Abdullah Hakim Quick – New Muslim Corner – Persecution And Migration
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
All praise are due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
And peace and blessings be showered upon our
beloved prophet Muhammad,
the master of the first and the last,
and his family, his companions, and all those
who call to his way and establish his
sunnah to the day of judgment.
As to what follows,
my beloved brothers and sisters, to our viewers,
to our friends, assalamu alaykum wa Rahmatullah.
Alhamdulillah,
this is another opportunity,
for our new Muslim corner.
And this,
series of sessions,
is developed
in order to give,
new Muslims
a solid foundation
in the basic understanding of Islam,
to separate Islam from culture,
and also to give,
some time
for questions.
That if people had questions about certain aspects,
of Islamic lifestyle,
we could give an answer
that would be more relevant,
than what you may get,
in a general masjid.
So this is our continuation
of our understanding of the second part of
the kalimah.
We know that the kalimah, la ilaha illallah
Muhammadu Rasool Allah, sallam.
This is the basic
statement of Islam.
It is what enters you into Islam and
inshallah,
is the end of the road.
And to understand
the first part
is something that is easy for most people,
at least to conceptualize
that there is a creator,
that there is a power
above all, and that the systems that are
set up in the universe,
were not made by chance.
But it is intelligent
design.
It is divine,
coordination
by the creator of the heavens and the
earth.
The second part,
of the,
Islamic
Kalima
and that is that Muhammad
is his messenger.
This,
is something that for many people,
is difficult
because they don't even know
who prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was.
They may have even heard a lot of
negative
information.
So in a sense, when we are dealing
with this, we have to do,
what is called deconstruction.
So we're deconstructing
wrong wrong concepts,
concerning the prophet, peace be upon him, and
his companions.
And also to try to give
more of a background,
for the world
at that time.
This is 14 over 1400 years ago,
and
definitions
that are being used,
in those days are not the same as
definitions now.
We find this in the Quran itself.
We find this in,
sayings of the prophet, peace of pardon me.
It's important to understand,
what is called Aspaba Nizul,
the reasons for the revelations.
For instance, just to give you an idea,
in the chapter called Surah Yusuf,
it speaks about,
a group of people coming along a caravan,
coming along.
And,
this is the caravan that eventually picked up
prophet, Yusuf alaihi sallam who had been thrown
in the well.
So the Quran says wajahat
sayyara.
It says that the caravan is coming. So
the term that is being used is sayyara.
But if you say sayyada in modern day
Arabic, then they wanna know is Toyota,
is it Mercedes Benz, sayyada is an automobile,
it's a car.
But in old Arabic,
it meant,
the moving
group of people
through the desert that we now know as
caravan.
And so the time framework
influenced
the term itself.
So what we are looking at,
in the life of the prophet, peace be
upon him,
is not as
much of the propaganda of the world has
projected about the prophet
that he was an aggressive person
and that Muslims were
the aggressors.
They got their religion and then they tried
to enforce this
upon other people.
So this is the negative narrative
that is given,
about Islam, but the reality,
is something completely different.
And we found out that the first part
of the life of the prophet, peace be
upon him, this is what is called the
Meccan period.
It was 13 years. His his whole prophethood
was 23 years.
Right? So the largest part of his prophethood
is in Mecca.
That's the that's the Meccan period.
In this
time period,
Muslims were not allowed
to defend themselves.
So therefore, in bringing
tawhid,
the oneness of God,
it was a revolution.
But today, some people might say it was
it was a nonviolent,
civil disobedience
in a sense. It's nonviolent
revolution.
So it is bringing about change
through preaching and lifestyle
and doing good deeds and having patience,
under the circumstances.
And that eventually
led
to the time when Muslims had to leave
Mecca
and travel to other parts. So we are
in the Meccan period,
now in the first few years
after the prophethood began.
And the message of the oneness of God
was a direct
confrontation
because Mecca had been ruled by
people who believe in many gods
and Mecca had become not only a religious
center
but also an economic center.
So to say there's only 1 god
and is not Latin, is not Uzza and
Suwah
and not the 360 gods
worshiped by the Arabs,
inside of the house, inside of the Kaaba.
To say that
is is to take away the reason to
be,
for Mecca itself.
So, therefore, this was,
in a sense,
it was a confrontation.
And although the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
and his companions
stayed to themselves,
they tried to avoid
negative,
conflict,
persecution came.
