Introduction: Religions and Societies in the Sixth Century
In this video, Shaykh Abdul Wahab Saleem discusses some necessary prefaces to the study of the Seerah of our beloved Messenger ï·º:
1. The religions before the Prophet ï·º
2. The societies that were present in the 6th century
3. Why did Allah choose Arabia for the last Prophet ï·º?
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welcome, everyone to the series on the CLR of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam we are approaching in sha Allah, Allah, the blessing month of Ramadan in the light Allah. And for that, for this year, we've decided that we will be studying the spirit of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. In the previous form of bonds, I'd been teaching some of this one of the parentheses of the Quran. And in 2013, I believe I also did a lesson, a series of lessons on the seal of the prophets, I said, and those lessons were a little bit different, in that I took certain portraits from the CFO of the profits a lot while he was in them and focused all of the time on those specific lessons.
This particular series however, is
such that we will be going through the complete life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So this is a you can call this a brief account of the life of the prophets of Allah when he was setting them for their purposes. For the purposes of this account,
I will be, I will be looking at a number of different sources
to study this era of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to record the account of the CLR of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And one of the primary sources that I'll be relying upon in this journey is in sha Allah, a book by the famous author by the name of a boon has an ollie another week, who wrote a book entitled A Ceylon number, we're just like that, okay. And of course, there's another very important book that I'll be going back to and that is fipple CLR, by Mohammed sorry, dharmavaram booty. And in addition to these two, I will go back to the source works, which, on top of all of them happens to be see a lot of Nishan itself, who recorded it was Hawks.
commentaries on the sea lion evidence, hop is, of course, the most authoritative biographer of the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the history of Islam. So these are some of the sources that I'll be looking at, as I said, within 20 days, going over an entire lifetime that was filled with, you know, a lot of different events that took place is a very challenging thing to do. So I hope Allah subhanho wa Taala gives us that they'll feed to, to get through this to learn as best as we can from this is the money to Allah. And I asked you all in sha Allah to make sure that Allah subhanho wa Taala, just as he's given us the opportunity to begin, he also gives us the opportunity
to to continue right till the end, and most importantly, to benefit from this life of the Prophet send them for myself personally, the way I became introduced to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was through the parents, of course, right? My mother as a child to take storybooks of the CLR. And she would read it to, to to us, all of the siblings. And then when I got to my teenage I read the very first time I read a complete extensive biography of the Prophet sallallahu. It was and by the end of the biography, I felt so moved and so touched, that I believe that reading that biography of the messenger was perhaps one of the most important and key turning points in my life.
And one of the most important and key points
as a whole within my personal life, right.
This was, this is what the CLR means to me thereafter, and hamdulillah I read many books on the CLR I've also written small works on different aspects of this unit, such as the mortgages that of the prophets, Allah love when you send them the miracles of Rasulullah salatu salam, and I hope that inshallah Diana you feel just as touched if not more than I felt at that point. And I hope all of us in sha Allah feel touched by the live life of the man who touched all of humanity all together, within this journey in sha Allah before we get into the journey, however, today I want to talk about two things, okay? two very important things without which we will not be able to understand why this
man will have missed a lot when he was in them was sent, and who this man actually was, and what he meant to humanity as a whole because remember,
As opposed to other messengers, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Hamad, his message was General to all of humanity. Okay, the Prophet told us of this in the Hadith, that Ganon Abu Bakr Illa only has certain birth to either Nazi Hama, a Prophet used to be sent to his people, particularly as for me, I was sent to humanity all together. Okay, so we know that there's a very, very clear difference between the call of the messenger Muhammad and all of the other prophets. So why is there that difference? That's the big question. To understand this. I'm going to look today inshallah at two different things. The first thing is,
the religions which were there prior to the Prophet, Mohammed, rather, prior to the birth of the prophets, I'll send them is born 570. Right Common Era, that means that the profits of the LaGuardia and send them
was born in the sixth century. In this time, we noticed that we noticed that around the world there are, you know, five or six key religions that are that are pretty much followed by the masses of the world today, if we look at the religions, we know the three religions are the religions, which are followed by the masses of the world. In addition to that, there are other religions as well, three key religions
are, you know, account for the largest majority of the world, right? Similarly, there was about five odd religions that accounted for the majority of the world, one of them being Judaism, okay. And I say Judaism, because it's one of the earlier ones. However, the problem with Judaism during that time was and it continues to be was that Judaism became devoid of
spirituality to some degree, okay, spirituality decreased within them. And that's because they did.
