world of the job that is in place is unbelievable. So that's number one. Number two, what people in their simple mindedness what they

00:46:13--> 00:46:24

fail to understand and appreciate. Is that the Quran Yes, it is the book of Allah, the column of Allah and we believe it to be as such, and Allah has guaranteed the protection of the Kingdom of Allah. Yes.

00:46:25--> 00:46:39

But when Allah preserve the protection of the column of Allah, part of the column of Eliza is telling us my Atacama rasuluh manakamana Elaine, the Quran is telling us to follow the prophets a lot. So then that means that would be protected as well.

00:46:40--> 00:46:54

Allah would not have told us to do something that we would be incapable of doing. When Allah said follow the messenger that Allah put a system into place, Allah guarantee that the practice of the messenger would be preserved. All right, that put aside the real point I wanted to make was this.

00:46:55--> 00:46:59

The Quran has been promised Yes, but the Quran has also come to us through a system.

00:47:00--> 00:47:06

The Quran has come to us through a system there on the way out of the Quran. There is a chain of transmission even.

00:47:07--> 00:47:27

How did I know Yeah, canal Listerine is to be pronounced in red egap, canal blue, what yuckiness they're in. There is a system that it's been passed down, recited from teacher to student and teacher to student teachers, students. That system that is in place to preserve the Quran is the same system in place to preserve the Hadith.

00:47:28--> 00:47:31

the narrator's of Hadith are the same narrators of the Quran.

00:47:32--> 00:47:39

So that's that's the intellectual academic issue. And like I said, that's a valid answer. But here's the issue and the problem.

00:47:41--> 00:48:02

When you take a look at the issue itself, it's not an it's purely intellectual academic issue or problem to begin with. It's primarily a spiritual issue. It's a spiritual problem. What is the spiritual issue and dilemma that's in place? Very easy to understand. All right, we are told to love the profits.

00:48:03--> 00:48:13

What makes you want to obey the profits a lot of them will make you want to accept him will make you want to study his life and follow Him is your love for him. That's what it boils down to.

00:48:15--> 00:48:40

Well, you can't love the Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam, if you don't even know who he is, who he was, how he lived his life, what he did for us. Familiarity, learning about someone leads to familiarity. familiarizing with some familiarizing yourself with someone becoming familiar with someone that loves to do leads to developing love for that person. Right. It's it's a natural process of how you how you fall in love with anyone,

00:48:42--> 00:48:47

you kind of get to start to know them, then you become familiar with them, and you fall before you know it, you're in love with that person.

00:48:48--> 00:48:51

That's that's how the human heart works. That's the human condition.

00:48:53--> 00:49:04

We became we as an oma to 300 years ago, started becoming so unfamiliar. The prophets election became so unfamiliar to us.

00:49:05--> 00:49:09

And then eventually got to a point where we even stopped learning about him altogether.

00:49:10--> 00:49:16

All of a sudden, one day as an owner, we sat there we stood there and we said, Do we really have to listen to this guy?

00:49:18--> 00:49:28

Do we have to do exactly what he says? But wasn't he a human being? And how do we know everything that we know about him is true? And how do we know that? That question arise, and it's a very,

00:49:29--> 00:50:00

it's almost a natural progression or a regression that that occurred, it's not some mystery. Of course, that's going to happen. So what's the solution? The solution is learn about him. Become familiar with who he is, who he was, how we lived his life, and see if that doesn't lead you to developing love for him. Because, and I'm not going to preempt the entire series by starting to give you quotations from the life. That's part of the objective. That's what we're going to tackle starting next week. But when you start to learn

00:50:00--> 00:50:35

about him and you start becoming familiar with him, you naturally will start to develop a sense of love for him, you won't be able to help but love this man, because of who he was, and how he lived his life. And once you begin to love him, you will not have any questions or objections or confusions about it, I actually had a personal interaction with someone who when I say this, I don't just say this like this is some, you know, concoction This is some theories and formula came up in my within my head. This is an observation of Muslim history, and how Muslim scholars have conducted the study of the life of the prophets, a lot of them, but I even had a personal interaction with

00:50:35--> 00:50:40

with someone. This is almost like my case study when I was still a student studying overseas.

00:50:42--> 00:51:15

Someone that I knew personally a community member, very intelligent, very, very intelligent, came from a very, you know, traditional home I grew up knowing about the Quran to some extent in the life of the prophet to light him at some level. Later on in his life, though, because he was a very intelligent person, very highly educated person. He developed a fondness and wanted had developed the zeal to learn the Koran to study the book of Allah started setting the Koran and to seed of the Quran in translation of the Quran is really started setting it up.

00:51:16--> 00:51:25

Along the way, he came across some individuals some resources that instilled within his mind skepticism in regards to Hadith,

00:51:26--> 00:51:32

and it continued to grow within him to the point where it reached full bloke full blown confusion.

00:51:34--> 00:51:42

And he had had a few discussions with me that were, you know, almost like debates. What about this? But what about that board about this? But what about that?

