Abdullah Hakim Quick – New Muslim Corner – Prophet Muhammad As A Young Man
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the cultural aspect of Islam, including the lineage of people in different regions and the importance of survival training for young people to improve their natural life. They also emphasize the shaping of manhood, including the use of trinity and the importance of trade and being a trustworthy person. The importance of praying towards the Kaaba and avoiding superstitious understanding is emphasized, along with the shaping of manhood, including the use of black stone and the importance of not being associated with race or sex. The importance of learning about Muhammad Aras beautiful Allah sahu alaihi wa sallam to better understand his personality and the importance of choosing him as the guide to the day of judgment.
AI: Summary ©
To my beloved brothers and sisters, to our
friends, our viewers,
assalamu alaikum.
Alhamdulillah.
This is another
continuation
of our new Muslim corner.
And
this,
gathering,
this outreach
is intended to
clear up misunderstandings
and to build
a solid foundation,
in the house of Islam.
And that is that those who are embracing
Islam
in many cases
find a difference between
Islam theoretically
and Islam in practice.
They also might find a difference
based upon where they come into Islam.
Because the people who teach,
Islam because it's a way of life
naturally give off
their own culture
and their own way of life.
And this has an impact upon those
who are embracing Islam,
young people,
and even those who are relooking at their
Islam again.
And so the the purpose of this of
these sessions is the first part of the
session,
is to go back to the original source,
the original experience of Islam
with prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon
him,
and to,
live
as much as we can through the sources
his life.
And the intention is to
bring out the human aspects
of prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
because he was a man
and Islam,
was not sent order
for a revelation In order
for a revelation
to become practical, it needs somebody
to live the revelation.
This is why,
in understanding
the second part of the kalimah
of the basis of Islam,
and that is, La ilaha illallah second part,
Muhammad rasulullah.
That Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the
seal
and the finality of the prophets.
In order to understand this,
we need to get familiar
with
this man.
We need to be familiar with
the time period
in which he lived
because time changes,
technology
changes,
and people change.
And that has become really clear to this
generation because
within the past 30 years or so,
the world has gone through a tremendous
transformation.
And when I explain to,
students and friends when we talk about our
lives and I tell them
that,
when I was studying,
there were no cell phones.
There was no Internet.
Now that sounds insane.
And so I say I said to some
students, I was born
in BC.
Okay. Which for most people, you would think
BC is,
cavemen and no. Before
computers.
Right? BC.
Or you could say,
I was
studying
and growing up
BFB
before Facebook.
And for a lot of people, they cannot
even begin to understand the world
without a cell phone,
without internet.
Just imagine this,
that there was a time not that long
ago.
I'm talking about nineties
in the nineties.
This is after
the the flower revolutions and
feminism
and drugs and all this already happened.
Okay. But but communication
was on a different level,
and the only people who carried around,
cell phones would be,
people who are in the highest level of
espionage,
James Bond types,
and other people were the only ones who
have access
to this equipment.
Okay. Now it is universal,
and
it never
ceases to amaze me
when I'm driving along and I stop at
a red light and I look,
you know, at the bus stop and on
the street, and you'll see that, like, you
know, 3 out of 5
of the people, sometimes 4 out of 5,
are on a cell phone.
Okay. So that means that
most of the people
are actually in another world. Like,
they're another wavelength,
and that's this generation itself.
So look at the changes that people have
gone through
in only 30 years.
So imagine the difference
in a 1,400
years.
Okay. If we can begin to understand this.
Although, really, to be honest, the the the
leaps and bounds, we have gone through the
changes, and that's 30 years.
Really,
compared to the past is like a few
100 years
in terms of communications,
in terms of technology.
So
in order to fully understand the individual,
we need to sort of,
let go
of the world that we're living in now
and to go back in time,
to this period of 7th century
AD.
This is like the 600
AD. So you can see how long ago
that was. And looking at the map here,
this is a map trying to give you
the world,
at around 625
AD. So the names that you know
are not the same. There's a few of
them where they put in sort of a
modern type name.
But basically speaking,
it's centered
in the Arabian Peninsula.
So this is the basis
of how we
look at his life.
And this is really the way that we
look at history itself.
So a true Muslim historian does not look
at history from a Eurocentric
point of view. It's not based in Europe,
and they're looking at the rest of the
world.
Right? But it is more centered in Arabia.
And you could even say in Mecca itself.
So instead of being Eurocentric
or Afrocentric,
then we are Mecca centric.
Right? So we are centered in Mecca,
and then we're looking at the rest of
the world.
So if you have that framework,
it's a different way of thinking.
And this is revolutionary thinking because this is
the type of thinking that the younger generation,
the students,
the people who are in rebellion,
will have to go through in order to
be truly free.
It is not only a physical struggle,
but it is
a psychological
intellectual struggle.
So many of the institutions that we know
United Nations and IMF and many of the
things that we know have to change.
The world order has to change.
And so at this point in time,
looking at the world,
you can see,
to the north,
is the Byzantine Empire,
and that is the Roman that's the Romans.
And that would be relative to,
Arabia. That would be the Europeans.
And they were called at that time Bennu
Asfar.
So they were called the the yellow
light skinned people.
That's terminology in Arabic.
Okay. Because the thing European, Arab, African, all
these are all new terms.
So in those days,
looking at those nations,
they said Benu Asfa.
And the Roman Empire, of course,
this was connected to the Italian Roman Empire,
which was
one of the most powerful empires
in the history of the world at the
time.
And
And the Persian Empire also was a great
empire
with a long history,
stretching back
with an amazing culture,
with Zoroastrian
religion
as their base, which is based in the
sun worship through the fire,
and they believe in the good and the
bad,
yin yang, however you wanna call it. But
but it it is philosophy
of that there are there is good power
forces in the world, and there are evil
power forces in the world, and they're struggling
against each other.
So this type of concept
is there with the Persians.
And the Persians were called by the Arabs
at the time,
if you look at the literature,
they were called Banu Ahmad.
So they were called the red people.
Okay. Looking at their complexion and how they
were, they were the Bennu,
Ahama.
Then the Arabian Peninsula
and
Egypt
and Abyssinia
just to the left.
And of course, the Egyptians,
this was the ancient
empires that stretched back
10000 years,
the ones who had built the pyramids and
amazing civilization.