This persecution we found out
began with insults and lies
and,
different types of torment
that came upon the Muslims.
And the third stage
of the of of the persecution that we
have reached now,
the 3rd stage,
was the most brutal stage
and that included torture
and murder
of defenseless Muslims.
Again, this is a counternarrative
to what you may have heard. Muslims were
not the powerful people
enforcing Islam upon Mecca
and upon other religions.
They just wanted to worship Allah.
But because of that
they were tortured.
And there are so many stories of individuals,
who were able to,
deal with this
terrible,
type of
reaction,
this torture.
For Christians,
looking upon the life of Isa alaihis salam,
Jesus Christ
as they would say,
they look upon Jesus as 1 who brought
the message of peace
and he was
punished. His followers were punished.
They sacrificed.
And the Christians look at the early days
of Christianity,
as a time of open sacrifice,
not realizing
that
this is something that happened to all of
the prophets.
And prophet Muhammad sallallahu and his companions,
were,
shining examples
of patients under,
trying circumstances.
And normally, when people speak about,
punishment and torture, the name that first comes
up is,
Bilal ibn Raba Radiullah.
And Bilal,
was,
a slave.
He was enslaved person,
from East Africa. We used the term
Ethiopian.
There's a general term that they use, al
habasha.
But because we are now more advanced, you
know, in our understanding
of geography and history,
al Habashah really referred to East Africa.
So it could extend from Port Sudan,
right down into Djibouti
and,
Somalia
and that then and and, Eritrea,
right along the coast of East Africa.
And there's just a general term that was
being used, by the Arabs at that time
where they would say Al Habasha.
So Bilal
was from that part of the world, and
he had been captured
and he was enslaved.
And slavery was not something that was only
restricted,
to African people.
Slavery had no,
racial connotation.
And we learned
that even the word slave
actually comes from Slav
because the Romans were taking
the Slavic people. This is before the time
of prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. They were
taking
Slavic people,
blonde hair and blue eyes,
as their slaves.
And there were so many blonde haired, blue
eyed
slaves
who were Slavs
that the term, which might have been something
different before, they just said, well, that person's
a slave
or that person's a slave.
And that's the opposite of what you might
think today. Right?
Because
names and terminologies
change,
with time.
So anybody
could become a slave. If you did not
have a tribe in back of you, if
you did not had have power and you
were caught
by the different,
Arab tribes
who were there, then you would become a
slave.
And slavery
existed in China, India,
Africa,
Europe,
even the Americas here
amongst the indigenous people.
Because how it came about in many of
the cases is prisoners of war.
So when war was fought between 2 nations,
those who were captured
were then taken as used as servants
and slaves integrated into the societies.
So this is, Bilal ibn Rabah,
radiAllahu, may Allah be pleased with him,
who suffered,
under his so called master, Umayyah.
And,
he when
a big rock was even put on his
chest,
Bilal refused to submit and he said,
which means 1. He kept saying 1 God.
1 God. 1 God. That's a revolution
because by saying 1
you're opposing
the many gods.
Okay. And Bilal,
because of his
sacrifice,
was so dear to the prophet, peace be
upon him,
that on 1 occasion,
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that
he had a vision. He would get visions.
Remember the revelation came in different forms.
And 1 of the forms of revelation is
sort of like a a waking dream,
that he would had. And he had 1
of these dreams,
where he was awake and
he heard somebody coming.
Now if you can recall your brother, your
sister, your mother, your father, you're living in
the same house and say your brother, you
know, has got big feet and when he
comes, you know that's him in the hall.
You don't even have to look.
You know that's Ali,
because Ali makes this sound.
And that's how people are when they're familiar
with each other.
So the prophet
now
just project with him.
He's projecting
entering paradise.
So he's in paradise,
and he says that he he can hear
the footsteps of Bilal
because Bilal was so close to him
that he he knew his footsteps,
and he said he could hear his footsteps.
So Bilal was 1 of the people
who was promised paradise before he died,
And his sacrifice is
well recorded.
With the man, Ibn Affan,
who became 1 of the great leaders of
Islam, he married,
2 of the daughters of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, 1 had passed away,
with man
was also tortured.
Even though he came from a
noble family of Quresh,
they reacted against him
and would even put straw on him and
light it on fire, and he he suffered.
The fam Mus'ab ibn Umayr.
And these are all stories when you get
a chance, you can read these stories.
