Ali Ataie – Islam’s Emergence in Late Antiquity
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Usually, at the beginning of the first class
of any course, I I quote a few
lines of poetry from Imam
So if you've heard this before,
it's fine. It's always a good reminder.
So Imam Shafi'i said,
he said
he said I complained to my teacher Waqir
because of my inability to remember things. Okay.
This is Imam al Shafi'i
who is a Mujdahid,
right, with a 100,000 hadith memorized.
But he's complaining to us. Now the the
ulema say that Imam Shafi'i,
one time he passed by a woman, and
he looked at her ankle,
and he felt his memory slipping.
So this then he can he composed these
lines of poetry.
He's a
so he exhorted me to give up
evil deeds, bad sins. Right?
And he informed me that knowledge is light.
And,
the light of God is not bestowed upon
the sinner.
Right? So,
you know, we wonder why we can't remember
things. Imagine what we look at. Right? And
he saw an ankle and he felt his
memory slipping.
Alright. So if we're going to take a
class like this, we have to guard the
inroads to the heart. There's 7 inroads to
the heart. And for the male, the quickest
inroad is through the eyes.
Right? There's a hadith that says
that if a man is gazing at something
haram,
his iman is pulled, is is,
extracted from his eyes as long as he's
gazing at that haram thing.
Right? So it's a serious issue.
And so we have to remember that. It's
extremely important.
And then another hadith that says, I'm paraphrasing
of course,
that,
a man who turns away from something haram
and then feels that pain in his heart.
Right? Because he wanted to look at that
thing. Right?
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said Allah
will convert that pain into a light.
Right?
So keep that in mind inshaAllah ta'ala.
So last time,
we did the,
the lineage of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. I hope everyone has a book
or
a few people have books.
You can look on with your neighbor or
something.
So it's it's not essential but
it's very
highly recommended that we get the textbook.
So we're gonna start by giving a historical
context
of the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. It's called the late antiquity, his time
frame. It's called late antiquity. I'm gonna be
quoting and paraphrasing from a book by, Stephen
Muhlberger. It's called an overview of late antiquity
in the Hellenistic world.
Okay. This is a text that graduate students,
Christian graduate students read
in Christian seminaries, right, when they're doing postgraduate
studies.
So he says here it was a period
of massive
destruction, imperial warfare and barbarian invasions.
It's called the dark ages of humanity. Right?
Al Ursurul Dhulma, the dark ages
of humanity.
So we think of the verse which Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Right? He it is who send who sends
blessings upon you as do his angels, that
he may bring you from darkness into light.
Alright?
So he says here that barbarian mercenaries like
friends of Lombards and the Goths and the
Gauls, they were attacking the empire and that
region became completely destabilized.
So the emperor of the Greek East at
the time was,
Justinian the second.
Okay. So, just a very quick
overview that the Christian Roman Empire was divided
into 2 regions, the Greek East and the
Latin West.
And they both had capitals. The capital of
the Greek East was in Constantinople,
which is today Istanbul and Turkey.
Right? The capital of the Latin West was
Rome.
Right? The Bishop of Rome, which is now
the Pope.
So it's a hadith of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam that,
Islam will enter into these two cities and
convert them to Islam.
Right? So 1453
of the Common Era,
Muhammad al Fatih
he conquered,
Constantinople.
Right? And Rome has yet to convert.
InshaAllah
Ta'ala.
So during this time, he basically says
there was massive doctrinal differences amongst Christians.
And just to put a few dates on
the board,
that we should remember,
So these are all common Europe, does anyone
understand common Europe?
You're not supposed to say AD, you know
sometimes people say AD,
you know what AD means? It means Ano
Domonie, in the year of our Lord, right,
so CE is better, Christian Era or Common
Era? So these dates are Common Era.
You notice here that this date here is
about 17 years
prior to the birth of the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So 324
was a council called Nicaea.
Okay.
This was also in Turkey, modern day Turkey.
So this was the first, so called ecumenical
or world
council that the churches held, that the Roman
Empire held,
Bishops were invited and it was here in
324 in which they took a vote. It
was quite literally by vote
and they voted to make Issa
equal with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Okay. That was 324 of the common era.
So this is about 300 years
after East Alaihi Salam walked the earth. They
took a vote,
an official vote,
and that's what happened. Now 381,
this was at Constantinople,
okay,
3.81 a few years later,
324 was presided over by Constantine the First,
381 Emperor Theodosius.
381 they voted again,
and they declared that the
right, the Holy Spirit is also equal
with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and the Risa
Okay so this is 3 about 350 years
after Isaa Alaihi Wasala.
421
at the Council of Ephesus
4/21,
Ephesus,
they voted and they
declared Maryam alaihis salam
theataktas
which means Hashalila,
the mother of God.
Hashalila.
421.
So you can see here that Christian theology
is evolving over time.
Right? It's very clear. There's an there's an
evolution
of what's known as Christology or belief about
Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. You know,
it's not like Esai Adai Salam taught this
doctrine and there it is. Right? I mean,
religions evolve over time, Islam evolves over time
as well.
But we're talking about major major tenants of
belief,
major doctrine being meted out at these places.
There's nothing like this in our in our
tradition, Muhammadu al Dua.
451
Council of Kausidan,
it was at this council
where they voted again where Esai 'alai 'salam
was declared to have a dual nature,
that he's not only a 100% man, but
he's also a 100% God at the same
time, which of course makes 200%.
And then 553,
2nd Council
of Constantinople.
This is when Origen was condemned,
and this is when
those Christians who do not believe that Jesus
had a dual nature were condemned. So this
is in 553 of the common era, 17
years before birth of the prophet
still having counsels,
still trying to determine what is orthodoxy,
what is heterodoxy,
What is permissible to believe in? What is
impermissible to believe in? What should we believe
about Isa alaihis salam? What should we believe
about the Holy Spirit?
Okay.