And then south is Abyssinia.
So this is Al Habasha.
So the word that you'll see written in
Arabic is Al Habasha.
But if you look at the distance between
Arabia
and,
Egypt and Africa at the time, it's only
the Red Sea.
So geographically, you think one side's Asia and
the other side is Africa.
But look at the distance between them, especially
go down to the bottom
where it says Abyssinia
and then Yemen.
Now look at how close it is.
When you are on the coastline of Abyssinia
at a country now today known as, Djibouti,
when you are there on a clear day,
you can see Yemen.
That's how close it is.
Just like on a clear day, if you're
in southern Spain,
and you're in Malaga and going along the
coast,
on a clear day, you can see Morocco.
So you can literally see Morocco.
So it is the same
here
And
culturally,
racially,
DNA wise,
the people were
basically the same.
Some slight differences,
but they were from the same,
group
of
human beings.
Okay? And that's something
that because of so many years and politics
and everything, it seems to have changed. You
say Arabs and Africans.
Okay. Arabs and Africans. And this is really
strange. Up until today,
when you look at the Sudan situation
and they say that in the Sudan is
a big war going on, they say, you
know, on the western side, it is the
Arabs fighting the Africans. But when you look
at the picture, all the people are black.
But you're saying Arabs are fighting Africans.
So these are only words. It's not really
the reality
of the situation.
And so,
what was Al Habasha?
East Africa,
you could say the eastern side of what
is now Africa,
was very similar
culturally,
to Yemen
and Mecca and these areas there.
Very similar.
And they call themselves Bennu Asmar.
They call themselves
the brown people,
and in some cases the black people. This
is how they describe themselves.
Of course, when we use the word brown
and black today, they all have political terminologies,
okay? But this is how they describe themselves.
So it was different concepts in the world
at the time
with the Arabian Peninsula.
And
prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
was
born in 570
AD.
Okay, so it's the 6th century.
And as we studied before
lineage, and this is important for everybody to
review. And every time I look at this,
I've
looked at this a hundreds of times, but
every time you look at this chart
and think about
the mindset that people are in today,
it's shocking
to look at this chart because
Abraham
is the grandfather of 2 sides. He had
2 wives
and two sides of his family. And we
understood that not only his wife Sarah,
who came with him,
from the Tigris Euphrates region,
but also his wife Hajar,
who was originally his maid, his servant.
And then,
she was given to him
as a wife,
and that is put in Genesis,
16:3. I still have it there,
for you.
Okay, the Bible, what's up? Bible is saying
this, that Sarah said to Abraham, take Hadjah
as your wife.
She knew she wasn't having children
at that point in time, and Abraham wanted
to have children.
So
that's legally part of his family.
And so looking on the side of Sarah,
then you see Isaac, Jacob, the 12 tribes
of Israel.
Okay. So this is where Israel comes in.
That's another loaded term today.
Okay. What is Israel?
Who controls these lands?
Okay. All of this is subject to how
you're looking at things, and the truth is
hidden in plain sight because the whole concept
of Israel itself
starts after Jacob. And
before that time,
Isaac
and his family,
Sarah, Abraham,
were not calling themselves Jews.
They would not call themselves Benu Israel.
Benu Israel means the children of
Israel, Ya'qub.
That's where it starts.
Okay? But people have the wrong understanding
of the lineage and it's hidden in plain
sight. But because of propaganda,
you know, and the continued usage and and
and one of the propaganda
experts of, Adolf Hitler,
Goebbels,
you know, was reported to have said they
had one of the strongest propaganda
machines in history.
And he said, if you tell a lie
enough times,
it becomes the truth.
Just keep saying it.
And that's literally what's happening now,
to the minds of people. Alhamdulillah, it's changing.
So now it's dramatically changing, but it's not
gonna change so fast.
Okay. So
looking at the lineage again,
coming on that side is Jacob,
Moses, and Jesus.
So that's the side that we get so
called Judaism, so called Christianity.
That's but on the other side
is Hajar,
whose son with Abraham is Ishmael.
And then the great great great great grandson
is Muhammad,
peace be upon them all. So this is
genealogy. This is DNA.
All of these prophets, these individuals
are actually
related. They're cousins
and they're related to themselves in terms of
their
DNA.
So this is the lineage.
So when we talk about Quraish,
when we talk about the rulers of Mecca,
they came from the family of
Ishmael,
peace be upon him, and,
the his his his wife who came from
the tribe of Jurhum,
from the Arabs of Yemen,
this is the Quresh.
So they have blood of Iraq
or Tigris Euphrates. It wasn't called Iraq at
the time.
Blood of Egypt of Africa, the Nile Valley
on the mother,
and the blood of El Arab el Araba,
the pure Arabs,
from Southern Arabia.
That was the noble tribe
of Quresh at the time. And that nobility,
look at the lineage,
that was respected by people
all around the region
because it had
significant people from all of these tribes,
all of these bloodlines.
Okay. So this is the person that we're
talking about now because you wanna know who
the person is. You don't see his name
appearing in books. You don't see in general
mainstream,
you know, go into universities, go into schools,
and look and see how many times you
do a fact check with words, you know,
in the curriculums, how many times the name
Mohammed is mentioned.
Even if you look up until today, if
you look at the word Islam and Muslim
in most newspapers,
you know, do a check and see, it's
usually connected with violence.
Either somebody's getting killed or they're killing somebody.
Okay. So
this is
part of the mental change
that we need to go through
to understand
this man.
So the early years of prophet Muhammad, peace
be upon him,
were years of
struggle
that he was when he was born,
his father Abdullah, mother Amina,
and and when he was very young,
right at birth, actually, his father died, went
north to Gaza,
right, to do business.
Right? He passed away.
You know? And then,
as a young child,
he was taken out of Mecca itself, which
is considered to be like a urban center.
It's like you don't want your child being
raised
here in the GTA, right?
Like in the States, if you look at
New York City, right?
Go outside
to another place.
And I'll never forget that,
one of the imams,
was talking about a group of
Muslims went
to New Hampshire, if you know the United
States,
and where it's fresh water and
really nice countryside and
whatnot. And they drank the water,
and they spit it out.
They said it tastes bad.
But they realized after a while it tastes
bad because it was pure fresh water,
and they were so used to drinking polluted
water
that natural fresh water didn't taste good to
them.
