Ali Ataie – Our Love for Prophet Muhammad ()’s Household (AhlulBayt)
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
We are in the month of Muharram.
This is a sacred month.
This is a month in which we should
remember the struggles of the family of the
prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam because they were in
his footsteps.
The struggles of the Ahlulbaytir Rasulillahi alayhi wasallam
is extremely important for us as ahlhusunna wal
jama'a,
this is something that is foundational in our
religion. And I think it's a great unifying
factor, a great unifying force of all Muslims.
Imam Malik ibn Anas radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu,
his judgment on
that polemical discourse or debate amongst lay Muslims,
amongst the laity. He said it's haram,
and you go into certain masajid or MSAs,
you see people,
students who have no requisite knowledge, debating
in a polemical slaps type of way, making
takfir of each other.
Ash'ali, Maturidi, and Sunni, and Shii, and Salafi,
and Wahabi. According to Imam Malik, this is
haram, this type of discourse.
Now does that mean that we can't have
dialogue? We should have
dialogue. Right? Something like this should take place
in a masjid.
Right? This is is
just a technical term for Ihsan.
Right? Ihsan is in the Quran
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala loves the ihsanin.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was asked
about ikhsan in hadith, jibril, sound hadith, sahibu
kari,
What did he say?
To worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as though
you see him,
And if you don't see him then no,
be cognizant that indeed he sees you to
worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
as if raptured in the beatific vision of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. This is the prophetic
way of worship, this is how the Prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam used to worship Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala,
as if he was standing in front of
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Imagine the scene on the yomul kiyama,
when
the jahannam is brought near, and we're going
to see it with aina yakeen according to
the Quran. How would you stand in front
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on that day?
This is the prophetic worship, this is the
worship, the ibadah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
To have
this type of dhok, Imam Ghazali talks about
it, he calls it dhok, to taste the
faith. And he criticized the formalists
who are changing definitions.
Even at his time, he says they're changing
definitions.
The word fiqh
has a different definition at his time than
it did with the salaf.
The the word fiqh at the time of
Imam Khazali just meant how to make wudhu
and how to make hajj and things like
that. What does fiqh mean? Fiqh means the
essence of the religion. It's the essence. In
this sense, all of the sahab or fuqaha
in this sense.
There's different types, obviously there's a jurisprudential
aspect of fiqh, and that's very important.
But fiqh literally means a deep understanding of
the religion, to taste the essence of the
religion, to have tahkiq actualize the religion.
Like Hanzalay came to Abu Bakr sadeek and
he said, Asbaahdu munafiqan,
I've become a munafiq, and and Abu Bakr
Sadiq radiAllahu anhu said, Why do you say
this about yourself?
And he said, Because
when I sit in the majlis of the
Messenger of Allah Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam I
have takid, I have vok,
I taste my faith, to paraphrase what he
said.
I have a strong spirituality,
he talks about jannah and nar,
and I have this really strong spirituality, then
I leave his presence and it starts to
wane,
and I go back to how I was.
I've become a This
is when he said, and Abu Bakr Siddiq
said, That happens to me too. Let's go
ask the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
No, you haven't become a munafiq, if you
were to remain in that state as you
are in my presence, then you'll be shaking
hands with angels in the street,
Right?
But we should have a dialogue about these
things.
He said
that our knowledge,
1 of the great articulators
of tasawaf, of ihsan, of Islamic spiritualism, Islamic
mysticism. He said our knowledge is nothing more
than knowledge that is tied to the book
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and the sunnah of his messenger, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. It's not coming out of nowhere,
it's not it's not
taken from Christianity, it's not taken from Hinduism.
Right? There were things that were borrowed, there's
no doubt about it as far as practices
go. But the
from a standpoint of creed,
this is based firmly in the Quran and
Sunnah of the messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So to begin, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
in the Quran,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
This is an imperative command. Say to them,
no reward do I ask of you for
this,
except that you love the kurbah. Who is
kurbah? According to
the vast majority of x digits of the
Quran, this is a reference to the ahlulbayt
of the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. We
are commanded in the Quran to love the
family of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
In a famous line of poetry by Abu
Muhammad ibn Dudaiza Shafi'i, a great scholar of
Ahlusoonawal Jama'a,
Oh, family of the Messenger of God,
your love is obligatory, incumbent upon us, from
Allah based in the kitab, based in the
Quran.