So, he says here that this was a
time, beginning in the 5 forties,
where recurrent
epidemics of bubonic plague reduced
the population to its lowest in centuries. So
there's a plague going around the Christian Roman
Empire and, of course, they believed this was
a curse from God.
Right? Now
science today tells us that the the reason
for the plague
was because,
of of rats and fleas.
And the Jews and the empire were not
getting the plague.
Right? Because Jews of Tehara,
they they clean and things like that. There's
a concept in their religions, very similar to
us. Say, they weren't dying from the plague,
so the Jews were blamed for it.
Right?
It's very interesting.
And then he says here, there was major
religious conflict.
Okay. Anti Jewish policies
at the outset of the reign had consequences
beyond the frontier. The king of Himyar, which
is in Yemen, a Jewish convert, closed off
access to the Indian Ocean
and was oppressing Christians in his kingdom. Right?
Right? Allah
refers to this in the Quran, Surat al
Fajr, right, the Jewish king in Yemen.
And there was a crusade and so on
and so forth. And then he says here
throughout the 6th century,
rulers and communities identified themselves with a religious
position
and aligned themselves with others on ideological
ground. In short, the world was in chaos,
and they were looking to religion.
Right?
And as the Quran says, kadija'akum
nurum minallahi wakitaban mubeen.
And at this time, a light came
from Allah in a clear book and the
exejits of Mufasareen in the Quran. The commentators
of the Quran have said that nur in
this ayah is a direct reference to the
holy prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa
sallam. There's hadith
that indicate that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam's light was the first entity that was
created by Allah
This is not a Wajid belief, but this
is something that the the Asha'ali theologians will
stress. It's called the reality of the Muhammad
in nature or the priority of the Muhammad
in light. It's based on sound tradition or
the prophet
was asked,
When did you become a prophet? And he
said,
said, Adam That Adam was between,
dirt and water or between his body and,
his soul, and I was made the the
the seal of the prophets.
Right? There's other indications as well. There's a
hadith
in the,
Musannas of Abu Bakr asana'ani,
which is a Hassan hadith, a strong hadith,
where, Jabir came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, to You Rasulullah. What was the
first entity that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created?
And he said, the light of your prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Okay.
But that's not a like we said, it's
not an obligatory belief.
So now beginning with the text.
So Martin Ling's or Sheikh Abu Bakr as
Siraj,
he begins,
his book with a chapter called the House
of God.
Right? The built of law, and he quotes
extensively from the Bible,
from the Torah, from the book of Beresheet
with which is a book of Genesis,
in
the Arabic translation.
So he says here
that,
he outlines the all important covenant that Allah
made with Ibrahim alaihis salam.
Covenants are very important in Judeo Christian Islamic
tradition. Right? Agreements
or packs, a mithaq.
Right? There's many covenants that are mentioned in
the Quran.
Right?
Right? We took from the prophets
their covenant.
We took it from the the 5 oulazim,
the most exalted prophets. Allah
took a covenant. Allah
says in the Quran, Surah Alai Imran, ayah
number 81,
that he took a covenant
from the prophets Adam alayhi salam to Isa
alayhi salam.
That if I send to you my prophet,
the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi salam, the beloved
of God, you must forsake your mission and
follow him.
Right?
So there's many types of of covenants mentioned
in the Quran. So, Genesis
chapter 15,
There are there are 2 vital stipulations of
the covenant of Abraham in Genesis chapter 15.
The first one is, that the that the
chosen seed of Abraham, of Ibrahim alaihis salam,
will be as numerous as the stars.
Alright? And then it says
that all of the land between the two
great rivers,
which are the Nile and the Euphrates,
will be given to the seed of Abraham.
Will be conquered and converted. So if you
look
at, this is the Mediterranean,
this is Egypt, this is
Sinai,
this is the Nile,
right, this is Euphrates.
Oh, it's actually,
it's more up over here,
around there, okay.
So all of this land,
right, will be conquered by the chosen seed
of Ibrahim according
to the covenant. Now what is this land?
Egypt, you have Al Hejaz,
the Arabian Peninsula, you have all of Sham,
you have parts of Iraq,
right, so what we have here is Israel,
right.
So the Jews believe or the Zionists believe
that all of this land is Greater Israel,
right. This is all of their land. This
is what the Zionists believe based on this
stipulation of Ibrahim 'alayhi salam or the covenant
of Ibrahim 'alayhi salam because they don't believe
that the seed of Ismail alayhi sallam is
a legitimate seed. So if you've ever seen
the Israeli flag,
you know,
the Star of David, and then you have
2 blue lines.
Alright.
These blue lines are the two rivers,
the Nile and Euphrates, and you have the
state of Israel in the middle.
Right?
So,
and then he says,
and he quotes from Genesis 17 out of
Ishmael, alayhis salam, I'll make a great nation
of him.
Now interestingly, if you look at all of
the children of Ibrahim, alayhis
salam, most of them are progenitors of Arab
tribes.
So according to tradition, he had 3 wives,
at least,
Hajira, Hagar,
and Ismail, alayhis salaam, who is obviously the
father of Arabs. He had another wife, Keturah,
who had a wife, who had a son,
Midian, who's also
a a an ancestor of Arabs. And then,
Sarah had,
Isaac and Esau.
Esau, according to Christian sources, is also a
father of Arabs. It's only the children of
Jacob,
right, that are called Bani Israel or Israelites.
So only one of his grandsons
are considered Israelites. So, obviously, this doesn't fit
the description
or stipulation in the covenant that there'll be
numerous as the stars.
Right? And history shows the ineptness of Bani
Israel
to conquer these lands. In fact, they began
worshiping idols even on the temple mount on
Beit al Muqdas. But if you look at
Islamic history,
637,
Jerusalem is conquered, 641,
Antioch and Syria. These are major centers of
Christianity.
Right?
A few years later, you have,
Alexandria in Egypt, 707, all of North Africa,
711,
Spain, Al Andalusia.
Right?