You see? So
if you really want to do a favor
to your children, inshallah,
everybody will have offsprings,
then give them some time
out of the cities
in the countryside.
Right, having a natural
upbringing. If you want to do a favor
to yourself,
take some time away from the GTA.
Take some time away from cities and
be in natural life.
Camping,
what people do today camping.
Now today, because of the situation in the
world, it's even recommended
that young people and all people do, you
know, what is called survival training,
and that is to test yourself,
go out and live a very simple life
where you got to make a fire and
cook your food,
you know, and and learn how to survive.
Because one day, all of this that we
have might break down.
And if it breaks down, can we survive?
So survival training is very important,
and that type of training
to make the individual
was,
something that the Quresh
would do for their children
because they knew that in order to lead,
you had to have strong
qualities,
strong personality,
a strong physique.
You also had to have
a strong grip on Arabic
as a language because language was the most
important aspect
of Arabian culture at the time. It was
the most important thing.
This is why right now for the younger
generation, most important thing is is online.
You take them offline, the world has ended.
The
most important thing is this cyberspace,
and how we move around,
on it. And the AI is coming now
to take take us to another stage too.
Right?
AI.
And so but in those days,
language
Arabic language was so expressive,
so powerful,
and it gave an Arabic speaking person the
ability to travel to other countries and pick
up their language
fast.
Because when you speak Arabic, you're using every
part of your mouth and throat.
So all the different letters and all the
languages
Arabs have no problem.
And Arabic has a letter.
It's called
Like
that. So sometimes they call Arabic logata Dad
It is the language of Dad.
I can't pronounce it even I'm not a
but they when the Arabs do it, it
'da' it pops!
Okay? So that's a special letter
only in Arabic.
But all the other letters you find in
different languages,
they can adjust quickly to them because they're
already using
upper mouth, lower mouth, middle throat,
lower throat.
All the areas.
It's ready
to be changed.
So
by sending
the prophet, peace be upon him, out
to the desert
and he went there with Halima
of the Sadia.
He was being given that type of training,
you
know, which that's again part of the personality
of this individual
We're talking about the individual that has had
such an impact
on the world. It's hard to even
fathom this,
How this individual
has such an impact up until today all
around the world.
And the more you begin to see his
personality on a human level, you can start
to see how he was shaped by Allah
and how he had the ability to
handle a message
that would have to go through time
and language
and space.
But he went through a lot of changes.
And by 6 years old, he was back
with his mother.
And And somewhere between Mecca and Medina,
she died at a place called Abwa.
And he was taken over by his dry
nurse,
Eamon Baraka,
who was an East African woman.
And,
Aminah said to her,
please
take my son.
Take this boy as as your son.
Be his mother.
So this is not be his slave
or be his servant.
She said be his mother.
That's a serious thing.
Because if you think racially,
then you think in Arab, you think it's
like 2 races. Number 1, you've got to
realize
that culturally
DNA,
the difference between people on both sides of
the Red Sea is not that great.
It's not. They're actually
fairly close, but they're different.
Because on the on the side of the
African side was Aksum,
the Aksumite empire.
That was on the African side.
And so
he went through the changes,
not having his father, not having his mother.
His grandfather, Abdulmutallib,
you know, took him over. But at 82,
he passed away. And then his uncle, his
father's brother,
Abu Talib,
then took him over, became his guardian.
Okay? So he is an orphan.
And in the struggle
going in Mecca, one of the groups called
the Umayyads
from Umayyah, one of the Quresh,
seized power in Mecca. This is a detail
which is not of that much importance. But
what is important
is that in these early stages of his
life
okay? So this is now
he's a young man now
coming
up and then going into his
teenage life.
He spent a lot of his time
tending sheep.
So he would, even though living in Mecca,
but he would take care of sheep and
move around. And he later said
that all of the prophets
were shepherds,
all of them, at one point in their
life. And if you think about raising animals
to raise animals, you need to have
a certain kind of personality
Because you're connected to the animals, you're protecting
and and and the prophet is like a
shepherd to people.
Okay, so this is one of the things
that distinguishes his early life. This is like
leadership training.
And we found out that on the on
the road
when he was traveling with Abu Talib on
a business trip, that they ran into a
Christian monk Bahira.
And the monk had recognized
in Prophet Muhammad sallallahu sallam,
he recognized
Nabuwa,
prophet would.
He told Abu Talib that
this boy,
he's gonna he he could be the leader
of all of humanity.
So take him back.
Of course, Abu Talib was shocked about this.
How do you know about this? And Bahiyeda
informed him from our scriptures, we have
signs left in the scriptures.
Okay. So for those who come from a
Christian background,
then this is something connected to the Christians
who refused to accept the Trinity.
So there are many Christians,
Unitarians at the time, not not today,
who refused to accept the trinity. So amongst
the Unitarians,
they believed that a prophet would
eventually come.
And it's interesting how Allah shaped and, of
course, this is our this is our traditions,
but we'll let you know.
It is reported that on one occasion, the
prophet,
peace be upon him, was outside of Mecca
sort of looking down at Mecca because it's
hills,
looking down at Mecca.
And it was the weekend, whatever the weekend
was for them.
For us, it's like Friday night. Right? This
is Friday night.
And for most youth, Saturday night.
This is when you go do something. Right?
Unfortunately, it's usually connected with drugs
or alcohol or something. But even in those
days,
they used to do things, their own forms
of partying and whatnot they used to do.
They had belly dances. They had alcohol,
and they used to do it.
And Muhammad, peace upon him, as a young
man
wanted to go.
And it's it's it's reported
from some of the traditions coming to us
that, you know, when he prepared himself to
go down into Mecca
to the Friday night, Saturday night party,
Sleep came over him,
and he went to sleep.
And he woke up the next morning, so
he missed the party.
Okay? That was Allah's mercy. Right? Because you
know the shaytan was down there. Right?
But that was Allah's mercy.
And he kept missing them.
So he was not
part of the
young crowd
that his mother and his family wanted them
to be away from.
Okay? So that's another part of his,
you know, divine
type of training
that he had. So now as a young
man,
he's now
coming up in age.