Sometimes, at some points in history, they actually
corrupted the religion in many different ways know how that corruption occurred, and what happened and the different stages that it went through, that's a different subject altogether, but it's enough for us to know that corruption had occurred within the overall, right, this is something that we know even through that went on. So now all we had left of Judaism was basic rites and rituals of worship. And in addition to that, it became a religion, which, which was very, very which discriminated between races, okay, so it became a bit of a racist religion. And whereas, if you happen to be from the Israelites, and you are saved, if you don't happen to be from the Israelites,
then there's a question mark around you, no matter what you do. Okay, so that sort of racism left to lead to another problem. And that was that people were not really interested in this creed. Okay. So this was one of the key religions at that time. And in addition to this, Judaism slowly started to adopt different aspects of polytheism. Through their interactions over centuries with different people and people of different religion. This is something that last point that I'm making is something that even Jews, Jewish historians admit to Okay, they will mention that it is true that in some way, shape or another Judaism had become affected by it was affected by the neighboring
religions, which a lot of which happened to be policies for pagan religions, right? So pagan religions, that's the first one, then we have Christianity.
Christianity went through three major problems over the five or six entries that existed prior to this now, right. The first problem that it went through was distortions as well like the previous one. Okay. The second problem that it went through was Miss understandings, okay. misunderstandings, scholarship within Judaism was a lot more than it was within Christianity, especially within the earlier times. Number two, the information that the Jews had access to was perhaps a little bit more because of how many prophets had come to them, then the information that the Christians had access to so misunderstandings began to arise within Christianity. And the third thing that happened is
that policy isn't just like, the the previous one, it also started to occur within within this religion as well. So we had a lot of these problems that that I've described here. In addition to that, around the fourth century, after the assumed death of Christ, we don't believe that he died, but after the assumed death of Christ being the Common Era,
Christianity as a monotheist creed
failed. Why? Because the creed of Trinity was introduced into Christianity, right? So now you had people believing that there is the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. Okay. So you had a major creedal problem, but you had a major theological problem within this religion by this time. And in addition to that, we also find that in the sixth century itself, the same century within which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was born, we find that there was wars taking place between the Christians of the Levant and the Christians of Egypt, okay, over what over how we should understand the existence of Jesus? What exactly is Jesus? Who is Jesus? Should we consider him God, not God,
and all the other different questions that that they'd already dealt with in the fourth century? Okay. 200 years later, they're still arguing and debating. And of course, we know that there was still some * of the Christians which remained true to the Christianity that that recently Salam had brought. We have this inner Hadith. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us that Allah azza wa jal looked at the creation in the LA Nevada Eden hunt, and he despised all of them from Nevada home, however,
he despised all of them, except elaborate, I am an advocate of except for a small portion of the People of the Book, everyone else, Allah zoji looked at them, and you despise them in that they had all majority of mankind had left what the messengers had brought, okay? This was a very, very dark period, okay? Because from Risa Ali salam, till Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there are no messengers. There are no messengers, there are no profits all of these years. Okay. There are some reports that a couple of prophets came right after he said three of them, but those reports are all weak. So the correct report that we have is the prophets of Salaam St. Lan nebia Lana de Avenida
Vina, there's no profit between me and Lisa, Lisa I'm so, this is the phase that humanity is living through there is no guidance, there is no direct connection to the divine. So, darkness is of course, arising, then we have a third religion, which was Zoroastrianism okay. And the Jews are Medusa.
Now, this particular group or this particular religion was founded on worshipping nature, different aspects of nature. So they would worship the fire, they would worship the sun four times a day, it was obligatory upon them, and necessary for them to worship the sun, they would worship the moon as well. And they would worship both fire and water as well. Okay, so this is a religion, which is basically worshiping nature. And of course, it's devoid at the same time simultaneously, it happens to be devoid of spirituality in that all of their religiosity is within their temples outside of it, the practice is not there. Okay. So this is another problem within Zoroastrianism, in addition to
the fact that they're worshipping not God, but they're worshiping creation, the creation of God, okay. Then we have Buddhism, okay. That's another religion, which existed and continues to exist in Central Asia and India and so on and so forth, right.
And Buddhism was a religion, that
to simplify things,
they essentially had denied God, then they have taken Buddha himself as God. And then they added to that different gods in addition to Buddha as well. So, as you can see, every single one of these religions are religions which have one aspect or another within them, okay. And what do they all have the messengers call to the first thing that they call to is to correct the shift that that people may have went into to correct the polytheism that people may have wanted to, then in addition to that, last but not least, we have,
we have the Hindus, Hindus are largely remain till today and they work and they
and they continue to be within India, okay. In the sixth century, Hinduism had over 330 million gods that they were worshipping 330 million gods, because of the fact that every single thing that was that would be amazing, that would cause amazement to them every single thing that would cause fear to them.
Every single thing that would benefit them in any way would become for them an idol that they would worship other than Allah humble. Okay, and this continues till today. So you because of that the compilation of all of these things that are amazing and that are that are surprising, that are helpful and beneficial and that are harmful. All of these things, of course, could become countless. So that's why by that time in the sixth century, that year in which the century in which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was born, they were worshipping 330 million different idols, okay? Or 330 million different gods, let's put it that way. Okay, this isn't India,
and any other place where Hinduism had existed, right? Now we come to Arabia. Now we come to Arabia.