So the Christian polemicists will might say, well,
that's because Islam was spread by the sword.
You know, there's a book called Answering Islam.
I don't know you heard of this. There's
a website now, but it used to be
a book in 1993. This man, Norman Geissler,
wrote a book, Answering Islam. In that book,
he actually says
that,
the reason why these tribes in North Africa
converted
was because of the low taxes that the
Muslims were charging and their stress on brotherhood.
So even he admits, and he's a hardcore
Christian polemicist,
that this whole myth about spread by the
sword is indeed a myth. It's not true.
Of course, he's not willing to say that,
you know, these people actually believed in Islam.
There must have been a monetary benefit or
something. Right? Low taxes or stress on brotherhood.
They actually believe in it, but that's what
we believe.
Right?
So,
he he also quotes here from Genesis 21,
which states that,
according to the Israelite tradition
that,
Hagar and Ishmael
were banished into the desert.
Right?
And this was supposed to happen on the
day of Isaac's weaning.
A child was weaned in Israelite tradition at
3 years old, and we are told according
to tradition
that when Isaac was born, Ishaq
was born. Ibrahim
was 86 years old.
And when Ishmael
was born, he was a 100 years old.
That means on the day of Isaac's weaning,
Ishmael
was 17 years old, which is a grown
man.
Right? Yet when we read the tradition or
the story in the in the Torah in
the book of Genesis chapter 21,
we're given a profile of an infant. It
says Abraham took the child and set him
upon her shoulder, and she carried him into
the wilderness. And he started crying, so she
had to put him down underneath a shrub,
and he was kicking his feet. And then,
God came and said to her, lift him
up in your
hand. Right? This is a profile of an
infant. So the Elohim have said, and this
is what the Jewish scholars have said as
well,
they're very candid about these things, Judeo Christian
scholars of higher biblical criticism. They also said
that the chronologies of these things were deliberately
manipulated
in order to implicate that there was fitna
in the Ahlul Bayt of Ibrahim alaihis salam,
when reality, there was no banishment into the
desert. Right? There was no animosity between the
two brothers.
Imam Suyuti says that Ibrahim was 7 years
old. Either way, he wouldn't know Ishaq alayhis
salam for many years.
Right?
And then he says here that Mecca was
40 days by camel from Canaan, from Canaan.
Initially, Ibrahim alaihis salam lived in Canaan.
He also mentions here that they probably hitched
a ride
on the on the incense route.
So Luban, right, frankincense
frankincense or myrrh. This was the commercial base
for the Arabs.
It was used in temples and weddings and
funeral.
There was a famous trade route that went
from Sham to Yemen.
Right? Through the valley of Becca. And then
he saw he he quotes a verse from
the Psalms,
which is probably the Zabur, Allahu Adam.
Psalm 846,
which speaks of a pilgrimage
that the Bani Israel used to make to
a place called Bakkah.
Right? And that's the word in the Hebrew,
Bakkah.
This word is also in the Qur'an,
That this was the first house that was
dedicated to the worship of Allah Subhanahu wa
Ta'ala. So and according to itdu Ishaq, there
was a time when Bani Israel, because they
were the Muslim Ummah at the time, they
used to come into Mecca for Hajj,
Right? In fact, the Hebrew word for Hajj,
which is spelled like this, had good use
of G'mal, they don't have a g sound
at the Egyptian dialect. This word actually means
to circumambulate
in its etymology.
What's used today, they don't circumambulate anything. But
the word pilgrimage,
'hag' which is the cognate of Hajj means
to circumambulate,
Dora Ramek Tawaf.
Right? So Ibru Ishaq says in his Sirat,
Sirat Rasulullah,
that the Bani Israel used to make
pilgrimage to Mecca, but then they stopped
because a Moabite idol named Hubal,
was brought by a man named Amr ibn
Lu'e. So when this man brought this idol
from from Syria,
the Bani Israel stopped making Hajj, stopped coming
to Mecca.
Right? But there's indications in this Psalm 846
or Dawud Alaihi Sanam if he wrote this
Allahu Adam it's it's attributed to him
where he describes a pilgrimage
to this place called Becca, the weeping valley.
Right?
So Becca,
like in Arabic,
He cried, like Becca, he cried. This is
where Ismail
cried at the weeping valley. Then he describes
a well. There's a well
in this in this Psalm. So this is
Martin Linds. He quotes this
in the first chapter.
Genesis 22 says that Ibrahim, alayhis salam, was
going to sacrifice Ishaq, alayhis salam. There is
an Iftilaq amongst Muslim or lama. Right? Whether
it was Ibrahim, whether it was Ishaq alayhi
salam, or Ishmael alayhi salam. It's not a
major issue for us, and we shouldn't make
it a major issue. So it really doesn't
matter. We have to look at the ebbala,
what's the lesson of the story. It doesn't
matter which son it was. For the Jews,
it's extremely important which son it was. Right?
Because they're sons of Isaac and they consider
this to be, the chosen lineage of Ibrahim
alaihis salam. Right? For the Christians also, it's
very important because this is a typology of,
God murdering his own son Hash Adillah.
Right? And Isaac is a forefather of Aissa
alaihi salam. So it's very important for them.
And sometimes Muslims will fall into the trap
of this kind of discourse where we start
comparing prophets.
Now Ishmael is better than Isai Nas. In
our prayers, we send blessings of peace wa'ala'ali
Ibrahim.
Right? On the family of Ibrahim, alayhis salam.
Not just one side of the family.
Right? But on the entire family of Ibrahim
alayhis salam. So there's an Iftilaf,
and major sahaba like Sayidna Ali said it
was Ishaq alayhis salam.
Okay? So that's not a now, Imam al
Suyuti says that the Ayat in the Quran
indicate Ishmael.
Okay?
Because the story in the Quran, it doesn't
name the sun, and there's a hikmah in
that. There's wisdom in that. This is not
something we're supposed to wrangle over. It's not
it's not a big issue. But he says
that the ayat in the Quran seem to
indicate
Ishmael alayhi salam.