They're amazing stories. Mus'ab ibn Umayr,
is his story is really
amazing. He was,
the fashion statement of Mecca.
Now I'm using this term because
today with the modern movie stars
and the heroes,
you have certain people that when they come
in,
they're like a fashion statement.
So whatever clothes that they wear,
everybody wants to wear those clothes.
K? We see it going on now amongst
the youth.
I'm not gonna mention any names,
but you'll see certain people you mention a
name. Whatever they wear, everybody wants to wear
it. So Mus'ab
was 1 of the rich
young men in Mecca,
highly intelligent,
and well dressed.
He had the nicest Yemeni cloaks,
the nicest shoes,
pure silk and cotton,
and whatever he would wear, everybody else wanted
to get it too.
And Musaab accepted Islam,
and his mother who was who was his
guardian at the time,
It's a long story, but when she found
out, she basically locked him up
and expelled him and he act actually had
to migrate.
And when he came back and his mother
totally,
you know, divorced any divorced any relationship with
him,
Musab became homeless.
Now imagine
being a wealthy, rich, young man
that everybody in the city wants to look
like,
and then he became homeless.
To the extent where he came into the
house where the Muslims were underground
and he had rags on.
You know homeless people. Right?
He had rags on.
And when they the sahaba looked at him,
they could not believe their eyes
like what he suffered
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And because of this, the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
when they eventually made the major migration and
you'll see this,
Mus'ab
was the 1st ambassador of Islam.
He represented Islam,
to Medina, to Yathrib
because he was really eloquent,
and because of the sacrifice that he had
made.
Also, another story, and there are so many
stories,
but these are some of the most famous
ones, it is the family of Yasser.
So Yasser was, an Arab man
who had been enslaved,
And,
his wife, Sumayya,
many,
historians
are now bringing out the fact
that she also was from East Africa. She
was an African.
You think that Bilal was the only African,
amongst the Sahaba but that's not true.
Many reports are showing that she also had
that type of origin.
And their son, Ammar.
And Ammar,
famous companion.
So these 3 is called Ali Yasser.
And they embraced Islam
and they were being tortured by their
so called masters
really bad.
And this is now whipping and
stones and fire and all types of things.
Muslims were not allowed
to fight back.
And so the prophet
then 1 time came by the place where
they were being tortured.
And he said,
He said, have patience family of Yasir.
Your place
is in paradise.
So they were also
amongst the people who were promised paradise
before they died.
And Sumeya,
may Allah be pleased with her because of
the stance that she took
not, backing off.
She was,
martyred, she was killed
by her master, stabbed in her abdomen,
and she died. She was the 1st person
to die for Islam. So you know the
word shahid. Right? Shahid means the madas.
She was number 1.
Okay. Now these are the illustrious companions
who set the stage. So this is how
intense
the persecution
was,
and
it it it reached the point.
And torture is something, you know, may Allah
forbid. We see things happening in the world.
May Allah forbid that this would happen to
anybody.
But torture is something that,
a person can lose their senses
when they're under torture.
Ammar came to the prophet
1 time, and he said,
I have destroyed myself.
And the prophet said, how? He said, I
said. I said. I said disbelief.
In other words, I I said, he was
being tortured so bad, he said, okay. Allah
is not god.
Because he wasn't controlling himself. Right? So the
prophet said to him, how was your heart?
And he said, my heart was strong in
faith.
So then the prophet said then you're still
Muslim.
And this is a precedent that is set
for people who are in, undergoing intense suffering,
and persecution.
And,
Ama
later became
illustrious companion,
as well his life is something,
which is an amazing thing,
to read about.
And,
it got so bad.
And this is the 5th year of the
prophethood.
So this prophet was 40 years old, remember,
when he got the revelation. So this he's
45 now.
So it's 5 years after the prophethood began.
It was so intense
that that
through revelation,
the prophet,
enabled his companions to migrate.
And
he
recommended a place for them to migrate.
Now you you look at the map of
the Muslim world today,
and you'll see,
Mecca, Medina,
then North
Syria,
right, Yemen in the south,
Iraq,
all the countries. Right? Then on, you know,
on the western side, Ethiopia.
He actually told them not to go to
Yemen,
not to go to Iraq,
not to go to Syria,
but he told them to go to Al
Habashah.
And
he said to them,
if you go to Abyssinia,
Al Habashah,
meaning it's it's now
Eritrea,
Ethiopia.