Just as all of these other places, there are aspects of polytheism there are aspects of shifts, there are aspects of people worshipping other than a lot of believers that he was also in Arabia there is that but there's a distinction and I'll speak about that in the light Allah very soon as well. Because one may say that all of these places they have people who are worshipping other than a lot of soldiers, why Arabia of all places get selected by a lot of villages to send to send the messenger Muhammad Sallallahu. It was and so I'll answer that, inshallah tada in the coming segment right now, today is nighttime. Okay. Now, the Arabian society has remains of what I like to call the
Abrahamic monotheism. Okay. And hanifa
the Abrahamic monotheism and what that means is, the idea of worshipping Allah is that he will general alone, that was introduced by all messengers, but Ibrahim Ali Salaam really came to be known by this even more so than other messengers for reasons, which we can mention other time. But all messengers call to this right, worshipping Allah as origin alone and not worshiping any other anyone other than Eliza. So remains of this religion still remained within Arabia, what they call an hanifa. Okay.
And of course, there was a few people, when the prophets on the log while he was setting them had had been sent. And when he was born, that we're still worshipping based on whatever the new of the Abrahamic faith, okay, one of them was a man by the name of they didn't even know faith. He was one of the only remaining people within Arabia that was worshipping still based on the Abrahamic creed and the Abrahamic theology and belief. Right? And the prophets of Allah while he was setting them said, about this man, that on the Day of Judgment, he will be sent as an oma all by himself, right? You, Yeoman, the Amity metamodel you will be sent on the day of judgment as an owner all by himself.
So this man was a very, very serious man in that all of the all of Arabia is worshipping other than Allah as origin. And he realizes that his mind tells them This doesn't make sense. Why should I be worshiping dates that I eat anyways? Why should I be worshipping, you know, animals and rocks and pebbles that I create meaning I put together myself, I should be worshipping the one who created all these and hence he decided to stick to the Ibrahimi creed or the Abrahamic creed. Right? And how you feel, and Ibrahimi right?
So this was there, just the remains of it. However, Arabians genuinely knew about his married Sarah, and they genuinely knew about Ibrahim Elisa. Why, because
in reality, in essence, are descendants of his married Annie Salah, right? Because we know and we'll talk a little bit more about this in a subsequent lesson we know that is married at a salon King Ibrahim Ali Salam brought the settle down and we're in Mecca. And then the tribe of Jerusalem when they came cutting the long story short, is married Elisa married into this tribe, and that's where the, that's where the Arabians in Mecca came from, right? They're known as the Adnan Yun, and the Yemenis and wherever else they settled are known as
the baton you right? So that's where they came from. They came from the project of this Marina de cera. This means that it's married was known to them. This means that Ibrahim alayhis salam was known to them. So the inside of the Kaaba, the Arabians of that time, were not Muslim. They had placed a picture or a statue of Ibrahim and as many as they were, as they were drawing what they called Islam. Islam are basically arrows that you put in a bag or a bucket or something, and one of them says Amani, Robbie, the other one says No, honey or B, and the third one is empty, okay. It's a way that they used to make decisions, early Arabians
One of them says one of the arrows inside of this back says that my Lord has given me a command. The other one says, My Lord has told me not to do this. The other one says nothing is just empty, okay? So if they may want to make a decision, they'll go to this bag, and they will draw these sticks these arrows. If it says, I'm not on your ob, my Lord has commanded me, then they'll go forth with whatever they were trying to do. Okay? And if it says, the heart of that will be that my lord has told me not to do this, then they will not do it. And if it doesn't say anything, if it's the third one which is empty, then they will try it again. Okay, this is how they would make decisions. Now of
course, we have a better way of making decision which is known as the har, right, which is known as the staccato we literally invoke allies and we just ask him, to help us make our decisions, right. This is how the Arabians would make decisions. Why am I saying this? Because inside of the Kaaba, Ibrahim and his marine were placed by the Arabians as statues as they are drawing these,
these arrows from the bag. So when the Prophet entered into the Kaaba or right before he entered into the Kaaba, he said, Our Tella, Houma, la May Allah go to war with them, by a law venue, that Law
Center, Islamic By Allah, they knew that Ibrahim in his mind, he had never drawn these, these arrows ever. They knew that, but they still made these statues. And then, of course, the knowledge of the fact that Abraham and his very didn't do such things. They didn't invoke arrows instead of Eliza, which is right, that knowledge slowly within the next generation of the generation after it decreased, and so people actually some people, but everyone started to think that this is how this is how Ibrahim is married, as well. So now we don't really have a clear understanding of the Abrahamic creed anymore in Arabia, except by a handful of people.
Okay, except by a hand full of people. Because of this, slowly but surely polytheism begins to spread within Arabia. So for instance,
within the gap within the Kava, I gave you two statues that were there, they had placed 360 different statues within the Kaaba, and they started to worship anything that they could find that they could get their hands on, they would worship rocks, they would believe that angels happened to the gods as well, they would take jinns as gods, they would take stars as Gods as well. And they would also believe the angels happen to be the daughters of Allah.
They believed that genes are actually partners with allies and so they began to worship all of these different things. Okay.