And the story is in chapter 37 of
the Quran.
That we gave him glad tidings
of a forbearing son.
Right? And then the story is told where
Ibrahim
says to his son, he's not named,
Right?
So he says, I saw in my dream,
I'm sacrificing you.
What do you think about that? He wants
his opinion about it. Right? Listen to the
response of the son.
Do what you've been commanded.
You
will find me if Allah wills, patient.
And then after the story,
Then it says, then we gave him glad
tidings of Isaac,
right, a prophet from the righteous. So the
the ayat in the Quran indicate
that it was Ishmael alaihis salam, but there
is a khilaf about that.
Okay.
And then he goes on to mention that,
that both sons bury their father in Hebron
in Palestine,
which seems to indicate that there was no
animosity in the family.
Right?
And then Esau marries 2 daughters of Ishmael
alaihi sallam.
In fact, Musa alaihi sallam, according to the
Torah, Musa alaihi sallam's first wife, Zipporah,
was the daughter of a Midianite priest. She
was an Arab.
So he married from Arabs.
Right?
But the way that,
you know, sometimes
our our religious friends, our
our friends from different religions want to present
the issue is that there's great animosity. There's
always been animosity between Israelites and Arabs.
Right?
So that's important.
And then he tells the story of Safa
and Marwa, the well of Zamzam, the building
of the Ka'aba.
And then he says it puts a hadith
from the Musnat of Abu Risayi Tirmidhi about
that had descended from paradise,
whiter than snow,
but the sins of man turned it black.
Right?
It doesn't mean someone who's black is sinful
or anything like that. It has nothing to
do with skin color. Right? We can't read
into these things And then he quotes from
the du'a of Ibrahim alaihis salam which is
Al Baqarah
from 127 to 129.
So this was the du'a of Ibrahim 'alayhi
salaam
at the Baytulillah in Mecca.
And
Allah says
Ibrahim
Ibrahim and Ishmael,
they
raised the foundations of the house.
Right.
They raised the what?
The assas of the Beit. In other words,
the foundation was there. So, the, Mufasareen of
the Quran
say
that,
that the foundation of the Kaaba was laid
down by Adam, alaihis salam.
Okay?
And then the flood after the flood
of Nuh alaihis salam, the walls of the
Ka'ba were destroyed and the foundation was left.
So then they raised up the foundations again
at the time of Ibrahim alayhi Salaam.
Okay.
And,
if you keep reading this section in verse
129,
he says,
oh, our Lord raise amongst them.
And purify them.
You are the great and the most wise.
Right. So there's hadith of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
He said, I am the prayer of Ibrahim,
alayhis salam, or the answer to the prayer.
And the, the bushra,
the good news of the Isa alaihis salam.
Right? Because the word,
gospel or injil,
a Greek word,
actually means good news.
Right? I'm the good news of Isa Alaihi
Salam.
Right? So this is the point of the
gospel of Isa, alayhis salam,
is to give,
Pushra
of the coming of the apocalyptic
messenger of God or the holy prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Then he
he says here, let's see here.
Yes. So there's 3 types of Arabs.
Okay.
We have an eraser here.
The first time it's called
Okay. So these are ancient extinct Arabs.
Okay. So these are the Ad of Hamud,
right,
the people of the Aram.
So
we had said last time, I need to
erase this.
You said last time that Nuh,
had a son named Sam.
Right?
And from Sam you have
the Prophet
Hud eventually and Sadir
Versant and Samud respectively. These are ancient
extinct Arabs,
right, they're extinct.
Okay.
Right
I visited the grave of Hud, alaihis salaam.
It's
it's in Hadar Amawd,
and it's really amazing.
There's this huge
barren valley. There's no green, and then you
go up this mountain, and halfway up the
mountain there's a little dome
here and that's the katavur.
It's accepted by consensus of Hudayahu alaihi wa
sallam.
That's the first type. The second type
are called the Taqan Noon.
And these are the descendants of
Jeroboam
descendants of Jeroboam
and the Himyarites.
So these are Arabs from Yemen.
Okay.
And
it says here that,
that
there was an ancestor from
the Jordanites named Yarov
who taught Ismail how to speak Arabic.
Okay so the word
tarab actually,
in its etymology
means to move around
something that's always moving.
Right?
Like
inflection in Arabic
and grammar is
right inflection how the endings of words are
dynamic in Arabic
Right. They're always changing.
The ending is always changing. This is called
Keraf, it's always moving, because the ancient era
is always moving around.
Okay.
So,
and then it says here that
Ibrahim, alayhis salam,
was born in Iraq.
It's called the Ur of Chaldees.
So it's important to note here that Ibrahim
alaihis salaam
was not a Jew.
Okay. Sometimes you'll find that in encyclopedias
that he was a Jew. Right?
And, scholars of
Judeo Christianity don't accept that either.
He was in fact a Hebrew.
Okay?
So the word Hebrew so Shem had a
great grandson.
So Sam, right,
is one of the sons of Noah,
had a son named Eber
and Eber
this comes from a root
Abara Yaburu
or Bur.
Abara means to traverse or to cross over
something.
Like there's a river here, you cross over
Abarah, right, you cross over.
Right, so this is the root
of of
Hebrew,
it simply means someone who crossed over a
river.
Okay, so this is not a religious distinction
any more than Arab is,
someone who moves around.
These aren't these aren't spiritual distinctions.
The Qur'an is very clear
walakan kana hanifa muslima walakanaminal
mushrikeen.
Ibrahim alaihislam was not a Jew or a
Christian but he was a Hanif, he was
a monotheist,
he's true in faith and he did not
worship idols.
Okay.
You find many verses in the Qur'an like
this. Ina Awlan Nasiv Ibrahim
Laladina Ittabaruhu.
Wahadhan nabi waladina amaruh.