And
one of the best trade one of the
best things that you could do
or probably the best
skill
for somebody in Mecca, especially an upper class
person or
upcoming person, was
trade. It was business
because they were it was not an agricultural
place, but caravans are coming in and out.
So trade is an extremely important thing. So
because the prophet
was involved in trade
with his uncle Abu Talib, he developed that
ability.
And the qualities that he had,
he had some amazing qualities,
something that distinguished him
from other people. And this comes in the
literature.
One of the qualities was
his honesty, that he was honest,
and he was trustworthy.
And this is probably
the strongest
quality.
That is amana,
and that is not only truthfulness, but trustworthy
person.
And it's called El Amin.
The name El Amin
means somebody who you can trust and you
can believe in.
El Amin.
Amana means a type of trust.
Okay. And so he had this ability.
Plus he had a good grasp of Arabic,
and he had
a type of personality
that people
gravitated towards.
So he had these qualities.
So as a young man
growing up,
he was in need of work. Just like
now, the summer's coming and
young people every they need a job.
So where are you gonna work at?
And so a woman from Quresh, whose name
was Khadija
bint Khawaylid,
may Allah be pleased with her, she was
also from one of the tribes of Quresh.
Not the same Hashemites,
not the Umayyads.
It was another branch.
And she was a woman known in Quresh
for her
trade
skills,
and she was a wealthy person
to the point where she had her own
caravans.
And
she hired.
She heard about him,
and she hired him.
Because even though Abu Talib was from the
tribe of Hashem,
he was they were not wealthy. They were
actually
getting poor,
but they had nobility.
So she hired him in order to go
to the caravan north
to Syria. Remember that trade that that constantly
goes
north and south,
from Mecca.
And her servant, Mesilla,
was the person in charge of the caravan,
and then
Muhammad, peace be upon him, then he became
the leader of the caravan. May Mesa,
was next in charge, and he was also
asked by Khadija to watch him
because
that's her her man on the caravan. So
Mesara
watched him.
And when he came back to Mecca, he
reported to Khadija
there's strange things happening with this person.
Number 1, in many cases as we're moving
along,
there's a cloud.
It seems like there's a cloud
following us,
and he'd never saw anything like this before.
And then when they dealt with people,
his honesty
and his
personality,
people
wanted to sell their goods to him.
So he did
very well.
And he was extremely honest,
never cheating or anything like that.
And so this was something that was surprising
to Khadija.
And, you know, Allah
put it into her heart.
And she,
as a wealthy woman
and
again concepts of women at that time, you
think all women are slaves and
no. She controlled
caravans.
And so she
proposed
to Mohammed.
She proposed to him.
Okay?
So this is something to think about because
sometimes even a sister today
might even think, is it right for me
to propose to a man?
Is it right,
or is it out of line? You see?
This is Khadija.
She proposed
to the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.
But what
was so unique about this
is that at that point, she was 40
years old,
and Mohammed was 25.
K? I didn't say the other way around.
She was 40, and he was 25.
Now this is not today. I remember I
was doing counseling. We used to have a
counseling service, and this sister came to me,
and she was really upset.
My son is ruining his life.
So I said, what is happening to your
son?
He wants to marry a 40 year old
woman.
I
said, okay.
What's wrong? She said, he's 25.
And it struck me. This really happened. It
struck me. I said, do you know how
old
prophet Muhammad was when he got married? She
said, no. He's 25.
You know how Khadija was? 40.
Okay?
So that's a precedent
that is set.
What that shows us also,
and this is important,
again, knowing this man because,
the
the non Muslims or you could say the
enemies of Islam
have historically tried to attack his personality.
And in the past 20 years, they had
campaigns, especially in Europe.
They had campaigns against,
that probably demonized him. This group in France
drew cartoons,
and and they did all kinds of things
to demonize him. And they put all this
literature against him. You know? And one of
the, claims they would make is that he's
a womanizer.
Right? He's like a lecherous Arab
who loves young women in his harem. You
know this
stereotype. Right? It's a stereotype.
But look at this man.
Look how mature he is.
He's 25, and she's 40.
Now 40 is the age,
as you know, with womanhood.
Right? 40 is the age you're getting in
the area where you may not even have
children,
you know, unless you're strong. You're you're reaching
that face.
He's 25.
So normally, you expect a 25 year old
man to be marrying somebody in the Arab
times, you know, from 15 or even under,
you know, to under his age.
It's the opposite.
So this is a mature
relationship.
And another important thing
to mark down and to remember
is that they stayed together as a couple
until her death.
So the
prophet never married another woman
until Khadija died.
He was monogamous.
One wife.
So this is an important point
because later on in his life he did
have multiple marriages.
But this was, you can see, for strategic
person
reasons.
And so if you look at
he's 25 here.
She's 40.
Revelation is coming
15 years later, so she would be 55.
And then she dies about 10 years later.
So she's about 65 years old.
So he's about 65 years old. She's 65
years old
and he is
about 50 years old.
And it's even later
that he actually gets married again. So he's,
like, in his fifties
when he marries again.
Okay?
So
this this might seem like a small point,
but you're gonna see you might live to
see an attack coming against him.
This is your answer.
This is your answer. This is a mature
individual
and mature relation. So so the fact that
he's a leader and what happened in his
life does not mean that
everybody has, every man has to have polygamy
or poligently to prove his manhood.
Now.
K?
So,
at that time,
again, we're dealing with the prophet
as a young man,
and I'm using the word young man all
the way he's 35 years old now.
Right? 10 years into his marriage,
and he's 35 years old.
But for the Arabs, you don't become
a man.
You're not fully mature until you reach 40
years old.
So underneath 40 40 years old, you're not
completely fully rounded like.
Okay? So he's we can consider him still
to be a young man.
And at that time,
he's living in Mecca.
And, of course, because Mecca was
economic center of Arabia,
it was a political center, religious center, a
cultural center.
There's all kinds of things happening in Mecca.
And the basis of this
was the Kaaba,
and that is the house built by Abraham
Ibrahim
as we saw. You remember?
That house
became the center of worship. Unfortunately, it changed
from the worship of
1 god. It changed to the worship of
idols.
But it was still became an attraction.
And
it is reported that
when Ibrahim
was building the Kaaba,
that an angel brought down a stone.
And that stone would be, you know, like
we call a meteorite,
something from outside of Earth. And there's a
lot of stones around that hit Earth.
