Seerah 083 – A Survey of Madinah Before Migration

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You will have the level of salatu salam ala rasulillah who Allah Allah He was a heavy edge marine. salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

shala. Continuing with our series on the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, a Syrah to Nova via the prophetic biography. In the last few sessions we've been talking about not just a hedgehog, which is the migration of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And for that matter, all of the believers from Mecca to Medina, and including the migration of other believers such as from East Africa, Habesha Abbey, senior in even other areas, and they were all basically gathering and congregating in the city of yathrib, which was now officially known as Al Madina, munawwara Medina to Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

And so we've been talking about the migration and we specifically have been talking over the last couple of weeks about the arrival within Medina, deconstruction of the masjid of the Prophet salallahu, alayhi wasallam. And the founding of the community there in Medina, one of the things that I alluded to over the last couple of weeks that I specifically wanted to dedicate an entire session to, and that is a survey of Medina at that time, it's very important to understand the context. Without the context, you really can't understand, I remember, when we started off this series on the life of the prophets a lot a sermon, if you go back and listen to the earliest of the

sessions that we covered here in the Seattle podcast.

I did a very thorough analysis of what Arabian society at that time was like, specifically what Morocco was like at that time. And there's a reason for that, in fact, this is not something unique that I did uniquely. But if you take a look at any very thorough analysis of the life of the prophets, a lot of the same whether it was done classically, or it has been done contemporarily, one thing that you'll find consistently is that they always start with with a very thorough analysis of society at that time. Why is that so important? Why is that so necessary, because you cannot appreciate the impact of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi, salam, you can't appreciate his strategy, his

tact, his tactfulness, his strategy, his methodology, his subtlety, and the eventual impact that he had on society unless and until you first have an understanding of what was there to work with? What was the situation like before, you know, just like anything else, when you look at a picture of something,

you know, for instance, you see a picture of a place after an earthquake, it looks pretty traumatizing, and it looks pretty disastrous. But what really gives you the full impact of that circumstance, or that event is when you see a before and after, when you see the before picture and you see the after picture, that's something that just completely blows your mind. I remember just the other day online, you know, on social media, somebody posted side by side pictures of before and after of a lot of the places in Syria since the conflict began. And it was just completely shocking. Like, no matter how many times I've read about what's going on there, you feel it. When I saw the

before and after pictures, it just blew my mind. I was stunned. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. And so before and after that whole dynamic, and that's why we're so keen on before and after that it gives you a full appreciation of the impact of something. And that's basically the way we that we observed the before and after in the life of the prophets a lot. It's important to have to have a perspective about what was there before. You know, the prophets, a lot of them had his impact there before the Koran had its impact there before Islam changed everything there. And so we did that in the beginning about Makkah and Arabian society in general.

We're going to dedicate this session to talking about what was yesterday What was Medina like? Before the prophets a lot of them came basically, when the prophets a lot of these them arrived in Medina, what was there in Medina? What did he have to work with? What were the circumstances what was the situation and in fact, many of the scholars of this era, they actually state the fact that the prophets, Alavi, some himself, conducted a survey of Medina. He himself is from the Sunnah of the prophets a lot. He said that before he would go to a place he would inquire about the place. When he first arrived at a place he would kind of survey and understand what exactly he was working

with who was there, who are who are the major players, what was exactly

What was going on? What were the circumstances? What were the challenges? What are the pros? What are the cons, what are the strains, what are the weaknesses, he would conduct a very thorough survey of what he was working with. And so the survey of Medina when the prophets a lot he summarized, probably amongst classical scholars have presented some situations of Medina. At that time at the time of the migration, I would probably say one of the most, you know, well summarized analysis of what Medina was like at the time the prophets, a lot of these are migrated to Medina was done more contemporarily by Hassan Ali nadwi Rahim Allahu taala, who is an Indian scholar of great repute.