Whoever doesn't send benedictions upon you in the
prayer, there is no prayer for him.
Imam Shafi'i
considered it a rukun, a pillar of the
salah that you send benedictions of peace upon
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam and his
family, or else your prayer doesn't count.
Right?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
who is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
The one who created everything is engaged in
this activity,
sending blessings of peace upon the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi
and the angels also are sending blessings of
peace upon the Prophet
Yet there are some muslims who say don't
over praise the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Is it possible to over praise? We talked
about this last night. Is it even possible?
Right? As one of the scholars said, one
of the poets said,
If Allah praises him, what is our praise
in comparison?
And the Ulema use the analogy of putting
a needle into the ocean and extracting the
needle, and then comparing the water in the
ocean
with the water on the needle. Can you
over praise the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
Muhammad says in the famous ode to the
cloak, the Buddha,
that there is no end to the praiseworthy
attributes of the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wa
Salam. There's hadith regarding this. Ubay bin ibn
Ubayyahu
Alaihi Wa Salam. Came to the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam How much of my daily benedictions
should I spend on blessings upon you?
Ruba Anil said a quarter of it. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said good that's
good but more is better. He said nisfahu
half of it that's good but more is
better. Salata arba
3 quarters of it, that's good but more
is better.
All of my adkar is
That's good. This is what the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam told him he didn't say
astaghfirullah had a shirk bida no kufur no
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is teaching
his sahaba
If all of your adkar, all of your
adkar is a salaalan nabi, that's good. And
there's no way you can over praise the
Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Except if you
say something that is categorically
that is categorically rejected in the Quran or
in the hadith.
Right? It's hadith of Tirmidi, it's quoted by
our brethren all the time. Don't flatter me
like the Christians have flattered, Isa alaihi salaam.
Kamah. The prophet salaam alayhi salaam uses the
particle of comparison, kama. What does kama mean?
Like they have done. So what is rejected
in the Quran? Categorically rejected. The Christians say
what about Isa alayhi salam?
They say he's ibn Allah. We don't say
that about the prophet sallallahu alayhi salam. They
say he is Allah, Inalaha
Hual Masihrbnu mariam. This is what they say,
nobody is saying this about the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
Right? So we have to understand when
when he says sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, don't
do to me what the Christians did but
their prophet, what did the Christians do to
their prophet? You have to understand what they
did, that's rejected in the in the Quran.
And something that's
But sending blessings of peace upon the prophet,
that's only a good thing. The brother recited
the hadith.
It's
only for our benefit.
Whoever sends blessings of peace upon me once,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends blessings of peace
upon him 10 times.
10 times. There's sound hadith, ajeeb hadith.
The prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Inna
andra see malakun yubalihulli salata alayabilummati.
There's an angel talking about his time in
the grave, in the barzakh.
That there is an angel seated at my
head
who conveys salaams to me from my nation
He's telling you so and so is making
salaam to you, you Rasool Allah, an angel.
This is what he says, sound hadith of
Al Bazar,
sound hadith.
Except on Friday, I can hear it with
my ear
Allah
is powerful, He's omnipotent, if Allah
wants to make his Nabi
hear something in the Qabr, very easy for
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
In the Quran Allah causes to hear whomever
He wills.
To Your deeds are presented to me.
On Friday.
Does that mean the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam judges our deeds? No. Don't put words
into his mouth sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. This
is haram.
Denying what he said is also haram.
Whatever he offers you, you take it. You
don't deny it, you take it. This is
what he said, this is a sadih hadith,
rigorously authenticated hadith that your deeds are presented
to me on Thursday.
Wainwajatuhayrah
hamitullah
if I see good I praise Allah.
Wainwajatusharran
astaghfartu
lakum
and if I see other than that I
ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for forgiveness for
you. He's rahmatililalamin
His life does not end at death. Death
is not annihilation.
This is not Hinduism.
Death is not he's not it's not over
at his passing from this dunya. He continues
to be rahmatillilalamin.