This is a little bit about the different religions that were there prior to the advent of Mohammed Salah lock it was cetera. Now let's take a look at all of the different societies, major societies prior to the birth of pseudo law, or around the time the same century in which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was born. Okay. We have first and foremost we have the Eastern Roman Empire, okay. The Eastern Roman Empire was an empire that was falling, because of this, because of the fact that slowly but surely, the
the Emperor's had increased the taxation on their society. Okay, one tax after another after another, so much so that the people could no longer beard anymore, and even Khaldoon who happens to be a very important sociologist, he concluded, by the way, he's a Muslim sociologist, and he's one of the most important sociologists in the history of the science of sociology, okay. And he says, around the ninth century, he says, that
taxation increase in taxation is one of the signs that that society is not going to remain for very long.
Because if there was economic strength within society, there will be no need for taxation. So this particular society, the Roman, Eastern Roman society, is now being taxed, so much so that they wish for any other people to come in rule them except the people who happen to be the emperors of of that time. This is one of the problems in addition to that. We have another problem in this society. And that is, there's a duality
taking place within society, okay? You have every single person within society talking about religion, okay? But once people are talking about religion simultaneously, you have those same people engaging in every single thing that happens to be a religious, okay? So you have a severe duality within this society, so much so that they enjoy things, their recreation happens to be things which are completely unethical. Okay. So
one of the ways they enjoy themselves is they gather together in large stadiums, and they watch people fight to death with other people, or they watch people fight to death with predators, predatory animals. Okay, so now you have people cheering other people on inside of a large stadium instead of a theater. And they are what are they doing, they're just fighting to death. They're watching someone else kill an individual before their own eyes. This is how they enjoy themselves. So you have a duality, people are generally speaking about religion, and they're talking about, you know, they're talking about the intricacies of the Byzantine religion at that time. And
simultaneously, they're doing these unethical things. The same people. In addition to that, we have a second society Second Empire, which is the
the sassanid Empire. Okay.
That's the Iranian basically, Empire. Now, when we see here, the word beyond we're probably thinking of the country, Iran, but no, we're talking about the historic sassanid empire that is much larger than what we see today. Okay. So this empire
is very large as well. But you have many, many problems within this empire as well. You have people just
there happens to be a lot of unemployment, there happens to be a society in which people genuinely do not care genuinely has become filthy in their, in their interactions with one another, so much so that you may have people walk into someone's house and
break things became very common, walk into someone's house, steal all of their furniture, steal their wealth, steal their women as well, women became objectified. So steal the, the women as well, and so forth. And
this is another problem. You have people looking at their emperors as gods. Okay, so literally the sassanid Emperor Emperor is the sassani Emperor is called God by their people, okay? It doesn't matter who he happens to be, or who she happens to be. He is God, according to these people. Now, of course, did the sassani you and they ruled between to 24, after the assumed death or common era until 651. So until about a little bit less than 100 years after the death of the profits or loss of them, their kingdom came to an end during the time of Irma Ababa, the amount of data, okay, so this is some of the things that are happening. In addition to that.
An example, an example of how lavishly, the emperors of the sassanian were living is the following example. When Yes, the gentleman who was the ruling person when promotable Bob had waged his his war against the Persia, okay.
He fled, fleeing away from the Muslim armies, and when he fled, listen to this very carefully sisters.
Hang in there, hang in there.
You're done. Because I can stop and then you can continue. Okay, great. So
when?
When the alarm
had waged his war against the sussan Yun? Yes, the Joker who happened to be the emperor of that time he fled.
He fled. And
when he was fleeing, he brought along with him the following things. Okay. This should just tell you give you an idea of how lavishly they were living. Okay. He brought along with him. 1000 cooks 1000 cooks. He brought along with him 1000 cups. He brought along with him 1000 singers. He brought along with him 1000
caretakers for his leopards which were his pets. Okay.
He brought along with him 1000 also 1000 Eagles as well.