He's a very well known and authoritative Indian scholar, he passed away probably about 30 years ago. And so he, in his book on the life of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, he conducted a very good, it's thorough, yet at the same time, very comprehensive, but summarized analysis of what Medina was like at that time. And I'll basically be taking some things from that.

So the, he basically writes, and many other scholars classical scholars have referred to this fact as well, that Medina was a very different than Macau in its dynamic. The way that it was different was Macau was known as a very cosmopolitan metropolitan city. It was huge. And while Macau had a lot of diversity, but the diversity of Morocco was in the sense of there were special events that were held in Mecca that season of Hajj, the marketplaces of oh god and these other marketplaces, when they would be set up when the festivities the carnivals of the festivals would occur, a lot of people would flock in, but those same people would leave at the same time. So there was some some

level of the people of Morocco were familiar with other cultures. But at the same time, Morocco was very congruent. Morocco was very consistent in the map in the met in the fact that it was primarily Reishi territory. There was one large singular tribe that constituted the majority of mcca. And they spoke one primary language, and there was one, if you want to call it that, there was one general faith or religion of the people there and that was idol worship. All right. Medina, however, was very different. Medina was a lot more diverse than MCO was. There were a lot of different ethnicities that lived in Medina. And there were even different religions that coexisted in Medina.

So first and foremost, you had some businessmen that were there in the Medina and areas but the larger part of the population, the people that were that were known as the unsought and we talked about them Olson has Raj, they were primarily farmers. So right there, you had a little bit more diversity, where it was not all what we would call professionals. There was a labor class in Medina at the same time, ethnically, they were diverse because they had Jewish tribes, three major Jewish tribes, there were a couple of smaller, smaller Jewish families and tribes as well. But there were three major tribes, the banana, banana lead, Bonhoeffer, Ava and Bernal pinata. These were the three

major tribes I lived in and around Medina at that particular time. So by the presence by by sheer virtue of the fact that the Jews were present there, you now had ethnic diversity, because the Jews ethnically were different than the herbs. And secondly, you had religious pluralism, because they of course, did not worship idols. They were dude, dude, they were Jewish. Right? They practice Judaism. And you also had some level of

diversity in terms of language. While and we'll talk about this a little bit more. But while the Jews in Medina had adapted to Arabic very well, they primarily spoke Arabic, they still preserve the Hebrew language. And so automatically now you had diversity on many different fronts. And so Medina was a lot more colorful in this regard. Medina was a lot more diverse, it was a lot more varied. It was a lot more pluralistic than Morocco was in that right off the bat presented a lot more of a unique situation. There's a little bit of writing, in terms of this the history of the Jewish tribes that were there in Medina. It's mentioned that the Jewish tribes had arrived there. So when the

prophets, a lot of Islam comes to Medina, the Jewish tribes have been living there for over five centuries. So they had arrived over half a millennia ago, 500 years ago, very early on, and there's a lot of discussion about how they exactly arrived there and when they arrived there, but what some of the Austrians notes is that during the time of the Byzantines, the Byzantine Empire, at that particular time they were they were subjected to a lot of persecution. They were subjected to a lot of persecution, a lot of torture, and many of them were ousted at that time, by the Byzantine Empire. And that was when that they scattered

Quite an extent, and they flocked. And they came in, they settled in these very fertile regions of array of the Arabian Peninsula, which we know as Medina today.

So now getting to the core of the matter, there were three main Jewish tribes. And I've talked about them. Now the need for a law and final thought.