If you go to Abyssinia, it would be
better for you for in it there is
a king
who will not tolerate oppression.
It is a land of truth.
This is an important statement.
He's saying that Ethiopia
is a land of truth.
Go until such time as Allah shall relieve
you from your distress.
So this is found in the Muslim of
Imam Ahmed. This authentic.
And,
the king who was there was a Christian
king.
Remember the Christians,
you had different types of Christians, those who
believe in Trinity,
and there were some who believed in 1
God.
And Christianity had gone up the Nile south,
so he was a Christian king. And the
title for for kings
in the Aksumite empire because the empire was
called Aksum.
Remember, it was the great empire.
Right? The 1 had the elephants
that attacked Mecca.
This is 1 of the 4 great,
empires of the world.
Okay? So he told them, go to Ethiopia.
Go to Al Habasha.
And
the title was An Najashi.
An Najashi. That's how we say it in
Arabic.
In English, they say Nagas.
So you might see it written in some
of the books, the Nagas.
In the language of Najashi Tigre,
if you know Ethiopia, he's a Tigre man,
they say Nagash.
Nagash is the actual name.
K? And these are just so but his
name was Ashamah,
Ashamah
An Najashi.
K? So he was a great king,
an amazing empire,
there. And so the companions went across. They
crossed the Red Sea,
12 men and 4 women,
and amongst them was Uthman ibn Affan. Remember,
Uthman was being tortured.
So he was allowed to migrate.
He had married the daughter of the prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, Ruqayhi. So they made
the journey,
and, they settled there,
for a period of time.
And when the Quraish,
found out about,
their settlement,
the Quraish
sent out
ambassadors to bring them back.
But the Muslims came out with Najashi.
They went to his court,
and they read from,
they read from the the Quran,
sort of, they read from, sort of Miriam,
the chapter on Mary.
And Najashi cried when he heard this.
And he said, this is the same as
our religion. You're safe.
He said it in words.
K? So this is what is called the
first
migration.
So this is the first movement
out of Mecca itself.
Now,
word came to the Muslims
that things had changed in Mecca,
that the the Quraysh had embraced Islam. What
actually
happened
was the the revealing of a chapter called
Surat Najim,
the star.
And Surat Najim
is an awe inspiring,
chapter of the Quran, rhythmic
verses
and they read it down by the Kaaba.
Muslims read it down by the Kaaba. It
was so awe inspiring in Arabic
and there's a part where it says prostrate.
The Quraysh got caught up in this and
so they all prostrated
because language is so important to them.
And so when Quraysh prostrated,
some people on the periphery
saw this and they ran.
They went on a car. They just left
the city and they start spreading the word
that Quresh had embraced Islam.
They had not embraced Islam.
They were only caught up in the moment.
And
after that,
they continued
in their,
wickedness,
but the message spread all the way to
Ethiopia.
And because of that, some of the Muslims
then returned. They returned
because they wanted to come home
and they found out it was actually worse
than it was before.
And for those of you who are more
advanced students,
this
scenario surrounding
Suraj and Nejem,
this was
the basis of
the writings of, a Salman Rushdie.
Salman Rushdie who who wrote,
you know, the the the
the wickedness, what he calls satanic
verses.
That was the name of this book. It's
a big book.
This might be before some of your time.
But this was a big thing. Some of
you remember, though. Right? Salman Richter, he's a
brilliant writer,
but he's a shaytan.
And he started to,
he said satanic verses are these verses in
Surat Al Najm.
And he described
Mecca.
It was a historical
novel
where you sort of write the truth in
a fictional way.
So he described Mecca
and he said some terrible things about the
companions.
He described prostitution amongst them. He used racist
terminologies,
and and this was the, you know, his
inspiration,
were were these verses.
Okay?
Now
because of this situation,
the Muslims had to go back to Ethiopia
again.
So the second part
of the first migration came about.
And this 1 had
83 men and 19 women.
And they went through these pictures I took
myself, this is in Ethiopia itself,
in the area of Aksum as you're traveling
through the countryside.
It's beautiful environment. See that? Yeah. This is
this is another 1 here.
That that's another 1. Beautiful environment.
And, so this is the hills
that are there. So this is where the
companions actually went through going and it's because,
Axsome is very high.
It's highlands.
It's mountainous.
And so they took refuge,
and,
yes. So this is now when this is
the Tigray highlands. It's called Tigray land now.
They're in Ethiopia.