Different points, you can find them and see
them.
But this one, we believe, is brought by
an angel who is a power force
and is brought down. And
with direction from the creator,
he put that stone,
into the corner of the Kaaba.
And at that time, the stone was described
as a white milky colored,
thing
stone.
Okay. So he put it into,
the side of the Kaaba.
Okay. And later on,
because of people
touching
it and and especially they would put nice
smells on it,
the fragrances and whatnot,
it started to change color.
And with time, it started to change color.
If you were to look at
the black stone it's now known as the
black stone. And this is what it looks
like
there.
If you were to look at it close,
then you would see it's not actually black,
what we know as black.
Okay. It has a lot of different colors
that are inside of it. And and if
you move away from it,
it gives you the appearance of being, you
know, very dark or black. So it's just
called
Hajil Aswad. Aswad is also used
remember the word black is also used to
mean
dignity and power and strength.
Say it. You call somebody a sayed is
a master that comes from the same root
as aswad.
So aswad
is
a is a color of strength.
And you'll see later on
that, you know, when the prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, when he opened up Mecca
at special occasions, he would wear
black turban.
Okay. So so so calling it the black
stone is also calling it a powerful stone.
K. Again, this is a different use of
of
words.
Today, racism has come into terminologies. Right?
And racism has changed the whole concepts now
because and people still think in terms of
race
Because if you say, for instance,
white
okay? White, if you look in the dictionary
a few years ago, it's changed
somewhat. White means
or meant
innocent,
pure,
and holy.
So if you're saying, like, I was dreaming
of a white Christmas,
what do you mean by that?
Now some people might say in Canada what
does it mean in Canada?
It snowed out. Right?
But if you're in Trinidad, can you have
a white Christmas?
No.
But they dream of a white they'll sing
the song too. Right? Everywhere. All in the
tropical regions, they want a white Christmas because
they mean
holy
Christmas. Because white means holy,
pure,
innocent. And have magic. They have black magic
and white magic.
What's the difference in the 2?
Black magic is the bad one. Right?
And white magic is the good
one. That's racism
putting into terminologies.
Okay?
And but the opposite, black, if you looked
in the dictionaries,
it means evil, dirty,
no hope,
negative.
So if you say today was a Black
Friday,
what does that mean to most people?
It was a terrible day, right?
But in in in Arabic at that time,
and in I know in Turkish for sure,
when you say the word kara
in Turkish,
you say kara Ibrahim,
black Ibrahim, it means strong.
Okay? So in those days
the term meant strength.
So this is this is the reason why
it's called the black stone.
And but
the building itself
was falling apart.
And,
a number of things happened. I mean, Mecca
itself it rained out in Mecca. There was
a flood and there's big cracks coming in
it. And there was even a serpent because
of these cracks that was coming up and
would attack people.
And so the Quraysh being in charge of
the they had to rebuild the house
because periodically,
like any building,
it's got to be rebuilt. That's the center
of their power.
So they had a problem
with this
and
a number of obstacles.
I mean, one
being,
you know, the the the serpent that was
there and then also,
you know,
the Kaaba itself,
there were superstitions.
Now you remember
that the year of the elephants
that Abraha,
the Ethiopian general, attacked Mecca
and his army was destroyed by
by birds from Haya. So there was a
superstition that anybody who hits the Kaaba,
you try to break it,
you'll be cursed.
Like, that was a superstition at the time.
Okay? So
the Coratias gathering, how are we gonna do
this, man? Like, how can we break this
thing?
How can we rebuild the Kaaba?
It's very difficult situation.
Plus the fact that,
they didn't have a lot of wood. There
wasn't wood trees that grew. So they didn't
have wood.
They were poor at the time. They weren't
doing that well economically at the time.
So they had these
these obstacles.
But
by the will of Allah,
these obstacles changed.
Some traditions show that a bird came down,
probably a falcon or an eagle,
and it it it killed a snake.
So the serpent was gone.
In terms
of,
do we have enough
wood?
A Roman boat
remember the Romans coming down to Gaza in
these areas, Jiddah? They go down the Red
Sea. A Roman boat
crashed
on the coast,
so they had wood.
Okay?
And the trade that they saved from that
boat,
they had wealth, and there was also
a a Roman
builder.
He was really good at building buildings
that he actually
he was on the boat.
So and he volunteered.
His name was Bakum.
Some reports say Bakum was his name. He
was a Byzantine Roman,
but they were all doing business. He said,
I'll help you build it.
And remember, the Romans Byzantine is a really
good builder. Remember the Hagia Sophia, the huge
giant church
in Constantinople
was built by the Romans.
So they were some of the best builders
in the world. So he said, I'll help
you rebuild it.
The only obstacle that was
left was the curse.
Anybody who touches this building
is cursed by Allah,
and they'll be destroyed.
And so one of their leaders, Al Waleed
ibn al Mureira,
he said,
I'll break the curse.
And he took a a pickaxe or a
tool and he smashed the Kaaba
to take it down because you gotta take
it down in order to rebuild.
So he smashed
and they waited.
Nothing happened.
So he said, there's no curse.
So they began working.
And they went down, they did they did
demolition
down to the point of
the what was left of the foundations of
prophet Ibrahim
alaihis salam. So they went down to that
point. Okay?
And when they reached a certain height, and
I'll give you some of the heights in
a little while.
But when they reached basically where they were
reaching,
the corner
one of the corners
housed
the Blackstone.
And this was, of course,
an honor.
Who would put the black stone into the
corner? And they were tribes.
So each tribe, each major tribe of Quresh,
they said we're gonna put it in
because everybody wants this honor of putting in
the stone.
And because their tribal mentality,
they they started fighting each other. They pulled
out this. You see what the Yemenis wear
like this? They pulled it out,
and they were ready to fight.
Okay. So now
Umaima,
umil Mobeira, from this family,
he's
an elder, and he said the next
stop. The next let's make a decision.
So the Kaaba area
has certain entrances.
They said the next person who comes through,
let him decide.
So they agreed.
And when they did that,
prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, by the
will of Allah, he walked to the door.
So they said, oh, this is really good.
Because this young man,
k, he's 35,
but he's known as El Amin.
He is one of the most trustworthy, truthful
people in Mecca at the time.
So he has this quality.