It said that, beneath a new car had about 700

men that were considered what we would they would consider fighting age, or have the ability to fight. And that was a very interesting way to kind of measure the number of people and to measure the strength of a people back then in ancient Arabia, because that's basically your survival hinged on this fact, how many men do you have capable of picking up arms. So by new,

a new car, I had about 700, such men, banana lead was probably have a similar number. But nuclear Eva was larger than the other two had about 900, close to about 1000 men that could lift up arms. And what's very interesting and fascinating is that these three Jewish tribes, now you would assume, because they had similar origins, they shared a faith. They shared a lot in common and they lived amongst a majority were a minority amongst a majority. So that would kind of bind them together. However, these three tribes did not have very good relations with one another. And, in fact, it's mentioned that they the two major Arab tribes of that time, which would later on become the

unsought, Osen has Raj, they had aligned themselves separately with these different tribes. But okay, no power had aligned itself with the tribe of cousin Raj, while the other Jewish tribes and ulead and food Eva had to align themselves with us. So there was a conflict not only amongst the Arabs, there was conflict amongst the Jews, and they had aligned themselves separately, and the famous war of blood, which I made reference to in the previous sessions, when these tribes were at war with one another, and we talked about how, you know, hundreds of people were killed, which, you know, the equivalent of today would be hundreds of 1000s of people dying. So it was a very, very

brutal bloody war that occurred at that time between all these tribes. It said that,

but no Chi no car.

But okay, know how many of them were taken as hostage it said, up to 100 of them were taken hostage by the other tribe, by binuclear, a banana lead. So when these Jewish tribes fighting ocean hazards, but not a new car that was with his Raj, right, about 100 of their men were taken as prisoners of war by us and the other two Jewish tribes. And they would only be freed if ransom was paid for them. And but no pay, no car could not afford to pay ransom. So the other two Jewish tribes that had taken these prisoners that had helped take these prisoners, they themselves gathered funds together and paid close to release the other Jewish men. So there was this weird idea of we have to look out for

our own kind. But they were still at conflict, they were still in conflict and war with one another. So it's a very troubled relationship. It was a very weird and strange dynamic. What was the geographical layout of Medina at that particular time? Well, first talking about the st. Jewish tribes while we're on the topic, we're on the subject, but okay, Nova, balloon alita Menaka. At one time, some of the historians say at one time all these three tribes lived in one quarters in one place, and they had fought and kicked each other out, but no need separated from an operator and set up their own location. And Benevento tower was actually kicked out. So beneath a new car, they lived

inside of Medina. They had their quarters inside of Medina Balu. The other was banana lead. They were about two or three miles north of Medina, in a place called Batman, it was known as a very fertile valley. And they lived over there. And Veronica Eva lived south of Medina, in a district called Malibu. And this was a few miles south of Medina, they had all built forts that they basically lived inside of. And there's a lot of interesting discussion about the historians, that if these three tribes would have allied themselves, it's very possible they could have had a central governing authority, and they could have actually executed quite a bit of influence and power within

Medina. But that was something that never really materialized. And in fact, in fact, they used to pay taxes to the ocean, the huzar Raj, for basically their protection. They used to pay taxes to Osen hustlers for the sake of their protection. So it's a very interesting dynamic.

They were very devout. While they had of course, the Quran talks about it very clearly. They had done a lot

Have Daddy, if they had done they had conducted a lot of distortion, they had distorted their religion terribly over the centuries and millennia. However, whatever form of religion they still had, or they still practice at that particular time. One thing that can be said about them is that they were still quite devout when it came to their religion, whether it was cultural, or whatever the dynamic was, they were very glued and stuck to their culture, and to their particular religion.

They had special places of worship, they actually had what we would call like, schools, modalities, where they used to teach their religion to their children. And they were still training rabbis and spiritual leaders within their own community. So they were definitely maintaining their whatever form of religion that they basically had, they would still celebrate their festivals or festivities, their holidays, their celebrations. So this was something that was so going on their financial and commercial, you know, economic situation was

they overtime had distorted their religion to make usury, interest, rebar permissible. And so they practice the form of business that was very advantageous to them. And that was that it was a system of economics that was based on promises, liens, loans, interest, usually, a lot of IO use, things like that. So they operated based off of this system that we are very familiar with today, unfortunately, very unfortunately. And so they operated based off of the system. And the reason why this was so advantageous to them beneficial to them, was because the Arabs in that region, the ocean, the husband was assumed to be unsolved. They were farmers, and the situation with farmers is