And this is where this is the time,
when they sent the delegation
to bring them back, Ahmad ibn Abbas,
Dilar ibn Abi Rabiya.
They sent them to bring them back,
okay, the Quraish.
And,
but the king,
when he heard from Jaffa
reading Suramariam,
he he wept
and his whole court cried and he said,
this is the same as us.
And he gave protection. And this is a
place in Axum
which is called the Ark of the Covenant.
So Ethiopians believe
that the covenant, this chest that had the
scrolls and it was the power chest of,
prophet Suleiman.
So they believe that he gave this to
his son, Menelik.
Because remember Suleiman married Bilqis,
right, Ethiopian,
queen,
and his son is Menelik.
So they believe that he gave this,
chest to Menelik.
It has superpowers in it according to superstition,
and it's housed in this building.
It's there now.
They will not allow anybody to come inside
this place.
Queen Elizabeth came,
and they wouldn't let her in.
That's how stubborn they are.
And 1 person
lives in this building. See there's 1 outside
there?
He looks like a Muslim too, but he's
a Christian.
1 person lives inside and takes care of
whatever is inside of them,
and that person who's on the inside
never comes out.
He lives inside his whole life.
And when he's about to die, they elect
somebody else and he goes in.
And we have a problem with 10 days
in Ramadan.
Like, we have a problem
staying in the mosque. Right?
His whole life
inside of this building.
Okay?
So they're serious in their Christianity. They're serious.
Okay? And that was
the belief. And Najashi himself
okay.
Alright. Let's go back.
Najashi himself,
he,
embraced Islam
secretly.
He couldn't openly,
say because it's a Christian kingdom, the trinitarians
who believe in 3,
and those who believe in 1, they were
struggling against each other.
So he couldn't announce
that he was,
a Muslim,
but he embraced Islam.
And word got out
that the Muslims were there, and the the
Christian Trinitarians
started to rebel.
There was a revolution there,
in,
Aksum in Ethiopia.
And but alhamdulillah the Muslims were able to
overcome
what they had to overcome.
They hid themselves.
Najashi was victorious,
and he remained in Islam,
and he eventually,
passed away.
And he died as a Muslim.
And prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
when the word came to him in Revelation,
he then
lined up the Muslims
and he said,
1 of your brothers has died.
Make
janaza
for the absent person.
That's the first time it was ever made.
It was for Najashi.
Okay. And
this is a great achievement.
And what it shows
and the point we're making tonight
is that
the Muslims who went across into Africa, what
is now known as Africa, because now they
say Asia on 1 side, Africa on the
other side, These are made up terms.
Okay. But the Muslims who went across,
they did not go as Arab conquerors conquering
African people.
They went as refugees.
It's very important point.
Secondly,
it's a Muslim,
group
and
Christians.
So this is real interfaith. Right?
It's not phony interfaith.
This is a real,
unity,
between the Muslims and the Christians who believe
in 1 God.
So this is the first part
of this famous,
migration we're taking tonight.
Next class we want to look at
a little bit more,
in terms of,
this important migration.
I wanna open up the floor,
for any questions, that anybody may have,
concerning this.
K? This is the first migration.
Floor is open for any questions.
Yes. So we want to look at that
in more details next week,
because this is an important, you know, you
know, area to understand.
But just to answer your question is, were
there any more,
East African I'm using this term East African.
Right?
You know, Muslims because it could be all
up and down the coastline.
Were there any more people
of so called African origin,
who were Muslim? Yes.
Number 1 with Bilal,
did you know that Bilal had a brother?
This is a shock. What's the last person?
Person's name? His name was Khaled.
Khaled ibn Rabah.
Okay? And it's in the books.
But Muslims don't bring these things out because
they're details that didn't make
important thing before, but Khaled is well known
to the point where after the death of
the prophetess of salam, when they were in
Damascus, Bilal died in Damascus.
And Khaled wanted to get married
to 1 of the Arab tribes at the
time,
and they were reluctant
because they have their tribalism too. Right? He's
Ethiopian too. Right?
They have their tribalism.
And then, Bilal came on the scene.
And when they saw Bilal, they said,
hear and obey.
Do the marriage.
Called it. Did you know
that Bilal had a sister?
This is really a shock.
Gafira.
Gafira
bintraba.
Radilawanna.
It was a bint. Raffira.
She was she was she was amongst her
companions.
Spinel's sister, man. Oh, no. No. No. Why
do they use this, like
Yeah. But obit means the daughter of.