So if he does this,
we should get a good result.
So it is reported that
the prophet
then he took a mantle,
you
know, and
they laid it down.
And they picked up the black stone, put
it in,
and he said each of the major tribes
grab a section of the cloth.
So they all grabbed the section. He said,
lift together.
It's like you're dealing with children. Right?
So he said, lift together. That's tribal mentality.
Right? They all lifted together
and then he himself,
right, put in the stone.
Right? He was the main person and they
put the stone back in.
And he was able to overcome
this major fight.
K? So now
this Kaaba itself, just for your general information
itself to know what was happening,
The black stone is about 11.5
meters.
You
you circumambulate
it. It's like about a meter and a
half up from the ground.
You gotta sort of bend down
to kiss it. I was fortunate enough
to be studying, you know, with my family
in Medina
back in the seventies.
And, no not in the summertime in August,
there's hardly anybody there, especially when it's not
Hajj season.
So you will go down to the Kaaba
itself.
And in the summer day in August,
there's only about 25 people who are going
around because it's so hot.
And you can't wear, like, heavy shoes or
anything like that down there. And in midday
noon
so we we were had been acclimatized and
I went with my family and we went
down to the cow to the Blackstone
and I kissed the stone. You know, my
wife, then little babies kiss the stone, look
at it,
you know, like that. This is a rare
thing.
Okay? And look at it is like brownish,
kind of brown
and maroon colors and whatnot. You go back
it looks black, but you get real close
on it you'll see.
And the door next to the next to
the black stone and I'll show you a
picture. But the door next to it, Moltazim,
right, it's about 2 meters high from the
from the ground.
Okay?
And,
there was
a a a a piece of stone
like a support,
Shaddouan.
It it it went around the Kaaba itself.
Okay? And this is how it so this
is what it actually looked
like. So this is sort of like what
the Kaaba this is an artist's conception
what it kind of looks like and even
today. So you can see now if you
look on the right side,
no, you look right in the middle
on the bottom,
okay, we've got you can still see the
black stone. See the black stone right there?
So next to to the right of the
black stone is Al Mu'tazim.
And it is sunnah. It is it is
the way of the prophet that if you
can hang on to that and make dua,
rub in your face, you know, honor you.
You make prayer to Allah. That's a really
good place. And then next to that is
the door to the Kaaba.
But you gotta climb upstairs to go to
the door.
And, normally, they don't have the store the
stairs there.
Okay? And the inside of the Kaaba,
it's it's it's just like this.
That's all that is inside.
Fortunately, today with Internet, you can say, like,
what does the Kaaba look on the inside?
You could probably Google it. Right?
But that's sort of like the way it
looks
on the inside.
Now if you go around to the right
side, al hatin,
you'll see a space that is rounded,
and then there's nothing there.
That was the original
shape of the Kaaba,
this Hatim.
Right? That was the original shape. It was
the house of Ishmael,
and that's where it was.
But the Quraysh did not have enough funds.
And whatever reason, they left out the Hattem,
and they built it there. But that space
is not you you can't.
It's considered still to be you gotta go
around it.
That's the reason why you're going around that
space.
Right? And it's still there up until today.
Okay. So that's the Hadim.
And then you go around the Kaaba,
and you'll see on the left side is
Rukan. Rukan means the corner.
Yemen is the Yemeni corner.
So that corner is called the Yemeni corner.
And if you can, you know, point towards
it,
that's how important the people of Yemen were.
That's what the Kaaba actually looked like at
that time. And the prophet, peace be upon
him,
through his character,
he was able to avert a major tragedy
and tribal fighting that happened in Mecca. So
this is the early years of his life.
His reputation was growing.
And on a human level, you can see
the kind of individual
who prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was.
Right? He was intelligent. He was wise,
honest, trustworthy.
Okay. He would he he was one of
the best Arabic speaking people,
persons.
You know? So he had these
powerful leadership qualities,
humility
at the same time, easy to get along
with.
Okay. So these are the qualities
of the prophet and these are some of
the exploits
in the early phases of his life.
For the first part, you don't get a
lot of literature about the early part of
his life.
Okay? And for this class, we're not going
into total total details. But you don't get
a lot of literature because they he wasn't
even a prophet at the time anyway. Right?
And it was an oral culture.
So they were not writing things down.
They later
put these stories
into written form.
K? So the floor is open now for
any questions anybody has
looking at prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
as a young man.
K.
The floor is open. This is the next
phase, of his life.
Okay?
Check online and see if there's any, comments
or questions
anybody has.
Again, this is the the human side of
his life.
It's not he's not a prophet,
but we still look back to the first
parts of his life, and we get some
guidance
even from how he was raised
because he was we believe that Allah
did, you know, guide him
and
and protect him.
Any
questions from online or,
that anybody has there? There's one. Doctor
Quick, it seems as if prior to your
prophet's revelation,
his life was in accordance with, Islamic principles.
Were all of his relatives believers?
Yes. So he was in a sense
coming out of a good,
you know, background, Islam we what we would
consider Islam principles. But his his his family,
they were not,
believers.
Idol worshipers. That was the predominant religion at
the time. He was
different,
that we saw that, you know, he had
this inclination
not to want
to swear by the idols
or to be involved in idol worship.
That was his natural inclination.
But his other family members,
for the most part, they were
good people in some sense, but they were
idol worship. They were like everybody else.
K.
K. Any other any other questions anybody has?
Floor is open. Just a couple of more.
Yeah. Go ahead. How old were were the
prophets
Yeah,
in terms of the actual age,
I'm not actually sure of myself
what the age was. They didn't record ages,
you know, that well like we do today.
You'll even find in some of your older
generations
people who don't know their age exactly to
the day,
like we do, you know, now. So wait.
Think about 1400
years ago.
So we don't know exactly,
you know, what their ages were. What what's
the second part of that question?
Did he remember that?
Yeah. So he when his mother died, so
he was around, 6 years old, 6 and
a half years old,
just a distant memory.
K. One more.
I'm gonna rephrase
what they're saying, I think, is if someone
cannot do Hajji,
what is the algorithm?
Okay. This is a little bit off topic.
You're you're jumping, like, making Hajj
and stuff like that. If you can't make
Hajj, then there's Umrah. Right? Umrah is
outside of Hajj season, then you do the
lesser,
pilgrimage.