1000 caretakers for his eagles. Now, if you have 1000 people to look after your leopards, and Eagles 1000 each, you can just think about how many leopards and Eagles this person would have had. Even that that is he actually felt like he was wrong. He felt like, you know what, I've lost so much of my kingdom, this is what he is fleeing away from his city and medallion with 1000, cooks, 1000 singers, 1000, you know, caretakers for his,
for his
leopards, 1000 caretakers for his eagles and so forth, right? This is what he's fleeing away with. Just imagine for a second what he his kingdom would have actually been like, then we come to the next one which happens to be India, India is also a place in which a lot of unusual things are happening. Okay, before we get to the unusual things. Think about early India, India was a place in which the mathematical sciences had flourished, India was a place in which astronomy had flourished. It's a very, very important society. And it's contributed a lot to the world. And India was a place within which medicine had flourished. India is also a place within which philosophy at first, this
is all things happening prior to the sixth century prior to the time in which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was born, right. But within that century, what happened within that century, historians are in agreement that this was the lowest point for India, in the history of India, the sixth century, the lowest point from their from economy, the lowest point from every single angle, from their culture from LA from Niners from adopt from every single angle, this happens to be the lowest point in the history of humanity in the history of Indian recorded history. Okay, so much so that within the temples in his in India, it's recorded that at this point, * was something that
would take place, not outside, in public places, not behind, you know, closed doors, or in certain quarters in certain places, and red flag, red light districts and so forth. We're talking about within the temples, you have all sorts of obscene at ease taking place also sorts of fast things happening right? Within temples, and the why, because it also became part of the religious rites and rituals, sexuality became part of religion as well. Now, okay, in addition to that women had no value within the society. in this society. By the way, this seems to be a common thread within every society that we've discussed. The devaluation of women, and Islam brings value to women in a time in
a time and it's the seventh century where no other society is giving value to women. Let me give you some examples of what's happening in India to women. Okay, in India during the sixth century,
you have
a man who believes his woman is his property, he owns this woman. So when he gets into the sixth century casino, he includes his woman, as one of the things that you'll be gambling on. Okay. So you would have people gambling on their women, and also their children as well. The woman after her husband would die, did not have the opportunity did not have the choice to get married again. Okay, so much so that women felt so oppressed, that they would go and burn themselves. This became a common practice in sixth century, India, and it continued for quite some time, within certain religions, in certain sectors, women would just burn themselves alive. And this was especially known
to be a practice in the higher sector of the society. Okay. So the higher you are, the more chances that the woman wants, her husband dies, she'll just burn herself alive and then those ashes will be will be disposed of, okay.
This particular practice of burning oneself alive it continued to remain all the way till the time in which India was colonized by the by by the British, okay. So in some places in India, this practice remained as well of course, there was a Muslim influence as well. And the Muslims didn't believe in this practice. But in some places in India, this practice of burning yourself alive when your husband dies, especially if you happen to be a noble woman.
From the aristocracy of society that remained till the British, you know, had colonized India. Okay. This is a little bit about what's happening in India. Okay.
There's another thing about India. And that is that at this point, even though India happened to be a very strong participant in culture around the world, prior to and afterwards at this point, they are pretty much completely disconnected from the global scene. Okay? They're very, very disconnected from the global scene, there literature happens to be very weak during this time, the, the architectural advancement happened to be very weak as well, architectural design happens to be almost not even there, all of these signs of backwardness within India are clear. Europe now when we come to Europe, we find a place in which ignorance and illiteracy is the mark of the society,
completely ignorant and completely illiterate. bloodshed is a day to day matter within the society.
We have people who don't have any hear of hygiene, okay, people would smell really awful, and they would look really awful. And this wouldn't be a problem, because this is how people in Europe at that time would live. And you have a society which is not connected to any part of the world, and no other part of the world is connected to it. From a civilization perspective. This society is still searching. Remember, we already said about women backwardness in terms of the way women were treated. So this society is still discussing within their intellectual elites, whether women are human beings, or whether women are animals, they're still discussing whether women actually have
souls or not. They're still discussing whether women have the right to own something, okay? They're still discussing whether women can actually transact meaning buy and sell. And these are still questions that the intellectual elite of sixth century European society are are discussing. So by the way, before I move on from this point, it's very important to note over here, anything that you see, in terms of the rights that Islam had provided for women, during sixth and seventh century, if anyone points out something wrong with those rights, right, within the modern framework, then you have to remind them, this is what we were up against. We have we were given all of these rights at a
time, where people are still discussing in Europe, whether women happen to have souls or not, whether women, you know, are animals, or they're human beings, and whether women can buy and sell whether they can own and all of these things, okay, so you have to put things into perspective, and then things start to look better, and they look more
understandable. Okay, now we come to the fourth, the fifth and perhaps the most important society, for the for the purposes of our lectures in sha Allah.
And these, the fifth society happens to be the Arabian society. Okay. Arabian peninsula itself. Arabian peninsula, by the way, is no better. All of the evils that I'm telling you all of them are many of them happen to be there within the Arabian society as well, if they were better than the Prophet wouldn't have to be sent. Right. But why Arabia of all other places? That's an answer. I'll get to inshallah today. Hopefully, okay. So, in this society, you have people who are involved with drugs. You have people who were involved with
people who are involved with drugs, you have people who are involved with alcohol, we have people who are
people who are just overall evil people, bloodshed is also a mark of this society as well, highway robberies, whatever highways meant, within that time and context. Were also very, very common as well. You have also a problem with how women are treated within the Arabian sixth century society as well. Why because the Arabs believe women are objects at that time, okay? They believed that women are objects so they are also inherited, they are bought, they're purchased, they're sold, and so on and so forth. They are foods which women are allowed to eat. And there are many foods which only women and men are allowed to eat and there are other foods only men are allowed to eat according to
this Arabian society at that time, okay. Men are allowed to get married.
to any woman and however many numbers, there's no numbers attached to it. All of these things are there within the Arabian society wars are so common that people do them as a hobby. Okay? If they can't find anyone to fight with, they will fight with family members. And that's why an Arabian poet says, what a Highland, Allah. But
sometimes we go and fight with Becker, who happens to be our relative, either monoaminergic, Illa, Hana, when we find no one except for our brother to fight, we'll fight him. Because this is something we have to do, it's part of our culture, need to go towards Otherwise, they don't feel they feel restless. This is the Arabian society that we're dealing with alcohol became very, very prevalent. And by the way, I personally in my reads of early Arabian literature, I noticed that some of the habits that are there within early Arabs, what I mean by early Arabs is prior to the advent of the messenger on the lava and even send them I find them also within Thug Life of today as well.