Verily are those who are closest to Ibrahim
are those who follow Ibrahim
as are this prophet and those who believe
meaning Sahaba and the Muslims.
Okay.
In other verses as well.
Now
the Hunasah,
right, so we have this group in
Hejaz.
So Karen Armstrong, in her Sira,
she mentions 4 of them very early.
She mentions,
who wavereth,
Ubayd Allah ibn Jahash, Waraka bin Nofal, and
Zayd ibn Umar. Now Zayd ibn Umar is,
significant. He was a man who lived before
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He lived in Mosul for a while, and
he was and he consulted with 'urlema of
Christians.
And he was moving around the area and
he was told to go to Hejaz
for a prophet's time was imminent to to
come out of Hejaz.
So as he's moving south through, through Syria,
he's killed in South Syria. He was ambushed
by a bunch of brigands and they kill
him.
Right?
The prophet
said that he will come on a day
of judgment
as a nation unto himself.
Now his son,
Saeed ibn Nuzayd
is one of the most celebrated companions of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam, and he's from
the Ashal al Mu'Shireen al Jannah. He's from
the 10 promised of paradise.
Saeed Abu Zayd,
was the husband of Fatima,
Bintu Khattab.
She was a sister of Armada,
and it was the famous story, of course,
when, Sayna Armada converted. Right? Fatima was in
the room with her husband, right, Sayid ibn
Uzayd, and he was a scribe there,
and then Sayid Omar heard the Quran, Surataha.
So this is the Said we're talking about.
His father was a Hanif,
a monotheist.
So these Hanif claimed to be of the
religion of Ibrahim alaihis salam.
Right? Now,
Ismail alaihis salam, he marries from the Jerohamites.
So his second wife
was, from the Jeroboamites,
and they become the caretakers of Mecca,
which leads us to a third type of
Arab, al Musaiba.
So,
these are people who
became Arabs by learning the Arabic language.
Like Ismail 'alayhi Salaam, like the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Salaam. He's considered for the Musta'ariba.
Not the ancient Arabs, not the Jodhulmites.
Okay?
Become Arab by tongue.
Now, in chapter 2,
he calls it a great loss.
So this is the loss of
the Beruzemzem.
So the Jeroboamites,
they begin to oppress the Hajjaj,
the the pilgrims.
Right? So they're driven out. They bury the
well. They buried the well of Zamzam and
the treasure that was in the well. So
the Kaaba at the time
according to the Urdu Nakh
was only about
6 feet tall all the way around
and there was no roof
So people would go in and steal things.
Right? It was very easy to break into
the Kaaba.
So they buried the well. They took the
treasure and buried it
on top of the well.
Now the Huza'a
become the leaders of Mecca. The Huza'a
are Arabs descended from Ismail alayhis salam that
went to Yemen, but then returned to north.
Okay?
And they didn't make an attempt to dig
it up and this is when Hubal was
brought. The Moabite idol was brought into Mecca
and the Bani Israel stopped making
their their Hajj.
Now chapter 3, he calls Parekh of the
Hollow
and Armstrong and Wat have similar chapters or
they have these trees. So if you look
in the back of the book here, if
you have a book,
it would really help.
In my book it's
it's there's no page number, but it would
be 347.
It might be in the yeah. In the
green
editions, it's at the beginning, which is probably
better.
It's towards the beginning. It's called Horesh of
the Hollow.
Alright?
So, again, Horesh is the kabilah.
Alright? That's the tribe.
And then there's 14 clans. A clan is
called the fakid, which means a thigh. Alright?
There's 14 thighs.
Alright. Fourteen,
clans and one tribe. Now he says here
that this is Quresh of the hollow. There's
also Quresh of the outskirts,
which he doesn't mention here. These are kinsmen
that lived on the countryside.
Alright. So he begins here by saying,
by noting Seher who's known as Paresh first.
Okay. So Sir ibn Malik, Paresh is kind
of like a nickname. So this is the
name of the tribe.
He has 2 sons,
Gahlid and Al Harith
and he also says down at the bottom
of the footnote that anytime you see a
name with bold or capital letters, all caps,
It's the founder of a clan. So there's
Bani Hadith.
Right? That's the name of one of the
clans and it says here, this is the
clan of Abu Ubaydah ibn
Jarrah who's also one of the 10 promised
of paradise.
At the battle of Uhud, it was Abu
Ubaydah
who pulled the rings out of the cheek
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So
the prophet was wearing a helmet and there
was rings, iron rings that were supposed to
protect his jawline
And he he was struck on the face
by a man named Idu Kamiyah.
And they penetrated his flesh
and he pulled them out with his teeth,
Abu Oveda. He lost his 2 front teeth
in the process. And then some of the
blood of the prophet went down his throat
and the prophet told him it's haram for
your flesh to be consumed
by the fire. So this is Abu Ubaydah
ibn Jarrah. He's called Aminu Hadiil Ummah, the
trustee of this Ummah.
Now if you look on the other side,
you have Gharib, right,
whose 12 men removed
from Adnan.
His son Lu'e, 13 men removed.
Lu'e has 2 sons.
'Amer,
this is a clan of Suhail.
Suhail was the one that the Quraysh
sent to Hudaybiyyah.
Right? We'll get to all these stories. So,
this is the one that negotiated the treaty
of Hudaybiyyah.
The treaty that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala calls
a manifest victory.
Right? Suhail. He didn't, become Muslim until after
the Ghazwad Hunayn.
The other son, Kab, is 14 removed from
Adnan.
He has 3 sons. You have Murrah, which
is in the line of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi sallam.
You have Adi. So this is the clan
of Umar, Sayidina Umar
bani Adi. And then you have Prosace
who has 2 sons who has one son,
Amr, and he has 2 sons. And both
of his sons are founders of clans, Bani
Saham and Bani Jumah.
Bani Saham is the clan of Amr ibn
Al-'Aas.