Continues
to
be So
a few hadith I wanna mention here
with regards to love of Ahlul Bayt.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
discipline your children upon 3 things,
or teach your children 3 things.
The love of your Prophet,
and the love of his family,
and the reading, understanding of the Quran.
He said in hadith
tarmidi,
love Allah for His blessings upon you. If
we just contemplate
one of the blessings of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala,
it will necessarily
engender love for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. You
know someone sees us on the street, a
perfect stranger comes up to us and gives
us a $1,000 in cash.
Imagine how appreciative you'd be. Here's a gift
for you. I don't even know you. Here's
a $1,000. Your heart might actually incline
towards that person. You might have love for
that person.
So a complete stranger
who just gave you some cash. You might
actually love that person. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
gave you your life.
Your your children, your parents, the air you
breathe, your grandchildren,
your your grandparents,
everything Allah gave you. Just contemplate that, it
will engender necessarily love for Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. Is what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
is saying, Love Allah for His blessings upon
you. Wahibuni
lihibillah,
and love me for the sake of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And love my family for my sake.
1 of the companions
asked the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam after the
latter part of that verse was revealed in
which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says you ayyuhaladeenaamru
salu alay was salimutaslima
Right?
They asked him,
how do we do that? How do we
send benedictions
upon you? How do we pray upon you?
And he said, Say, Muhammad,
Wa Allah Ali Muhammad.
Right? Send blessings of peace upon the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and the family of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So then the question arises,
who are the Ahlulbayt?
Are the wives of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam? The Muhammadul Mumineen included in the Ahlulbayt?
There's difference of opinion, the dominant opinion ahlul
sunabal jama'a is that yes, one of the
wider meanings of ahlulbayt includes
the mothers of the believers and is a
hadith of Zayd ibnuarkam
which makes that very very clear because there
are some people who say it only includes
the wives of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
Alright? So there's a hadith I wanna show
you, or quote to you,
a very interesting hadith which shows the exalted
status of ahlulbayt and identifies them very clearly.
It's called This is in Muslim and it
is a sound hadith rigorously
authenticated.
So we are told that it's related by
which
he says that the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam was in her quarters, and he was
sleeping on a
like a sack or a cloth
And Fatima Zahra alaihi salaam,
she walks into the room, and she has
some sweets or some desserts or something.
Right? So the prophet sallallahu alaihi salaam tells
her go get your husband and your children.
So she goes and gets imam Ali alayhi
salaam and ahlul sunnah, you can say alayhi
salaam for ahlulbayt. Imam Bukhari says in Sahih
Bukhari,
Fatima alayhis salaam. Imam Bukhari says this, it's
not bida, not kufur,
nothing like that.
Okay? So go get imam Ali, so he
comes with al Hasanayn.
Hasan, imam hussain alayhim as salam.
And they're sitting on this,
This is a subabun nuzul, this is the
occasion of the revelation of the verse
which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
Allah only wants to remove every kind of
stain from you, oh people of the house,
and to render you pure and spotless. The
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he takes the keys
of Khaybari and he puts it over his
head, and over the head of Fatima, and
Ali, and Al Hassanain. Says, Allahumma
Ulaahi
ahlubayt.
Oh Allah, this is the Ahlulbayt.
And then we're told, right?
She wants to duck her head underneath the
kisa as well. And the Prophet says, you're
okay. Right?
So the wider meaning of Ahlulbayt according to
the ulama includes the wives, and the sons
of Abbas and Ja'far and so on and
so forth. But these 5 are definitely from
Ahlulbayt.
Who are the 5? The Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam? Imam Ali Al Hassanayn, Fatima Az
Zahra, Alayhim As Salam. Now this is important.
Another hadith called hadith with thakalain.
This is a very important hadith
this hadith is mutawatr.
Mutawatr means it is the strongest type of
hadith possible,
multiply attested
hadith. The scholars of Alafsunawal Jamaa
say that
a hadith that is more to water
is equal credally
and in its legislative capacity
to a Quranic ayah.
Right? Denial in other words of a hadith
is tantamount to denial of an ayah of
the Quran.
And this is kufr,
this infidelity to deny.
Multiply attested, groups and groups of people report
this hadith
from multiple countries which would have made it
impossible to fabricate the hadith.