00:51:43--> 00:52:05

One day, I was visiting for the month of Ramadan, because that's when we used to be off from our studies overseas. So I was visiting for the month of Ramadan, I went to go visit him because I was going to be leaving in a couple of days. And somebody I was very close with, he would attend all my lectures that I would give during the month of Ramadan and things like that. So I went to go visit him and say Salaam to him. So I sat down with him in his office, and he said,

00:52:07--> 00:52:07

forget about everything.

00:52:09--> 00:52:10

Just give it to me, bottom line.

00:52:11--> 00:52:25

Is Hadeeth something we're supposed to believe in or not. Do I have to believe in this or not? Because again, it was more confusion that it was like, you know, hatred towards Hades is just confused. He didn't know what to believe.

00:52:26--> 00:52:31

So I told him, I said, I don't even want you to. I don't want to talk to you about that anymore. Just forget about that question.

00:52:32--> 00:52:44

I asked him. So Hanalei just occurred to me at that moment, I asked him, I said, When was the last time you read a book on Sierra? When was the last time you read seal off the process on his life?

00:52:46--> 00:52:49

He's like, gosh, I can't even remember. I don't know.

00:52:50--> 00:52:52

So at least it's been a few years.

00:52:53--> 00:53:28

So I said, Okay. I said, I'm going to come see you tomorrow, I'll drop by tomorrow. I went to the bookstores found whatever one two books of Syrah that I could find, you know, this is before the interwebs. So I found whatever books have seen, I could find a couple of them. And I came by his office the next day, I dropped them off, and I says, this is a gift from me to you. I just want you to make me one promise, you're going to start reading this, I knew is a very studious person who was very, you know, when he would start studying with study you would read you would read a lot. So I told him just read this. And then I gave him a few more recommendations. I said, you know, if you

00:53:28--> 00:53:37

got some friends in a bigger city, or overseas or something like that, if you can get your hands on these couple of more textbooks of Sierra, I'd recommend it.

00:53:39--> 00:54:16

I came back about 10 months later, for the next Ramadan. 1011 months later, I came back. When I got back a few days later, I went to go visit him again. When I went to his office, I saw those couple of books that I had given him as a gift, plus another three, four books of Sierra that he had gotten from somewhere. And when he would study he would read he would like, you know, it was one of those real, like, intense study years, where you could tell from the shape of his book that he'd been reading, he tear it up and put notes in it and stick papers in it and all types of things. So I could tell that these books had gone through a bit of a rough patch there. So I asked him, I said,

00:54:16--> 00:54:24

how's this been going? And he's like, problem solved. I was like, why do you mean problem? I'm asking how what are the books? He goes, problem solved.

00:54:26--> 00:54:33

I said, you don't have no more questions about Hadith. Are they authentic or not? Do you have to follow them or not? You believe in it? He's like, nope, no questions.

00:54:35--> 00:54:50

He said, I read those two books. You gave me three times at least each. Then I ordered three more books of Sierra and I read those three times each. This entire year. All I've done is read Sierra, like 15 times over and at the end of it I reached a conclusion.

00:54:51--> 00:54:59

I have so much love for this man. I can't even say it. I don't even know how to put into words how much I love and respect this man and how much he

00:55:00--> 00:55:05

did for me and how much his life means to me and how much I can benefit from his life.

00:55:07--> 00:55:11

This the same individual after that moment on,

00:55:12--> 00:55:33

you know, typically within the local Masjid within my local Masjid, you know, like it happens over here. You know, after a shed the email opens real solid hain or a book of Hadith and reads a hadith and translates and briefly explains it. Well, I would do that in my mustard on the days that I would be traveling or I was sick or I couldn't make it. He was the same guy that would read the Hadith on that day.

00:55:35--> 00:56:11

The same guy who A few years ago I said, I don't believe in this stuff. This is all phony baloney, I can't believe in it. It's a big lie. I can't trust it. A couple of years later, just by reading the seal of the prophet SAW some his life, he was completely turned around to the point where he was the one who would read the Hadith to the rest of the congregation. And that's a huge benefit of studying the Sierra studying the life of the Prophet ceylonese that it develops that love for the process. I mean, this whole plague that we have in the room right now about skepticism about his life and Hadith and its authenticity, the solution to it is the Sierra, the life of the Prophet so much

00:56:11--> 00:56:14

because you build that connection with the Prophet salani Center, what time is

00:56:16--> 00:56:21

915 Okay, shall I just be making a couple of more points and then we'll go ahead and wrap up in just two more minutes inshallah.

00:56:23--> 00:56:58

Then these will be called now, inshallah, we'll go ahead and stop here for today, inshallah, we've covered about four points for reasons for benefits of setting the seed of the profits, a lot of them. Next week, we'll pick up and we'll continue on from here inshallah, and we'll complete the intro to setting the Syrah and then we'll actually probably next week, actually start at the very beginning, by and the way we'll be doing this as well first, take a real brief account of what were the times like when the Prophet salani son was born, what was the condition of the world at that time, particularly his society, and then we'll progress on from there for May Allah subhanho wa

00:56:58--> 00:57:05

Taala give us a reality of everything we've said and heard, and May Allah spawn to give us true love of the prophets a lot. He said, some kind of laying would be nice