Right. So Amr ibn Al-'Aas is the man
the Quraysh sent to Abyssinia,
right, to debate the Muslims,
with regards to
the role of Isa
As we debated Ja'far ibn Abi Talib in
the court of the Najashi,
Amr ibn al-'Aas.
He was a very brilliant politician.
He also founded the city of Fustat, which
became Al Qahira, Cairo,
Egypt. And his Masjid is still there. It's
the it was the 1st Masjid on the
African continent,
and I've had the pleasure of visiting
the Masjid, of Amr ibn al-'Aas in Fostat.
Very beautiful Masjid.
The other son Jumah is the clan of
Earthman, Ibru Matherun,
who was a cousin of Umar and Earthman
is the one who accosted the poet Laveed.
So we'll read in Sira. It's coming up
in the Meccan period. It was the famous
poet Lavid, the Sha'era.
Right? And Uthman is the one who and
he was known for his, he was a
zahid. He was someone who renounced the dunya.
And then if you go back to Murrah,
he has 3 sons, Khilab, who's in the
lineage of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
on the ancestry. 16 removed from Adnan. Then
you have Taim, which is the clan of
Abu Bakr as Siddiq
and Talha ibn Ured Allah
and both of these are from the 10
promise of paradise.
And then we have Yaqaba
who has a son Mahzrum.
This is a very important clan.
The clan of Abu Salamah and and Khalid
ibn Waleed,
who's called Sayfullah
al Maslul, the drawn sword of God. This
is also the clan of Abu Jahl.
Right. Abu Jahl
is the Rasul Mustahazin.
He is the, the head of the ones
who used to abuse the prophet sallallahu alaihi
sallam.
Not a single one of, not a single
Musta as he became a Muslim.
Right. So going disbelieving in him is one
thing but
other,
people who eventually became Muslim Abu Sufyan and,
Amr ibn al-'As,
and even Ikrim and Ibn Abi Jahl, they
did not believe in the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam and they fought against him, but
they never mocked him. Right? They never made
fun of him. Right? But Abu Jahl used
to do that. And there's a few of
these men. None of them became Muslim.
They were either killed in battles or they
died from disease.
And then, Khilab has 2 sons, Jose, of
course, who was called the king of Mecca,
the founder of Darul Nidwa
and Zuhurah,
Mani Zuhurah, which is the clan of the
prophet's mother, Aamin Abintu Wahab,
and his cousin Sa'ed ibn Abi Waqas, who's
from the 10 promised, and Abdulrahmad ibn Nu'af,
he's also from the 10.
And then
Jose has 4 sons, Abdul Urza,
who has Asad. So Bani Asad is the
clan of,
Asayd
Khadija
al Kubra Bintu Huwailid.
This is the first wife of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And also Az Zubair
Ibnu Awam
Awam,
who's also from the promised
10.
He has a son named Abdul Abdul Manaf
and Abdad Dar. We'll get to their story
in a minute.
And then Abdul Manaf has a son,
Hashim,
right, who's 19 removed from Adnan.
He has 3 brothers, Nofal, the clan of
Mutim, Ibnu Adi.
Alright. So this is, Mutim is the person
one of the 5 when the Quraysh had
a boycott
on Bani Hashim in the late Meccan period
that no food was allowed out to them.
Right? Mut'im was one of the 5 who
protested that. Right. He also gave the prophet
protection
upon the prophets return from Thaif.
And then you have
Abu Shams. This is a clan of Earthman,
Ibnu Athan,
Abu Sufyan, Ibnu Harb. This is Bani Umayyah.
It's a very important clan,
there's,
that, that comes in
into into more importance after the passing of
the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
The Bani Umayyah was the,
was the Muslim polity for a while. They
were overthrown by the Abbasids.
And then Hashem has Abdul Muttalib,
it's also called Sheybotul Hamd.
And then Abdul Muttalib has at least 10
sons and many daughters.
Right?
Including Abu Talib
and Abdullah,
who is the father of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
So that's the
that's the diagram here, Quresh of the Hollow.
Now, if you look at some of the
wives of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Yes.
Yes.
So according to our tradition, according to sound
hadith,
the Quran was revealed in 7 dialects.
Okay. And some say there's even more.
So the prophet
would receive
the wahi in 7, at least 7, some
say up to 10 dialects
and all of them are correct and he
would speak
to the tribe in their dialect.
Okay. That's why you have different ways of
reading the Quran.
Okay?
So something to remember is that
our belief
as
is that,
Arabic,
is itself something that's created.
It's a it's a created language.
Right?
So when we say that the kalam of
Allah
is not created, it's uncreated.
Right? That's our position.
In contrast to Mu'tazilites who said it was
created, our position is uncreated. We're not talking
about,
sot or haroof or kadimat or lova. We're
not talking about sound
and words and letters and languages.
These things are created.
When we refer to the uncreated kalam of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, we're talking about the
infinite meanings of the Quran
and there's different ways of articulating those infinite
meanings.
Okay? So you have,
multiple readings of the Quran. A lot of
Muslims don't know this. We don't have variant
readings. The bible has variant
readings. In other words, there's
there's verses that are missing in different versions
of the bible. That's a variant reading. That's
a version.
Right? We don't have different versions of the
Quran. Right? But we have multiple readings. There
are some who read and
some say.
Right?
And it's just a difference of an adith.
Is he the king or the owner of
the day of judgment?
Now the ulema say both are correct because
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam through sanad
recited them both ways.
And in the Quran itself, Allah is the
king and the owner. So both of those
meanings are found in the Quran anyway.
So the ulama have said that the reason
why we have multiple readings,
is, a mercy from Allah
that he's given us more insight to the
pre eternal meanings of the Quran, which are
infinite.
The pre eternal meanings of the Quran are
infinite because they have to be infinite because
it is the speech of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. It's an attribute, qualitative attribute.
Okay.
So yeah the prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam,
and this is one of
the
wisdoms of dawah, is that you speak to
people
according to their understanding or language.