A factual statement. You find it in Muslim
Ahmed
So the transmission here is from Sahih Muslim.
This
He says on the way back from
Hajjatulwada.
Right?
The
final pilgrimage, the farewell pilgrimage of the prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He said they stopped
at a place called the Hadir Khome, which
there's a pond, there's some trees there, and
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he turns to
the people
and he says, I have left behind me
2 weighty things,
2 weighty things.
What are they?
The book of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala which
is like your lifeline or your cable extension
Extending from the heavens down to the earth.
So the analogy is like you're in an
ocean and you're drowning.
And someone throws
you a lifeline.
And number 2,
And number 2,
My family, the people of my house. Now
there's another hadith that says
Is this a contradiction? There's no contradiction.
There's no contradiction.
We'll talk about how to reconcile these 2.
Let's finish the riwaya though. In Sahih Muslim,
Azaybnu'arkam,
radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And then the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam said
that these two things, these
they will never deviate from one another they'll
never be separated
they'll never contradict one another the ahlulbayt
will never go against the Quran or deviate
the Quran
You will not understand the Quran without Ahlulbayt,
you will not understand Ahlulbayt without the Quran.
This is what it means according to the
muhaddithin of ahlul sunnah wal jamah.
Sunni ulamah.
And then he says
Am I not over the believers?
Don't you prefer me
over yourselves?
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is saying,
There's a reference to the verse in the
Quran, Surah Al-'Azab aye number 6.
That the believers prefer the life of the
Prophet over their own life.
You just read about Ghazbah Uhud,
the men who surrounded the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam
totally putting themselves in harms way to defend
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Shooting
arrows,
people firing arrows at the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam from short distance and sat standing
in front of them, firing arrows back at
them. The prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam said
throw your arrows O Sa'at, may my father
and mother be ransom for you. This is
what he said to
Imam Ali going around the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam
fighting off blades and arrows like a moth
going around a flame.
That's all we have to read is some
of these razwat of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam when we understand what that means.
The woman who stood in front of Abdullah
ibn Khamia,
this man on a horse who wants to
kill the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam, who
would have just killed Musa'a ibn Umer
at Ghazwah Uhud. And now this woman, Nusaybah
Bintuqab, she stands in front of his horse
and she's standing there with a sword in
her hand, she came to the
the mawriqah to give water to the mujahideen,
but then the prophet said he was under
siege. So she stands in front of this
armed horseman,
and he won't kill her because he has
the decency not to kill a woman,
which is more than I can say about,
you know, current rules of warfare.
This man who just killed is a hobby,
and now he's intentioned, he's resolved upon killing
the messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
will not kill a woman on the battlefield.
So he starts hitting her with his sword
on her shoulder, say get out of the
way. What are you doing here? Get out
of the way. And she won't budge. She
relates to the hadith. She said, I wanted
to run, but I turned around, and the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is under siege,
so I kept my ground.
And then he brings a sword down hard
on her shoulder,
and fractures her, clavicle,
and she falls down.
And then her son Zaid
runs to her defense, says, oh me, oh
me, my mother. And what does she say
to him?
She says, Go protect the Prophet, don't worry
about me. Protect the Prophet, he's angry with
him. Why?
The believers prefer the life of the Prophet
over their own lives.
You're not a complete believer unless you love
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam more than yourself,
more than your father, your son, and all
of humanity,
all of humanity.
So
this is what he says,
Yes, yes.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he takes
the hand of Sayna Ali,
If I am your master,
then this Ali is your master.
Right?
And then he says,
wa'adiman a'ada
1 surman nasara
wakhdulman
khadala.
O Allah, befriend the one who befriends him,
antagonize the one who antagonizes him, give victory
to the one who gives him victory,
forsake the one who forsakes him.
Right? This is the exalted station of Ahlulbayt
of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Right? And this doesn't in any way take
away from the from the greatness of
How much sacred knowledge
was imparted to Abu Bakr as Siddiq, the
best friend of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, before Islam.
This shows you the character of Abu Bakr
as Siddiq, That this was his companion that
he chose, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
before the bay'atah, before the revelation came to
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Here we're talking about the exalted status of
Ahlulbayt so is there a contradiction here? There's
no contradiction
the true and authentic sunnah has always been
invested in Ahlulbayt.