Oh. Yeah. Rabah was like their father. Okay.
Okay?
Also,
the prophet, peace be upon him, said take
the Quran
from 4 people
who had, like, the best,
recitations.
And in in in 1 hadith, he said,
1 of the 4 was a person named
Sal Salem,
Mola,
Abu Huthayf Abu Huthayfah.
Salem.
K. So he was 1 of the 4
top Quran readers.
He was East African as well.
So there's a lot of names, and I'll
go over more of them,
next week. 1 of the brother named Muhajah.
It go comes later in the battle of
Beidah when they had their major confrontation.
Muhajah was the first person to die in
the battle of Beidah.
K?
And
remember,
the dry nurse of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, was like his mother. Does anybody
remember her name?
We covered this. Anybody remember?
Hajah? No.
That's back with Ibrahim, alayhis salaam.
Think back. Remember her name?
It starts with an h, though. Right? Yeah.
It starts with h.
They said Halima.
Not Halima. Halima
was the was the wet nurse.
Halima
fed him.
Her name was Amen.
Barakah was the was the name, but Amen
is what she's known as. Remember when the
prophetess
mother
was going to visit, her husband who had
died,
Amina,
and then she was on the road
and her servant was there. That's Omayemin.
She was East African.
And
Amedda got really sick
and on her deathbed, she said, take my
son,
take him as your son.
You're his mother.
And from that time, the prophet, peace be
upon him, said,
she never left me either physically or mentally.
And whenever he would see her because eventually,
you know, whatever slavery they had was gone.
You know? And she got married,
with Zaid,
and her son was very famous. Does anybody
know what her son's name is, advanced students?
Usama. Excellent.
Usama.
Everybody knows Osama. Right?
Not Bin Laden. Right?
That's where he gets the name from, Osama.
Right?
Usama
was the was the son of Amen.
K? They were all East African
amongst the companions.
And there's a lot more. I'm gonna go
over some of more of the names with
you next week, you know, inshallah
because this will take time to settle in.
Right? It's a shock for most people, you
know, when you hear this. But this is
something which is hidden in plain sight
and has always been there.
So floor is open for any questions, that
anybody has. Yes. Floor.
We know that because the companions,
they knew they knew they were there.
And 15 Sahabas
died in Ethiopia.
So in this place, Aksum, there's a there's
a city now in Aksum called Nagash
named after the king. It's there right now.
His grave is there.
You can visit his grave and there's also
15 sahabas died while they were there because
they were there for a few years.
15 of them died. They're buried there in
Nagash.
Okay. So they knew
according to what we understand it was Jibreel
alaihis salam, the angel who informed the prophet
of his death.
Okay. But but the companions knew
and it was confirmed by them, you know,
when they when they because they all eventually
went to Medina.
They all eventually left, Ethiopia.
So do the Christians still believe that he
was a Christian, like, in their history?
The Christians in their history
don't,
they don't say that he was a Muslim
because it was, you know, secretly he had
embraced,
you know, Islam.
And, you know, they they don't say that
in the history. Yeah. Do the Jawshi also
write on the church?
Yeah. Next week, inshallah,
we will we're gonna go over this, you
know, and give you more details,
showing the prophet's letter to Najashi and what
came back
because there's a there's a there's a lot
more to this story,
but what we're establishing tonight is the persecution
and then the fact that they migrated into
Africa. Right?
Not attack attacking Africans to make them slaves.
That's propaganda.
You see? That's racist propaganda
against Arabs and Islamophobia.
The reason why Muslims went there,
they were refugees,
and Christians
took them in,
gave them a place to stay
and refuge.
You see? And they worked together.
So that's really interfaith relationships.
Online, are there are there any other questions?
And alhamdulillah, I was able to stop praying
on my job. Love you for the sake
of Allah.
Masha'allah.
You know, our brother or sister,
you know, prayed on the job. You know,
it's it's important for us not to be
afraid to be Muslim.
You know, stand up, you know, for your
faith. We have the right to do this.
This is a very important concept. So the
floor is open for any general questions now,
that we have at this point,
in our new Muslim corner.
Floor is open.
Yeah.
I'm trying to think how do I frame
this. I
what what is sort of the difference between
suffering
and enduring?
And enduring. Enduring.
Because I think that, you know, have obviously
given
And as you said, you gave an example
of there was a case, you know, he
had said something
that was disbelief, but in his heart, he
held on. Mhmm. So
and Allah doesn't want us to put us
in harm's way.