Okay.
So that's what the wise person does. And
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he would employ
he would employ that.
Right? So when he went to before he
went to Medina, he would send sahaba to
go into Medina and learn
the adat of the people, the habits of
the people there,
right, so he can tailor the dawah.
Right?
So yes, there's
multiple readings of the Quran.
Earthman,
he canonized the Quran in the Qurayshi dialect.
Right? So the Qurans we have now, most
of them are in the,
Qurayshi dialect that was being recited in Mecca
at the time, but there's different ways of
reciting it.
So I hope that answers the question.
But I was gonna mention about the wives
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
If you look at his wives, so this
is something that,
like the
the the Muslim hater, right, he'll always bring
up, right, this issue of polygamy.
If you look at the wives of the
prophet SAW, something that we have to realize
is that all of his wives came from
different tribes.
Right.
So there's a great wisdom behind this. This
is not something that's haphazard.
Right? He's choosing specific women
and it's not his choosing. We don't believe
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was guided
by hawa, by his caprice or desire.
That this is all of these are by
command of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So Hadija is from Bani Asad. Aisha is
from
Bani
Tame, Hafsa, Bani Adi,
right.
Salima Bani Mahzoon,
Juwairiyah,
Bani Mustaliq,
Habibah,
Mary al Kripatiya, Mary the Copt
from Egypt. Right? So there's a reason, there's
a great wisdom behind this.
Right?
So we don't we don't ascribe baser motives
to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
Right?
Now,
we have till what time?
10? 10.
Okay. So we'll go another 5 minutes, Insha'Allah,
and then we'll see if there's comments or
questions.
If you have a question or something, you
can ask me. You don't have to wait.
So,
there was a strong
allegiance to the tribe. This is very important
amongst the Jahali Arabs.
Allegiance to the tribe.
Okay? So, they practice this type of tribal
utilitarianism.
In other words,
do whatever is best for your tribe. It
wasn't even seen as immoral to go out
and kill someone from another tribe.
Okay? It was only immoral to do something
negative to someone from your own tribe.
So, this was so basically,
law and order was impossible. It was probably
the harshest environment on earth.
Right? And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and
this is part of the miracle of who
he was sallallahu alaihi wasallam is that he
was extremely gentle.
Right? So, you're dealing with like almost polar
opposites
and how he was able to bring,
this type of environment
under control is really a miracle in and
of itself.
Right? And one of the reasons why like
we mentioned earlier,
a major reason why was his choice of
marriages
because you have clans that are at each
other's throats
that are always going back, you know, revenge
killings back and forth and then he marries
from both clans and suddenly they're kin to
the prophet. They're related to him. So they
suddenly they put the swords down.
Right? And they're at peace. So one of
the major factors as to how he was
able to bring peace to the region was
through his marriages.
Right?
So,
the Ulema talk about which
is
the moral ideal of the time
which is manliness, protection of the weak, generosity,
hospitality, loyalty.
So Islam
took this concept and expanded it from tribalism
to universalism.
So, Islam is a universal religion.
Right? It's not a tribal religion.
This is extremely important.
Like the word,
the word Judaism comes from a tribe.
Right?
The word Christian comes from Christ.
Right? There's a figure named Christ. He's a
human being.
But, the word Muslim,
we believe,
transcends
any one person,
transcends the prophet himself, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Because Ibrahim alaihi wa sallam according to the
Quran is a Muslim.
Right? This was before the time of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So we have to stress this
this aspect of our religion.
You know, how the Christians are always quoting
John 316. Right? For God so loved the
world and so on and so forth. Right?
This is like their,
their,
the
the bread and butter, right, of the of
the evangelist.
Right? It's a very beautiful verse, and,
and they always tell you to read John's
gospel first, you know, even though it was
the last one written, read it first because
in this gospel, there's
theological discourse of of Jesus about his own
nature and how he's divine and things like
that apparently.
So our verse should be 21107.
This is our bread and butter.
Number 107.
Right? This should be we should I don't
know. I was gonna say tattoo it, but
it's haram. We should
I don't know. Just
make a bandana or something. I don't I
don't know. This we should always be quoting
this verse,
and it's amazing,
the ignorance of of educated people.
And they're masekeen,
you know, they're not any we we feel
bad for them because they're so because the
ignorant is so rampant. Even amongst our Muslim
youth, they don't know that about the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. I did a 5
minute talk at a church one time. 5
minutes
on,
the the the Bedouin urinating in the Masjid.
Right? Just one simple story for the Bedouin
urinating in the Masjid. And this girl came
up to me and she was a Christian
and she was crying and she wanted to
hug me and, you know, and she was
like, I can't believe it. This is beautiful
and no one ever told me this. And
how many times have you heard that story?
You've probably heard it a 1000 times.
Right? It's just something that is
we we hear it a lot. It's it's
but we're not we're not involved in a
discourse, so people don't know these things about
the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Right? Because they have no reason to disbelieve
what's being told to them by their teachers
in school and the university. I mean, he's
a professor. He's got a PhD in comparative
religion. He must be intelligent. Why would he
lie to me?
Right?
But that's that's that's the
that's the problem is that we need to
study under teachers who have sanad,
who have transmission.
Right? And that's what's that's the secret of
this ummah, is the sanad, according to Abu
Bakr ibn Arabi,
is
is connecting yourself
from with people who study under people, who
study under people, who study under people, who
study all the way back to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
That's when you'll get the essence of the
deen or the fiqh. The fiqh, you know,
we sometimes it's we translate, you know, fiqh
as jurisprudence,
but it it really means the essence. And
the ulama have said, it's the it's the
smell of the rose. That's the fiqh.
Without the rose without the smell of the
rose, what do you have?
You know, you're missing the essence of the
rose.
Right?