that they deal with a lot of economic hardship, that as they're waiting for the harvest, the situation becomes quite dire. as they grow closer to the harvest, their situation becomes more and more dire, and troubling. And so they were in need of being advanced funds, I need to take a loan, I need you to go ahead and advance me some money. And that was something that Jews are willing to do with usury, not just interest, but usually by the definition of the word meaning these considered very not too different than the rate of interest on like credit card debt, how exponentially continues to increase and build. And it just literally sucks the life out of not just that person,

not just a family, but society. That was how the Jews operated. And, you know, they they had literally, they were like loan sharks, they had pawn shops that were set up. So when these Arabs would need funds, if anybody knows how a pawn shop works, alright, just knowing how a pawn shop works is something you should do is to fought for, right, it's it's such a terrible thing where you take advantage of people. And so these Jews basically offer operated pawn shops at that time, and people would come and they would take their weapons, they would take their goods, they would take their summons, or they would take their dishes, like they could bring their plates, their cups, from

their homes, their clothes. So when we talk about the shirt off, the guys back, literally could bring their clothes and put it down as collateral. And eventually it got to a point

where to take advantage of these people.

When a lot of these Arabs and a lot of these farmers ran out of things that they could put down as collateral, the Jews started

proposing that they would bring their children in,

that they would bring their families in

their women folk in

and they would hold them keep them as collateral. And of course, that was something very problematic. And at the first mention of this, there were quite a few fights that broke out at the suggestion of this, there were there was there were some, you know, killing and some fighting that basically occurred, and it just was very seriously deteriorating situation. So over time, they had become very financially they had positioned themselves very well economically. And the the Arab tribes had continued to find themselves in a deeper and deeper hole.

And this led to a lot of tension. However, at the same time, some of the historians notes that they were not foolish at the same time where they basically didn't want to become the common enemy of the ocean because because eventually the ocean the husband would unite against the fact that these folks, these this minority that lives on our land amongst us is taking advantage of us and they would become united so they don't want to become the common enemy and become an excuse.

For them to become united. So from time to time, they were known to forgive debts, to even give a lot of money back, just to kind of keep the balance of power to be able to keep everything in play, because it was very again beneficial to them. And when the profits, a lot of the sudden arrived, this was all basically topsy turvy, everything was thrown upside down. And the whole situation drastically changed. I talked about the language that the Jews have this place, they had been there for 500 plus years, they had totally adopted Arabic, but Hebrew was preserved amongst them, mainly for two reasons, worship and academics. So it was preserved amongst them for the purpose of worship,

they still worshipped in Hebrew. And number two was for academic reasons to read the Scripture. And their scholars were what more well versed in Hebrew, and they would in fact travel out there scholars would travel about travel around to other Jewish tribes to polish up to brush up on their Hebrew, because it was still seemed to have a lot of academic value, very similar to how we probably function with Arabic today, where it still has a role, it still has a place in terms of worship and and academics. And so it was not too different than that.

Um, one other thing that I laminate, we run Allahu taala, here talks about chicken and he talks about.

And that was one thing that's very peculiar is that the Jews did not heavily engaged in propagation of their religion, even though again, these people were ripe for the picking. They were they were ripe for the picking, like, very easily, they could have gotten these folks to convert, but they were not very keen, they weren't motivated to pop to propagate their religion. There were a couple of reasons for this. Number one, was, this just wasn't a motivation for them. And number two, some Jewish families and some Jewish tribes are actually of the beliefs were that these people, they saw them to be lower than them. They saw them to be of a lower class. These are giant, these are

ignorant, illiterate,

stone worshipping, wood worshipping, idol worshipping heathens. And we don't want any part of these people we do things, but no things we'd rather not have you in our community. And this was the arrogant approach at the end. And just as a side note, because by now, if you've been attending or listening, you know that I'm prone to doing this, that we have to be very careful that we don't have this type of a mentality.