And there's so much love and mercy
difference? Well, we we we we recognize that
life in life is suffering.
Because just the fact of being a human
being,
we have to go through pain.
And
women know that more than men because of
childbirth. Right?
And that but that pain makes a bond.
When we when you get a cut
for the cut to heal,
it hurts more than when you got the
cut, normally.
The healing process.
So in life, there is pain.
But the question is, how do you deal
with the pain?
And we are told, you know, to,
embrace the pain in a sense
this is where the your endurance is sober.
So the word sober
is patience and endurance,
perseverance,
under that, and then that suffering,
can become a source of blessing.
And it can also become a source of
strength,
you know, for the Muslim,
you know, who who who goes through
whatever mental or physical
suffering that they have to go through.
And life is short and Allah is merciful,
to us.
You may have had some pain in your
life.
We all have pain, even men. Men have
a lot of pains too.
You know, not as much as women physically
in their body. But, you know, when you
had that pain,
after a couple years, it's you don't remember
it
like it was.
That's Allah's mercy.
Because otherwise, we would be afraid to go
outside.
Okay.
So that is the way this is life.
And if we can endure what we're going
through,
then inshallah,
we will gain a blessing for that.
Question?
The question is,
back in Mecca when the chapter of Surat
An Najm was being read,
and it's a very melodic,
you know, type of captivating.
And everybody's following it along, and it says,
you know, you know,
make prostration
to Allah. And and the Quraysh did believe
in Allah,
but they believe in idols to go to
Allah.
They're mushroking. Right? Polytheists.
So it's saying
prostrate to Allah.
And for them, they were so captivated in
the moment
they did that.
And some people thought
that they had embraced Islam, but they had
not embraced Islam.
They were just captivated,
you know, by the recitation at that moment
And,
you know, they they they renounced whatever
people thought, and they became worse
in torturing the Muslims than before.
Okay? So that pro prostration alone does not,
mean that you're a Muslim.
You enter Islam when you take your shahada.
Right? You gotta be a witness
in the oneness of Allah and the prophethood
of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. That's how
you enter Islam,
because many people prostrate for many different reasons.
Now any other general questions, anybody has?
What are the lessons? What are the
lessons you're talking about? There are many lessons.
Of course, we have to recognize
that
the early Muslims were persecuted.
Just that alone is a lesson
because the propaganda is that Islam is the
1 that's aggressive and harms people to accept
Islam, but, no, it was the opposite.
That they went through this,
suffering,
and through that suffering it is in a
sense a type of,
purification.
So literally
and you'll see the Quran that is revealed.
When you read a chapter of the Quran,
it will say Meccan period
on on the top or Medina period.
So the chapters that say Meccan period,
these is what these were the chapters revealed
in the 1st 13 years.
And these generally will be about oneness of
god,
next life,
purity of heart.
It's character building.
It was in the Medina period.
That is where you get solados
established,
zakat
fasting,
nation building.
That's after they migrated.
See? 10 in the 10 years.
1st period,
you know, this is a time of purification.
So we see that the the the companions
in a sense
had to go through a lot
before they actually
had the right to establish Islam. And so
what this means also, another important lesson, especially
for our new Muslim Corner, is that Islam
came in stages.
So these Muslims here, some who died
and went to paradise, they never even made
5 salats
because 5 salat didn't come to Medina. Right?
You see? They never fasted in Ramadan.
They never paid zakat.
They never made Hajj,
but yet they're considered to be in paradise
on the highest level.
You see?
So so this shows us,
a lot about this time period.
And for a new Muslim who comes into
Islam,
a new Muslim also comes in in stages.
You don't have to do everything
immediately.
Right? You you come into Islam,
you know, at the pace you can, try
as much as you possibly can,
and then
develop
yourself into Islam. And that's the way Islam
is supposed to be. We're not supposed to
be extremists.
Right? We go stage by stage.
Any other general questions that anybody has?
So,
that will be our lesson for tonight because
we have some other,
you know, business that we're doing, you know,
amongst,
you know, students as well.
And alhamdulillah,
next week, inshallah, we will learn more about
this important migration,
some more startling information,
maybe not as surprising as Bilal's brother and
sister. Right?
That 1 you'll never forget. Right?
Not as surprising as that, but, inshallah, some
more very interesting information,
next week. Have a safe journey home.