Okay.
So sometimes we one can say that, the evils they, because it's a thought that is trying to whisper to people to do evil things, right. So she thought is there at that time, and he's there at this time as well. So in some capacities, you'll find similar things so much. So you'll find similar words as well. Okay. I'll give you an example. Right now, when you have a person who is a drug dealer, what do they call this drug dealer?
A lot of people just as a short form will simply say dealer, okay, within certain circles, they'll just say he's a dealer. And what they mean by that is, he's a drug dealer, right? And you're supposed to understand from the type of person that you're speaking to, from the context that you're, you know, you're in and so forth. Arabians were no different. Because they would use the word gadget to refer to someone who would sell alcohol even though the word dodgy simply means a merchant. Okay, so they would use the word ijarah as synonymous to sell it in some contexts, as synonymous to selling drugs, just as some thugs today will use the word dealer as synonymous to
dealing drugs or selling drugs, right. So that that's one of the marks of this society as well, that drugs that alcoholic sales or alcohol sales are very high, people buy and sell see this particular intoxicant a lot.
And another thing that we see is Reba, Reba is very prevalent within the society, okay.
Usually, usury is so prevalent that it's even if you look at the type of usually as transactions that they had at that time, they are so severe that one cannot even imagine them even in our times with deliberate about being as as liberal as we see it today. Okay. So, nowadays, you have 2% 3% and 7% 10%. Okay. In the Arabian society, you had a great time to give your money back to the creditor, okay, someone gave you money, he's a creditor, you're the debtor, you're the one that's taking the debt, when it comes time for you to pay your debt back, you have to pay back. If you don't pay back, what happens? Well, nowadays, we have what 510 15% maximum something like that, right? They would
double it up.
Every time you default. D if it was 100, that 100, it would become 200. If it was uncompounded. If it was if it became 200. The next time you default again, it would become 300, and so forth. So it was just so severe that it would of course cause very, very severe economic harm to people that got themselves into loans as well. Okay, Xena, or fornication and adultery became quite prevalent as well, especially within certain sectors of society. We know that within early Arabian society, there happened to be slavery within slaves, Xena was very prevalent, in fact, some slave masters would use their slaves as * slaves, meaning they would take these slaves and they would, they would sell
them off to people
for prostitution, okay, so this was something that was quite prevalent within
pre Islamic Arabian society. Another thing that we see is that women rights are next to nothing within the society. So much so that her money can be taken at any point. So much so that her rights can be stripped of all of our rights at any point, so much so that she will not she would normally not get any of her inheritance. So much so that after she would go through a thought
A divorce, the previous husband and the family members would force this woman not to be marry again, which is known as allowable. And Allah subhanho wa Taala forbade us from this in the Quran very explicitly, so much so that women would be inherited, like you inherit anything. If someone dies, you inherit money. Women were considered an object during this time. And as I showed you, this was happening in not just Arabia, it's happening in India, it's happening in many other places. So women rights are next to nothing within this time, okay.
And
another thing that we see is what we call what this was some, this was a very, very severe,
severe knee dangerous inside practice that was there within the Arabian society. And in every single tribe in Arabia, we find this practice wasn't known to be a practice of one specific tribe, all tribes of Arabia are practicing this, what's that? They would take the daughter and literally bury this daughter alive. Why? Because the doctor would not bring in income, a daughter might bring some sort of shame to the household the daughter might bring, this is a very sad practice. And Allah subhanho wa Taala spoke of this in the Koran as well. Right?
That is, in order to be I even been putting it on that day, when the mail order will be asked though the dot, the young girl will be asked was placed within a grave while she was still alive, why were you killed or young? Why were you killed. But this is what they would do, they would take this young girl, not just a young baby, you know, female baby, right? And they would just bury without any sheet, without any feelings without any.
They just wouldn't feel it. Right.
And we have some reports of some of the companions telling us that they actually did this before they accepted the song.
Now, of course, after Islam, they felt guilty for what they had done. But this was something that was a practice within that society, it was taking place in every single tribal, and it would be so ritualistic imagine this, that if the father was traveling, and he was out on vacation, or on business or something, they wouldn't bury the doctor until the father gets back, even if she's grown old. So now they will bury a child who is old enough to see what is happening to it.
This is something that is recorded. But this is what was happening in and of course, it's in the Koran as well, that Allah subhana wa tada says this No, oh, that this young girl that was buried alive, she will be asked, Why were you killed? What happened to you? What did you do to deserve this particular type of form of death, right alongside.