So that's why we need people with deep
knowledge that have trans that has transmission
in order to convey the message
in an adequate way
or else you're left with, you know, just
a very
superficial type of, and you know it's important
to do presentation, you know the 5 pillars
and
so on and so forth and you know
people find these types of things, you know,
it's very helpful,
but it's useful, but it's very dry. We're
missing the spirit of it, Right? We have
to come up with the spirit to find
the spirit.
Right?
So
I'll stop at that point.
Next time we'll talk about,
we're going to talk about,
Husay
and,
his sons,
and we're going to get into,
sha Allahu Ta'ala, the
year of the elephant.
Okay. So read those chapters of the book.
Read the next few chapters, very short chapters.
So
yes?
Yeah. It's where
The first few classes of this
topic, we're kind of setting things up. So
it's kind of historical. It might be a
little boring for children. But once we get
into CIRA,
right,
I think they'll enjoy it more. I hope
people aren't bored. I mean,
this
is a class we have
to I mean, it's not like I said,
it's not supposed to be entertaining. I hope
it's entertaining. I'm entertained.
Is there a question here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Is that a Latin West or Rome? Yes.
Which one? The Surah Lu in that one.
Oh, that's yeah. That's that's referring to,
Byzantium,
the Greek East. Yeah. The Greek East.
Yes.
And then in 1054
they split completely,
the Greek East and Latin West, and now
you have Roman Catholicism
and Eastern Orthodox.
That's where that that's the origin of that.
And
the whole issue was, you know, the pope,
is the pope infallible? The Catholics believe he's
Masum
and his doctrine. And the pope, a couple
years ago, he made a comment about the
Quran, which is
completely incorrect.
So, obviously, he's not he said that, the
verse in the Quran,
is.
It's abrogated.
And the reason he said that is he
said he said that because it was revealed
in Mecca
and it was replaced by Ayat Toseif,
the verse of the sword revealed in Suratul
Tawba.
But Ra'ikra Hifidin is in what Surah.
Is in Al Baqarah. Right? Which is revealed
in Medina,
not in Mecca.
So,
I've never come across
a classical exegete of the Quran who's ever
said that there's no compulsion in religion is
abrogated.
I don't know where he got that from.
But he's supposed to be a Masoom
pope
who made a major blunder.
Any comments or questions?
That'll have to be related to the topic.
Yes, he eventually became Muslim.
Amr ibn al-'Aas,
he converted late in the Medina period.
He after the passing of the prophet
he was the arbitrator for Muawiyah
against Imam Ali.
So there were some issues after that. Right?
And, Amr ibn al-'As is the one who
said to his son when he was on
his deathbed, he said, You booniyah.
So, oh, my dear son, his son's name
is Abu Allah. He said, there was a
time where I hated the prophet so much,
I couldn't look at him.
I mean, I hated the prophet so much,
I was fighting
many ghazawat against him. And then there came
a time I loved him so much, I
couldn't look at him in his face. And
if you ask me what he looked like,
I can't even tell you because I don't
even remember what he looked like. Because after
I converted, he was so ashamed to look
at the face of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam because he fought against him for
so many years
that he just didn't wanna look at his
face.
Question. Yes. It's kind of a side question.
The concept of the light
of, but also the Mathuriti
and.
That's a minority opinion in the Mathuriti school.
It's an acceptable position,
unless it's an old there's some ultra orthodox
Maturidis,
Maturidis that will condemn it.
But it's an acceptable position, but it's mostly
found amongst
the Asharis.
Because the reason it's accepted
is because either way the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam is from the makhruqat. He's created.
Right? So some sometimes,
people will say, you know, they'll quote the
Hadith, don't do to me what the Christians
did to Isa Alaihi Salam. But But in
order to understand that Hadith, we have to
understand what did the Christians do to Isa,
alayhis salam.
What did what did they do? They made
him uncreated
and equal to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So the priority of the Muhammad in light,
or the reality of the Muhammad in nature,
those who adhere to that belief, none of
them are saying that the prophet
is uncreated.
They call him Khaydul Khalkillah, which by the
way is also standard Matjuridi doctrine.
But there's there's that,
the Asharid will use from the Quran. Like
the like the verse we quoted from,
Al Hazar
when Allah
says,
We took a covenant from the prophets from
you and then from Noah,
Ibrahim, Musa, and Issa. Now why is the
prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned first,
and then Noah,
Ibrahim,
Musa, and Issa. According to the Ash'ari
exigits, it's because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam actually predates them
in time,
in his temporality. He has ontological precedence
because his uruah was created before they before
they were created, before their adawah were created.
But either way it's created.
If someone says the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam is uncreated,
this is kuforo.
Right?
Like what the Christians said about That's what
the Christians said about Isa Alaihi Wasallam. So
we have to understand you know what did
they What did the Christians say about Isa
Alaihi Wasallam in order to condemn other Muslims?
If they don't know what they what they
did to him, then we can't condemn. And
in this position, both are accepted. So there's
no, there's no inkar where there's an ikhtilaf.
You cannot condemn another Muslim position where there's
an ikhtilaf and it's a valid ikhtilaf, a
valid difference of opinion.
Yeah. Hibun Uthaimiyyah was he was very,
very critical to say the least
of this position
of the Ashaddis.
But he's we respect Ibn Uthaimiy as a
great scholar.
Great scholar. He's teacher of Ibn Kathir.
Yeah,
question?
So read the next few chapters inshallah.
I may just quiz the youth next time
based on this class or based on the
reading.
It'd be very easy,
you
know, what are the 3 types of Arabs?
Come on.
That's easy.
That'll be very easy in children.
So if you don't want to be embarrassed,
no I'm just joking.
You know, that's how I learned to read
the Quran. My teacher would imply,
humility
and it's very effective.
Very effective when I was 18, 19 years
old, you know. He would call you out
in the crowd and he'd make you read
and if you didn't do your homework, you
were I've seen people sweating on the muzhaf,
dropping sweat on the muzhaf because they're so
they're so embarrassed.
But it works, you know. But
usually doesn't work in amongst Americans. They don't
like that tactic.