And this same dynamic, unfortunately, very, unfortunately plays out in certain pockets of the Muslim community.

Right, many different parts of the world and even a lot of immigrant communities when they first arrived here, we have to be very careful that we don't develop that type of mentality that we don't see the local population as being dirty, filthy, hedonistic, you know, hedonistic, just, you know, worthless human beings. Like they're hopeless, they're dirty, they're filthy, they're pointless. We have to be very careful. We don't have developed that type of, you know, spiritual arrogance. Because that's the beginning of the end of a community. That's exactly the type of spiritual arrogance that they had. And guess what? They had this type of spiritual arrogance, the prophets

allottee. Some arrived in Medina, and a decade later, these people are nowhere to be found. They were literally wiped clean. And I'm not talking about like they were massacred are something that they were just gone. They just dissipated. Many of their people converted many of their people scattered. Like, this is this was directly like we say, from above, this is divine.

Be This is a punishment of God, that will come upon any community,

whether they be on the on the bottom, or even if they're on the hook, especially if they're on the hook. Meaning they do believe in the truth. But at the second, they become spiritually arrogant. And they, they they they become spiritually elitist, spiritual elitists. That's the beginning of the end, that's the downfall. Allah will replace him with another people. And so we have to be very careful about this particular perspective. And that's why not just the prophets a lot of not just the Sahaba but our scholars over 1400 years have talked about the importance of empathy

and love and compassion

and acceptance.

Right, we just not too long ago in the in their sessions about the migration, the hedger.

We talked about the profits a lot is him coming across to thieves, to crooks, bandits, criminals, murderers, robbers, right, carjackers and the profits of monotheism does what

he greets them sits with them meets with them with great respect.

very respectfully meets him and greets them and value them as human beings. And when they introduce themselves as terrible people as wretched human beings, Don Juan, the prophet met Nana mohanan, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam says, laughable, and tomorrow Oh, come on, no, rather, you are dignified, honorable people. And they come to a psalm, they accept the song.

So that's something very important for us to consider and to take into consideration. And unfortunately, this dynamic existed within there. And it in fact, talks about the fact

that the Arabs, the few Arabs that did convert to Judaism, it was either by by means of marriage amongst the Jews, and therefore their children would basically adopt the Jewish Jewish religion. Another aspect of this was,

you know, maybe they suffered some type of a tragedy, like a specific dynamic that some of the historians note that if there was, there was an Arab family that had lost a couple of children in a row, like infant mortality, they had lost a couple of children in a row, they would basically take some type of an oath or another, that the next child that will be born, will be dedicated to this Jewish religion, that anything that will work that would prevent my child from dying, and that child would live then they would raise him as a Jew, they would get him a Jewish teacher, and they would raise him as a practicing Jew.

And so this was another dynamic at the time.

The O's in the husband's we've talked about before.

But basically, it talks about how the O's occupied the southern and eastern region of the city of Medina. And that was kind of called the upper part of town uptown. And then there was the the huzar, Raj inhabited what was called downtown. And that was basically the central and the northern regions. I know that seems counterintuitive, but whatever, that's how they understood it. There were four clans that branched out from the huzar, Raj, and all of them belong to banana jar, and they all lived in the central central area. And that was where the mustard was constructed. So I'm describing a little bit of the geographical layout of Medina, the O's, they primarily were settled in areas

that were very good farming areas. And they lived side by side with a lot of the Jewish communities. And the husbands lived in less fertile regions, and they were neighbors with a new car who lived inside of Medina.

Again here,

he says that, after looking through a lot of different historical accounts and scholarly works, I'm not able to estimate very accurately what the Arab population of Medina was.