And another thing that we see is that people would genuinely kill their children out of fear that they would, they would not have enough money to take care of the child. Okay, so if they had a child, they thought that they're not wealthy enough to take care of this child, male or female, indiscriminately, they would kill the child. Now, of course, the rich ones would do it to some of the females that would keep other females for reproduction, right, but they would not keep
some of the females they would rid themselves of them alongside. And another practice that we see is some people would just vow to God, that if such and such happens, I will slaughter my child. They thought the child is their, you know, their property, like an animal or something like that. So if you, oh God, if you do such and such, for me, I will slaughter my child. Okay.
This was a practice that was there within the pagan Arabian society, the pre Islamic Arabian society.
And one of the reasons why they would kill the daughters more specifically is because they had this idea. Remember, earlier on when I was talking about their creed, they had this idea that doctors are actually the is the females are actually the daughters of a laws, right?
Okay, the angels are the daughters of allies, right? So they would say, well, then females should also go to allies origin to just give them back to Allah. That's how this is the type of idea that some of them actually had.
Along with Stan, this is what's happening within this error. What we can see is that humanity at large is going through very, very severe darkness. Why did Allah as origin pick Arabia of all places to give this message? Why not somewhere
Okay, why didn't the profits a lot? Why wasn't the profits of a lot? Why do you send them sent here in Malaysia? Why wasn't the profits of a lot of it was sent them sent in Central Asia, in India in
other empires that I spoke of why wasn't the profits and send them send it any of these other societies we know that a lot of sent profits to all nations
what in the Illa Allah Fianna there is not a nation except that there was a prophet that was sent to them? This is something Allah says quite clearly in the Quran. Why wasn't Mohammed Salah Lagarde was sending them sent to some other people, even though we noticed that at this time, every people you know, every society needs guidance, right? Firstly, because of the fact that the
sickness of of ship of polytheism was rather new within Arabia. Okay, so there's still greater hope of stopping these people. And let's put it this way, nipping it in the bud. Okay. It was still a rather new practice that was introduced in Arabia, because remember, they knew based on their forefathers, the religion of Ibrahim aleksa, okay, they knew about that.
So it was a rather new practice polytheism paganism was new to the society. And because of this, there's still chances that this society will be easier to handle and then the message can go out to other societies as well. Okay.
The second thing is, and perhaps this is one of the most important things with Adam, is that the pagan Arabian society, though they were pre in the pre Islamic times, they were pagans. They were polytheists, though that all those things are true. But they were a people of truth, nonetheless, okay. They were a people of, of, of trust, to some degree. They were a people of bravery to some degree as well. They were a people that were generally not hypocritical. Okay. There are people who are genuinely not hypocritical. And you will find that they fight complete wars, because someone has touched them the wrong way in terms of their honor. So honor is something very, very important to
the society, but they've lost track of how to deal with this honor. Right? But honor is something really, really important to this society. It's a rather new nation. Okay? Meaning it's a it's an up and coming nation, that requires that needs a leader, and that is willing to go in a direction if the right leader comes and rules this particular society. Okay.
You have a society where though, yes, there's no equality between men and women, though, Yes, there are. There is a lot of oppression that takes place, you still have the meaning of equality there to some degree, not between the genders, but between people How so? I'm going to give you an example which perhaps you can't even imagine in our times, okay.
A man
was approached by one of the A man from Bretton Woods. I mean, a Tamimi man was approached by one of the kings of Arabia, one of the kings of Arabia. And he said to him, that I want this particular horse from you. He had a horse, he wanted to get this horse for him. The horse was named Scott, you wanted this horse.
Now, this man loved his horse. So you looked at who is it speaking to down speaking to a king from the kings of Arabia, okay. He looked at this person and he said, You want the scab? And he said to him, a beta Nana, Enos acaba.
nafees would love to Ottawa to bat for dotted mahkamah to Marlena yada yada to show that a beta like this is a way that this is a way that the Arabs would greet one another. Now you can see the frankness in this type of greeting, okay.
In this way, normally, if you today were to go and speak to a king
or an emperor, you would likely be behind bars, okay? Like he would be behind bars, even though it's not they didn't say something wrong. He was just faking this conversation, okay?
Now, if unless you're dealing with adjust King, then of course you wouldn't have this. But in Arabia, they didn't have at this time now, maybe things may have changed but I'm seeing at this time in sixth century Arabia, they didn't have
very severe classism in this way. There was classism, but a very severe classism wasn't there. So this person is addressing a king, he says, A Beta none. Which means may you avoid doing something that causes you to have her apartment. Is that a nice thing to say?
Doesn't sound like a nice thing to say, but this is how they would speak to one another. And what they really mean by this is actually something good, right? They mean by that, may you avoid doing anything evil, right?
May you avoid doing anything evil?