Right? But if you can't make Hajj, you
don't have the ability to make it, then
Hajj is lifted.
You don't have to make it.
Because the prophet
said,
we're Hajj al bayt ministatari
sabilla.
You make the Hajj if you are able
to make it.
If you have
zadbarrahila,
you have the the wealth,
and you have the ability to travel there.
K? If you don't, then you're not, you
don't have to make Hajj.
You have the general question?
Yeah. I have a very general. Okay, general,
yeah, floor is open for general questions.
At most budgets,
even this one, they're at the front where
there's a staircase.
What is that staircase supposed to be?
That is
for for the imam to go up?
Okay. So that's the mimba.
Because this is the prophet, peace be upon
him, he used to speak,
you know,
from is like the stump of it of
a tree.
So he used to stand on that and
he had a staff.
Right? And then he would give his sermon.
So so later on, you know, it was,
you know, they did it to have stairs.
You know, usually, like, 3, you know, or
5 or because some of them, the Ottomans
later on, they did a lot of them.
It goes up.
But the basis is because the sunnah was
because, you know, it's practical. He wanted to
be able to read to talk to people.
So he he he went up on a
higher level.
So that that's where the Mimbar ideas come
from. Oh, and then throughout the years, it
just became a cultural thing for different
Yeah. So then, you know, people wanted to
continue that mimba. But instead of having just,
you know, the stump of a tree,
you know, then they built, you know, a
place, you know, for the imam to stand,
you know, and whatnot. Yeah.
Yeah.
I just have a question regarding if,
if we're allowed to go inside the.
Are you allowed to?
Yes. So you can see now what's in
it's just a room inside there. Right?
So you it is permissible to go inside.
Although it's become now
a diplomatic thing,
it's become a specialized thing. And unfortunately, it's
it's the royal families.
It's the powerful people,
you know, who actually get to go inside.
It is practical, though. If you were to
allow a 1000000 people to go inside of
there. Right? Like, it wouldn't last too long.
Right?
You know? So, therefore, it's only, it is
opened at certain points in time. And at
a certain time of the year, they actually
sweep it.
And even the king himself of Arabia and
the sultan
at the time, you know,
historically
would lead the symbolic cleaning of the Kaaba
on the inside. But there are people who
maintain the Kaaba every day.
And so those people who maintain the Kaaba,
they go in there all the time and
they clean it and they wash it
change
the different
tiles and, you know, whatnot. Just recently in
the past 10 years, I think so, they
they did a rebuilding of the Kaaba.
So they actually rebuilt it again. And if
you go back 10 years and look at
the Kaaba, that when you they even had
to cover it when they were sort of,
like,
rebuilding it. So this present one now is
a new
rebuilding. Even this picture is outdated now.
You know? But you can Google it online,
you know, and say what does it look
like inside the Kaaba? And you'll see it's
basically a room
with the columns there.
The only thing is one interesting question could
be, if you're inside there, which direction do
you pray in?
Think about that. Because normally, we pray toward
the Kaaba. Right?
Toward it. Now you're inside of it.
So the answer is you can pray in
any direction
because you're inside.
Has anyone prayed in the?
Normally, they clean up inside there. I I
can't say maybe somebody
has tried,
you know, but it's not it's nothing to,
you know, really do it or not.
We don't look at the Kaaba as being
a holy site like a shrine. Right?
We we we don't really look at it
as a shrine.
So it it's it's basically a room. It
was the room of Ibrahim.
It was their place where they used to
worship in there,
like their little
mosque or masjid or that's where they used
to worship.
But now we face it.
Yeah. K? What's the reason for facing it?
We face it because of, you know, the
the prophet, peace upon him, because of his
guidance
in terms of facing it. And, originally, Muslims
were facing
Jerusalem.
Okay. So
because of the
sanctity and, you know, we were taught by
the angel. And then the Quran says in
the second chapter
that, you know, you were once facing,
you know, there but turn your face now
towards Masjid al Haram.
So it says face
Masjid al Haram.
So it is from that time
in the Medina period
then we change toward facing there.
So that means that whichever direction you are,
you face it.
So if you're east of it,
then you'd face west. That's always the opposite
you gotta face.
Although we say east,
but if you're living in Malaysia,
it's west,
right? If you're living in Chechnya,
it's south.
So it depends. The whole thing is just
to
face it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just following up a bit.
Yeah. I mean, this this is part of
the
whole reasoning
behind it.
But the issue is
it was because of that verse that they
changed.
Right? But if you read the whole verse,
you'll see that this is something that will
be pleasing to you,
you know. And, you know, so and and
originally, this was the first
house of worship. The one in in Jerusalem
was the second.
And this did liberate them from the people
of the book.
So this now gave them
you know, this is the direct
connection with Ibad Rahim, right?
So that's the house of Ibad Rahim. Okay,
so there's a lot of
significance in
the praying towards it. But one of the
key things is we pray toward the Kaaba.
We we do not look at it as
a shrine.
Right? It's not like a holy
shrine. It's only a direction. It's called Qibla.
So that's the direction of our prayers. But
we're praying to Allah
using that as a direction,
to unite us and to and to remind
us
of the first house of worship and also
to to keep our minds facing toward Mecca
so we can go there to make Hajj.
You know, so we we're Mecca centric, right?
That we're scented in Mecca.
Keep us all Muslims are scented in Mecca,
then we're united.
If you're centered in your own country,
then we got a problem.
This becomes tribalism.
But this centers us.
And somebody would say, okay. But there's Arabs.
It's Arabs.
Remember
the Quraysh,
the prophet's
grand great grandmother was African woman,
Hajar.
Great great great grandfather
was
Iraqi, Tigris Euphrates.
Right? Then after that,
great great grandmother next, Arabs from southern so
it was
different racial groups,
different civilizations.
Okay. So it is a central point for
us.
It's a central point. And Arabs themselves are
not one particular
racial group.
It's more of a culture.
The Arabs in the south in Yemen
do have a DNA thing
that they can take back with their language.
But generally speaking, it's it's it's as we
studied, it's more of a culture,
than it is a race.
Okay?
Floor is open for any any final questions
anybody may have.
Yeah.
Oh,
Oh, Babatoba.