But he says that the

one the only number that I was able to come across was that when the profits a lot arrived in Medina, there was about fourth

that No, no, he talks about that when fetch homak occurred. When footsie hamaca occurred.

on that particular day, the Osen, the Hassan de unsought accounted for about 4000 of the 10,000 soldiers that marched on to Mecca. So he says this, the only real number that I'm able to kind of get an idea that this was a community that probably at that particular time was somewhere between five 6000 people. I mentioned the previous session, maybe it was 1000 2000. But it was probably a little bit larger than that maybe about four or 5000 people, including the women and the children, which still isn't a very large population, but nevertheless, some semblance of a small city was present there in Medina.

When the prophets a lot of them came there. to Medina, of course, like we talked about the the wall, the Jews had positioned themselves, economically, political power, and the control of the region was very much still in the hands of the Arabs at that particular time. The ocean has Raj had fought against one another a number of times as well, the Jewish tribes had eventually entered into that conflict as well. And so the Prophet sallahu was really a unifying force for the Arabs, and even for the Jews to quite an extent and eventually the situation would play out which we'll talk about going forward into Sita.

The Medina was separated into a lot of different neighborhoods, the Jews, of course, had their forts that were constructed. And some of the early historians actually talked about that there were about 59 Jewish forts that were in and around Medina.

And so Medina had quite a bit of construction that was done in and around it. And they had really these

Words weren't maybe how we're thinking of them. Because when we hear Ford, we think of, you know, maybe the European type Ford's or the move on Ford's in India, these weren't the type of Ford Z's we're for what's meant by a Ford was that a few families would live together, they would have a little bit of a barn, they would have some animals that they raised there. And it was just a wall or a boundary that would be put around this little area, or this little territory does courtyard. And that was basically the idea of a fort. Do you religious and social order

was something very interesting.

Even the Arabs in Medina, differed to the Quraysh, when it came to their religion, before Islam, they deferred to the police when it came to their religion. When it came to general social order. in Medina, it was the operation was still dictating a lot of things, because the operation was just the leadership of all the Arabs. And their leadership was recognized all throughout the Arab lands. And so the qure still had quite a bit of influence. And that was an interesting dynamic that the prophets a lot easier to work with, when he first came there. And so the religion that was predominant before the arrival of Islam was again the worship of those satam idols a lot will RZA

well, man at the same idols. They were

basically the religion of the people, even before the even before Islam. So that's in that sense, they were very similar.

One thing that I kind of mentioned as well, is that the Quraysh themselves while they saw the ocean hazards as being more simple folk farming people, they still respected them as quote unquote, pure blooded Arabs, because they were considered from the branch of the Arabs of the dawn. They were funny. And so they identified the fact that at least these are one of our people and their intermarriage between the US and the husband Arjun Qureshi was actually quite common. And that's why we know the prophets a lot easier had relationships there because his great grandmother

was also Hashem his wife was also from their lives mother was from that area. She was from banana jar.

And she, she, her name was Selim, I've been to armor. She was from banana jar, which was from the family from kazaa Raj.

However, again, like I said, over time, the operation looked down at farming and agriculture as a means of livelihood. They saw it as being a laborer class, and they were traders, they were businessmen. And so they were naturally considered a little bit more lofty. Medina had a very interesting culture to it.

They were not wealthy people. They were not very lavish people. They're very simple people. In fact, one of the things we'll talk about a little bit later on, is that I eat Chateau de Allahu taala. Anna actually talks about how she had a very nice, kind of like a dress like an overdress almost like a cloak, that you would wear over your dress that women would wear over their dress. She had this very nice cloak that and she comments that dozens of the girls of the unsought were married in my cloak,

meaning that I shadowed the Allahu taala Hannah's cloak to wear over your dress was so nice, that whenever there will be a wedding amongst the unsought that they would request the cloak of eyeshadow, the Allahu talana. And that wasn't just simply due to the Baraka and the blessing of it being the cloak of Ayesha, it was also just because it was nice. It was nicer than anything they had. And so that cloak would be sent and they would wear it. And she says dozens of the girls of the ensemble were married in that cloak. So they're very simple folk compared to Quraysh. Simple people, they weren't as lavish not as luxurious, right. However, at the same time, the scholars at the same

time they historians note that life in Medina

wasn't very tough. It wasn't harsh, like they weren't like struggling. They weren't like struggling for food. They weren't starving. It was simple. And maybe part of the secret was the simplicity. But they were farmers. They ate what they grew with their hands, and they milk their goats. And they pulled a wealth of water from the well. And so they ate dates. And they ate what they grew from the ground. They milk their goats and sheep.