So it sounds like something you wouldn't say. But this is how the Arabians would speak. And here he is speaking to a king from amongst the kings of Arabia. And he says to him obey the law, right? May you avoid doing something that may lead you to have having the curse upon you in misaka, open sacar happens to be my wealth, and the feast would not go out well, up to that he's very valuable to me Sakaba, this horse is very valuable to me, I'm not going to sell it, and I'm not going to trade it as well. I'm not going to lend it out to you. Perfect that to move from A to nalina I will give myself ransom for saqeb. And it is very, very valuable to me. You jar, Yamanaka jar, I will keep my
children hang hungry, so it can eat but it will never go hungry. This is how much he loves the horse, his horse and the king that's asking him Can I just you know, maybe I'll this horse I liked I want to take it. Right? This is the answer he gives to him. He doesn't get killed for it. He doesn't get anything for it. Why? Because as I said classism is not there as much. Okay? This is very important. Because Because of this because of the lack of classism. It's a society which can perhaps be led in the right direction. This is one of the things that distinguishes the Arabian society from the pre Islamic Arabian society from some of the other societies that were there at that time.
Another example of this is Maria Sharapova. Okay Rustom had invited
a delegation of the Muslims to speak about, speak about what to speak about Islam to give them knowledge about Islam. And this guy is going to a completely different Empire, he's going to a place in which people are not used to dealing with kings and emperors and Sultan's in a very frankly, Arabia, is that, okay? So he goes to a place where all of this is very different than Arabia. And he goes, walks up to the Emperor, and he sits on the chair right next to him.
And the Emperor didn't do anything, he just looked at only unusual thing to do. But
people, all of the people there, they started to look at
the shirt by and it got off, and they tried to hurt him. And they tried to get him off of the chair, and so on and so forth. So he was amazed. And he said to them, he said, I used to get all of these stories about you and hear all of these stories about you. And I now know that there is not a nation, which is more stupider than your nation, this is what you say, Okay.
We in the Arab world, in non national and us in Arabia, we happen to be equal. That's what he says, last taboo about Luna, nice, that'd be too bad. Now, some of us don't make other people into slaves of those others as well. Except if that other person happens to be my enemy, then it is made into a slave. That's what should I say? Okay, so having, and then he says Elijah, Poonam Hari,
I thought that you used to treat people with the same type of mercy that we treat our people with, as well. But you should have told me before I came here that all of this is, in fact, not true. And some of you happen to be Gods for the others. That's what he said. Right? So you can see he's shocked at what he's seeing as well, because they're not used to their nomadic people. They're not used to all of these different rites and rituals, when, and so on and so forth. Right? They're not used to these things. So then you continue with any sense that
I didn't just come on my own accord, you are the one who invited me. So as a person who's been invited, I must also be treated as a guest as well on top of that, so he's looking to get all of the rights of a guest in a society where they're thinking the Emperor is, in fact God or something similar to that and above
Question and so on and so forth. So this made Arabia a very different place. Another thing that made Arabia a very different place and this is perhaps what I'll leave you off with inshallah, is the fact that in Arabia happened to be the Kaaba, the house of Allah azza wa jal, which was the first house of Allah azza wa jal for the first place of worship, as Allah tells us in the art in a world of at will, the early NASA, Linda db bacchetta mubaraka whodunit enemy, the first house that had been placed for people to worship and happens to be the one in backup or backup, backup is the storage word for backup. And the word bucha is actually also in the Bible as well. Okay? The word
Becca is also within the Bible as well, but basically are the same thing a lot uses the word backup,
as well. So the first house that was placed for worship for mankind is the one that happens to be Becca, Mubarak, and what would allow me it is a blessing. And it is a guidance for all of mankind. inshallah, we'll speak more about these different topics in our subsequent lectures be isn't in line to Allah. Today, as I said, we were trying to do and I think we have successfully done that was two main things. We wanted to look at all of the religions prior to
prior to start, not all the main religions, okay, and the main empires and dynasties that were there during the time of the birth of the profitsystem and during that same centuries, and why is it that Allah azza wa jal chose of all people,
you know, the pros of all places, Mecca and Arabia for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam to be sent. Okay. Now, what's one last point and it's very important
that the Prophet had
exceptional
leadership skills, that is what led to after the will of Allah azza wa jal, the people of Arabia being saved at the hands of lawsuits.
Because we know that some of the orientalist, they say in fact, the Arabian society was looking in this direction already. And all of the circumstances were right for the legacy of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to be as it was, they say this, but we say in response to this, this is partially true, but not entirely. So because for 500 years, Christianity had been trying to infiltrate Arabia and they were not successful. Okay? For over 500 years, Christianity had been trying to infiltrate Arabia and they were not able to so within 23 years, the prophet SAW Selim comes and he brings a message, which is currently not known to most people in the world, as you
notice, because most people are worshipping other than Allah, except for a handful of people around the world. And people answered that call and people flocked to the messengers on a lot of it was send them within 20 odd years. That is, in fact great leadership skills as well on the part of the final finality of the messengers. I asked him also kind of what the honor to grant is, to continue to practice to convey to understand and to implement within our lives just Akuma low hidden for patiently listening. Also Allahu ala Sayidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
wa salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.