Yeah. It's saying this is the door of
Toba. I mean, that's not normally known so
well, the door of Toba. That's not spoken
about so much. I'm not sure actually what
that
is. But they're saying it would be around
that side.
But but that's that I I don't know
what that is.
That's why I didn't talk about it.
Because normally that that area is, like, empty.
Right? Yeah. I was That's not an area
that you coincide.
Yeah.
And so you mentioned that even 10 years
ago, the combo was rebuilt.
You know why they never built the team
part in?
Yeah. Well, the the this was the the
Croatia's decision at that time.
They didn't have enough money or, you know,
whatever it was. They decided not to go
all the way.
They would do this side, and and they
left that. And so people just
continued.
They just continued like that, protecting that area
and knowing what it was, but they just
left it in a cubicle,
you know, shaped like that.
But originally would have had sort of a,
I guess,
a rounded kind of shape,
more rectangular,
you know, at that time when they left
it there.
There's a lot of superstitions around the Kaaba
that you have to come out of. I
remember,
you know, when I first became Muslim and
everything and they said, okay. You know, if
you go to Mecca,
there's so much spiritual power
because everybody's circular go around it. Right? Nothing
can fly over the Kaaba
because it's like too much force, right,
coming from Tawaf. Right?
So I said, oh, that's interesting. So now
as a young student, I was there and
I was in Mecca and after Fajr. So
I was sitting in front of the Kaaba,
and I was looking up.
And the pigeons flew up there, and they
were sitting on the Kaaba looking at me.
Right?
I said, wait a minute.
They told me that nothing can go over.
The pigeons are looking at me.
This superstition.
So there's a lot of superstition around this,
and we have to try to avoid
superstitious understanding of the Kaaba.
Right? The key thing is our worship of
the creator,
of 1 god.
Online question. We answered a couple, but go
ahead.
Is the made of regular stones or are
the stones painted?
Also, as regards to a black stone, is
it not it's not the original. Correct?
Yeah. So so the stones are made of
the stones, you know, there I don't know
the exact what they use. But but the
stones in Mecca itself, I'm not sure. I
I couldn't answer the actual
thing of what it is, but it's regular
stones. And and that they're not generally painted.
The stones themselves,
a covering is put over it.
Okay? And the black stone itself,
you know, is what's left from the time
of Ibrahim
alaihis salam, which is a long time ago.
So you're talking about
1540 BC.
So it's a long time
and it's gone through a lot of changes.
And it was even
taken out of Mecca for a period of
time,
you know, by a group called the Qur'an
Mata.
They were Muslims,
fanatical, crazy Muslims,
and and they took it. But it was
after 20 years, it was brought back.
You know? So,
you know, it
is it's gone through a lot of changes.
So so it is sort of,
you know, sections
put together,
you know, to make up
what is now in that oval shape.
It's not just straight oval shape.
There are sections in it if you get
close
for the original black stone.
When was his first child born?
Ibrahim?
Not sure.
Okay. We we we will come to that,
you know, later on because we're still in
the early parts, you know, of of his
of his life.
You know, like, later on, we're gonna come
to that chronologically
that that you'll see, but we're in the
early years of his life.
Was the prophet's only closest relatives Hamza and
Abu Talib?
No. He he actually had,
in terms of his uncles,
there are a number of them. I forget
exactly. I think it's about 10 of them.
So he had a lot of uncles.
So he had a lot of relatives. But
the most famous
were, was, you know, Abu Talib and Hamzah.
You know, they did like, these are the
most famous, but there's other there's other uncles
as well. You'll
see that on a lineage chart.
They they had
different uncles. It's Hashem, the Debenu Hashem.
It's called the Hashemites.
You'll see it there.
Okay.
There's there's there's a place there,
outside the Kaaba now,
and you'll see the structure
that is built and you look in into
it and it's got,
what appears to be 2 footprints.
Station
for the stones to build it. Maqama Ibarrahim,
they call it. Maqama
Ibarrahim, they call it. Maqama Ibarrahim, they call
it. Maqama Ibarrahim, they call it. Maqama Ibarrahim,
for the stones to build it.
Maqama Ibrahim they call it.
Okay? But in the early days
you know, I mean, I looked into it
too.
But really, you know, as a historian,
it's it's it's it's it's not so
believable that those are actually his footprints
from 15 40 BC.
That that that's a little bit
Tarr. It it's it's what they thought it
it would be like, and they put it
there.
But it's not actually the the footprints from
that time.
That that that isn't,
that doesn't make sense.
But there is a place, Muqombe Barrahim. And
after we do circumambulation,
we'll be looking at Hajj when we come
closer to it. After we do the circumambulation,
then you have to, you know, make a
couple units of prayer
in the place where Abraham built from called.
So so you will do it there.
Okay? Anything else online?
That's it.
So Insha'Allah okay. Go ahead.
So the the prophet
people I'm,
was working in trade with
he just caravan when he was 25.
So for that those 10 years or 15
years before revolution, like, obviously, what else is
he doing for work was was he just
in the market trading? Yeah. I mean, basically,
I'm not sure that there's not that much
literature
to describe his early life. But it does
describe him, you know, on the caravan. She
was a wealthy woman.
So therefore,
you know, he
had means
because he was our husband.
But basically, they would I suppose they did
have a stand, they had a place with,
you know, they were buying and selling and
you know, whatnot. But that there's no real
books or writings to describe
everyday life
in that time. There's nothing like
it. But but more than likely, it would
have been because you have to
get the goods, store the goods.
You have to outfit your caravan,
hire your people.
You know, it's a it's a process
as you gotta go through long distance trade.
So she must have had like a warehouse,
you know, to keep the goods and you
know? Not definitely. So he would have been
managing all these different things,
you know, for her.
So next week insha'Allah we will be looking
at,
the prophet salawat al salawam at 40 years
old, and we'll be looking at the beginning
of the revelation.
So this is gonna be another major change.
And again, this is important for people
to know this man. So the idea is
to understand Muhammad Arasool Allah sahu alaihi wa
sallam, which is the second part of the
kalimah,
to get familiar with prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah
as a human being and what he went
through. And this will help us
to understand more,
you know, how important his personality was and
to be thankful to Allah,
you know, to raise him up and to,
you know, choose him
to be our guide to the day of
judgment. So I'll leave you with these thoughts.