You know, meat wasn't a huge part of their diet, simple folk. And they pulled up the water from the wells.

And that was it. So life had a certain comfort. in Medina. There was a

Something to eat. You can always get a few dates a handful of dates and drink some water or drink a little half a bowl of milk. And that's it. I mean, what more do you need? Really?

If you got a handful of dates, and you got a bowl of milk, you're pretty much set. And that was life in Medina. So simple. But it was comfortable. And part of that secret must have been the simplicity itself. So it's kind of this circular thing. Right? And and so that's why the prophets a lot, even comments, we know a valuable, a very valuable quality of human and unbelievers, what cannot. What is going on? anybody tell me the transition of

contentment, to be content to be satisfied? I'm good hamdulillah

Al Hamdulillah life, right? It's all good and hamdulillah. Right, so the contentment the Kannada is the quality of the man the quality of a movement, a believer.

But you know what the prophets, a lot of them says in a beautiful Hadith, he says alborada in alborada, terminal, even alborada. And berada means simplicity. So he says simplicity is from faith. And that's how the believer finds contentment. So it's a very beautiful thing. And so they were they were very well known for their dates, and in fact declarations to trade with the ansata specifically for their dates. And the prophets a lot he said his father Abdullah, if you remember he passed away,

where he passed away, in Medina,

doing business with the with, with the Arabs or with the ocean, the husband

and the father of the prophets a lot Hassan was gone there. He was sent there to do what business he was sent by his father, the grandfather of Israelites, a lot of them have the motor left to go in negotiate the next year's worth of dates supply to Makkah.

So they were very well known for their dates.

So they also it's a little bit of a talk about what their food and what their culture and what their economy was. So they also did grow other things there such as barley and wheat. They grew some types of vegetables, some some limited amounts of beans, and things like that. And so this was basically what their general lifestyle was like Mecca and Medina used the same currency at that time. And that was either the Byzantine currency or the Persian one both which were made of silver. And that was primarily what they used.

Also the people of Medina and we find this in the Hadith of the prophets, a lot of them so when you look at our when you look at the ahaadeeth about business, and you look at the early fit of Islam, for instance, if you look at a lot of our Fiq in terms of

Southern cotton,

the cotton fitter, when you look at that, you find this reflected within the the profits, a lot of them taught us the legal system in regards to a lot of measurements. And that is the people of Medina used to use volume more than weight.

The people in Medina used volume more than weight. And that's why that's why when you read the fifth of things like Southern huntin fitter, the cotton fitter, when you read the fifth of transaction the profits a lot he said that he explained, you know what type of verbiage you find. So one of the words that the prophets a lot of them used to tell us what is the cotton fitter? What is significant and fitter is the word saw. It's the word saw. And saw is described as being two hands full. Is that volume or weight? That's volume. That's volume. When the profits of Luddism gave us the business ethics, he said he had then be a dean.

And that doesn't just literally mean it means it needs to exchange hands, because even when talking about dates, he says he had done behead in one hand in exchange for another hand meaning what volume is talking about volume, not weight. And so the Medina ins the Medina ins used to use volume more than they used weight. And that was also reflective of their lifestyle. Because they weren't businessmen, they were farmers. And so they it was what they could put their hands on what they could feel what they could hold. That was what was the worth of something is what they could put their hands on.

And

there were some bizarre so a little bit of the culture there was there were some bazaars and markets and Medina pretty much everything was imported. All the goods and things like that that they would normally sell in the bazaars. A lot of it was imported. cloth jewelry,

did you Jews were very much heavily invested into the cloth market, the textile industry or market. They were they were basically controlling that that

That market there. And

life like I talked about life in Medina pretty much before Islam came was generally pretty comfortable. And all in all, as I talked about, it was a little bit more diverse.