This is why we should seek them out,
have a connection to Ahlulbayt,
have connection with Ahlulbayt
because they are never going to be separated
from the Quran.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam says in
a hadith called hadith a safina,
sound hadith.
Al bazaar, the mustraq of al Hakim, the
mustar of Ahmad,
The similitude of Ahlulbayt
is like the ship of Noah.
What is a ship of Noah? This is
an interesting
of the Quran, an esoteric interpretation.
Right? That you have the exoteric meaning that
this was a historical event that happened with
Nuh alaihi salaam in his qawm, and he
built a ship, and there was a flood.
But the prophet sallallahu alaihi salaam is comparing
this to something that's going to happen in
the future. A typology, a foreshadowing
that my family is like the ship of
Noah.
Now there's no there's no flood here, but
there really is. There's no flood of waters,
but there's a flood of confusion
of kufur, of nifaq, of
of of right? Changing the sunnah, it's all
over the world. What do we do in
this situation?
How do we understand the Quran? You understand
the Quran
by attaching yourself, clinging yourself to the ship
of the Ahlulbayt.
This is what the Ulema say
say. Whoever rides upon it, embarks upon it
is saved. Whoever does not,
is destroyed.
Nasalallahu alafi wa salamah.
The true authentic sunnah has always been invested
in the ahlulbayd,
in its outward and inward aspects, in the
thahir and baton aspects.
Umus Salama says, in a hadith,
Ali and the truth are inseparable.
This hadith,
Ali alayhis salaam
is inseparable
from the truth, inseparable in another way from
the Quran. You're never gonna deviate from the
Quran
because there's 2 takalain
Quran and ettarati and the ettarati
is the
preserver of the true sunnah of the Messenger
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. If you follow the sunnah,
you have to follow itrati.
They're synonymous, they're the same thing. The family
of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to
He said,
Says, Are you not pleased
that you are to me
as Aaron was to Moses, as Harun was
to Musa Alaihi Salam? What was the relationship
of Harun to Moses? Was his brother,
was his supporter, his friend, his beloved,
the preserver of spiritual secrets,
of sacred noses of
Right?
This is the relationship.
But who was the
the temporal successor of
Musa Alaihi Salam? It was not haroon,
it was Yusha Abin Noon.
You see?
So Abu Bakr as Sadiq is the temporal
successor
of the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, and
also inherited many prophetic secrets.
That's why many of the,
turuk
of Tasawaf comes from who? Abu Bakr Sadiq
radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. You go back 200 years
ago,
we're just talking about this in the car,
doctor Ahmad.
You go back 200 years ago, you'll be
hard pressed to find a single
scholar
who did not follow a madhab of jurisprudence,
and a tariqa of tasawwuf. You'll
be hard pressed to find 1.
Salahuddin Al Ayubi was in a tariqa. He
was Muid,
the liberator of Palestine. Abu Qasem Al Junaid
was a Qadi
in Baghdad.
He was a man of Tarsowaf, but he
was a Qadi, he was a faqih.
Jalal Adina Rumi was a
in Konya.
We don't have this issue, we don't have
this dichotomy of spirit and law. This is
Christian baggage, we don't have this issue. There's
not an absolute dichotomy.
The sharia
is a means by which we attain spirituality
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is very
very important.
So I wanna tell a little bit about
the story
of an
alaihiw salam,
he's the son of Ali,
he is the son of
Fatima Zahra.
The one about whom the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam said Fatima
Fatima is a piece of my flesh.
Fatima is a piece of my flesh. Whoever
angers her has angered me.
Whoever angers me angers Allah
This is the state of Fatima Zahra.
I mentioned this story the other day,
a few years ago I was in a
masjid, and
I think it was later till Qadaras, we
just prayed tarawiyyah.
And my daughter ran up to me and
she jumped on me and I hugged her.
And another brother there said, you know,
back in my country,
you would have been slapped on on the
top of your head for doing for for
for doing this, for for showing affection to
your daughter.
This is against our culture.
Right? I said, Really? I said, Yeah. My
dad would have scolded my father would have
scolded you if he saw you do this.