Where it was a lot more diverse in terms of ethnicity, tribe, culture, language, and most importantly, religion than Morocco was. And that just added to the task, the complexity of the mission of the prophets a lot. He said, that he wasn't just dealing with idol worshipers anymore. Now he was dialoguing with the Jews.

And that added different elements or were different cultures, there were different ethnicities, there were different dynamics that were at play here. There were different tribes, there was all of Croatia and at the end of the day, even though the families of Croatia would have small, small little rivalries, about who could give more food to the Hajaj or who would have a better poet or who would you know, dress up their, their their homes a little bit nicer when the season of Hajj came or whatever, little little small rivalries, competition, healthy competition, but in Medina, there were serious conflict Osen husbands had killed hundreds of one another, that the profits alone is enough

to resolve the Jewish tribes and their economic situation economic stronghold stranglehold is what I would call it over Medina was something the prophets a lot of these are meant to deal with me had to work around. So there was definitely a lot more complexity which only makes us appreciate the profits a lot he sums task and his job and his his his accomplishments even more. But all in all, one thing that as we talked about a few lessons throughout the thing, the one thing was that the Jewish tribes. So if you want to talk about, you know, a Kitab, a dean, Somali, what an Arabic is called the non Somalian, like a heavenly religion, a scripture based religion. The Jews were there

before the Muslims.

Judaism was there before Islam, but it did not become the religion of the people. And the people did not adopt it because that was because of their spiritual arrogance towards the people. While the prophets a lot of them arrived with open arms,

with humility, with a commonality

sitting with them talking to them dialoguing with them, accepting them, loving them, embracing them as one very powerful lesson that we learn from this. The second thing that we learn and that we understand from this is that the ultimate unifier at the end of the day, the Jewish tribes, they fought with one another DS Arabs ocean hazards, the other common enemy and they still fought with one another. The ultimate unifier is faith, it is EMA and nothing will unify us like human will and nothing was will unify us without EMA.

And if we aim to achieve unity, we need to go back to that demand when the profits a lot of them came in into injected eemaan into that equation, unified their people.

And so eemaan is the ultimate unifier. And lastly, and finally the profits, a lot of them didn't go with blinders in.

He didn't charge in just knocking everything over just Islam, Islam, Islam, Islam, the prophets, a lot of them understood, where am I going? Who am I dealing with? What is the situation of these people? What is their religion, what is their culture, what is their economy,

and they had a very strategic, very strategic, strategic methodical approach

to introducing them to Allah subhanaw taala, then introducing them to the Messenger of Allah sallallahu sallam, then introducing them to the Quran, introducing them to Islam, and step by step by step. And as inshallah as we proceed through the CETA. We'll talk about the gradualism as something we've been covering in the class a lot with the students in school and fill in Quran in the history of the Quran. And in the Sierra, we've been talking about the gradualism, that that was the philosophy of the Shetty to gradually bring these people towards the practice of Islam into religion. And that was all part of the intelligence of Islam. And part of the strategy of Rasulullah

Islamism, if we want if we strive at any level to be impactful in the society we live in. We need to be very well aware and well acquainted with,

you know, our society

and where we live in and who our neighbors are and who do we share space with. And until unless we understand the people, we will not understand the needs of the people and won't understand how to properly present Islam to a people. So that intelligence and that knowledge and that that serving of one society is an important part is a very necessary part of being affected.

preachers and propagators of the religion of Islam within a society within a culture within the people within a civilization. May Allah subhanaw taala accept us all for the propagation of his Deen And may Allah subhanho wa Taala make us a means of introducing and bringing all of mankind to Islam Subhana Allah He will be humble he Subhana Allah who will be Hambrick Nash Hello Ella ilaha illa Anta the sock, Furukawa