So, do you know anything about the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam? That when the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam was sitting in majlis, and
Fatima Zahra who was a toddler would walk
into the majlis, he would stand up.
Rasoolallah,
stand for Fatima Zahra. And what? Kiss her
on the hands and on the forehead.
Who's better than the prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam? Nobody.
This is his love for children. This is
how he manifested love for different people.
So let's look at some of these
blessed
events in the life of Imam Al Hussain.
He is the epitome of the prophetic hadith.
Speak the truth even if it's bitter.
And never be afraid of those who find
fault. Don't be afraid of the opinions of
men.
Those are just human beings. Do what is
right with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
That doesn't mean have bad adab with people,
have bad comportment with people, don't care about
the feelings of people, no. That's against the
sunnah.
Right? But don't be afraid to stand up
for what is right. Imam Al Hussein
did not fear
human beings.
Imagine the unbelievable
sacrifice,
imagine
it. Did not fear human beings, he did
what was right for the sake of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The greatest jihad is a word of truth
in the face of a tyrant.
He epitomizes this hadith,
Imam al Hussain alayhi wasalam. He was born
in 4 hijri,
he is the second son of Ali and
Fatima. The ulama say that from the neck
up
Imam Hassan looked like the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. And from the neck down, Imam
al Hussain looked like the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. And that's in their khalk, the
way they look physically.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, he makes
this amazing ajeeb statement, which is in al
al bazaar, and hakim, and a tabarani.
It says Hussein
We understand Hussain
Hussain is from me.
Right? Because Hussain is the grandson of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
How do we understand
Hussain?
This is unbelief, SubhanAllah.
Hussain, and O Allah, love those who love
Hussain. So the ulama say that this means
that they are aligned in their character, in
their khuluq.
He looks like the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa
sallam in his khalaq and he has similar
character in his khuluq.
In
his inward aspect, in his virtues, in his
principle, he is similar or the same as
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wa Salam. They also mentioned it means that
he's a preserver of the Prophet's deen, of
his legacy.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had
intense love for his children, and for his
grandchildren.
One time Imam Hassan, he waited, the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was praying, Imam Hassan
was a very young boy,
the Prophet went down into a sajda,
Imam Hassan jumps on the back of the
Prophet sajda.
The Prophet sajda would not move until he
was done, He kept in sajda.
Right?
And then after the prayer he jumps on
the prophet again,
and took him as a conveyance. You know
kids jump on the father's back, pretend like
it's a game, you know, take me somewhere.
So a man walked by and he said,
What a excellent conveyance you've taken, oh little
boy.
And the Prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
How excellent is the rider?
According to Imam Hassan alaihis salam.
One time the prophet was standing on the
minbar,
delivering a on
Friday.
And Imam Hussain, very young,
a toddler,
following the voice of his grandfather,
comes into the masjid.
Right? The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam sees
him, and he descends the minbar.
During the khutbah,
descends the minbar, and he picks
up Imam Hussain, and he hugs him. And
he hugs that body
that would be eventually trampled upon by horses,
by the army of Yazid.
And he kisses the face,
the face that's attached to the blessed severed
head that is going to be smacked by
Yazid sticks.
Kisses his face. He reassends the minbar,
and finishes the khutba
with Imam Hussain in his arms.
This is the love that the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam had for
Imam Hussain. He used to say,
indeed this son of
mine. Indeed this son of mine.
As an adult, Imam Hussain lived during a
time of major tyranny,
massive persecution of Ahlulbayt.
In Damascus, it was instituted as part of
the Khutba liturgy.
You know how we say there's a there's
certain arkan of the Khutba.
Right?
There's certain things you have to say in
Arabic during the Khutba for the Khutbah to
be legitimate.
One of the arkhan of the Khutbah of
the Bani Umayyah in Damascus, and not all
of the Bani Umayyah,
Many of them are lamad or auliya, we
don't generalize.
But this was the polity, this was state
instituted. This is what you have to say
in the khutba or else you can't give
khutba, you can't be khateeb.
What else do you have to say? You
have to send
upon imam Ali.
This happened for 90 years in Damascus.
90 years as part of the Khutba literatures,
ajeeb and gharib.
The the nephew of the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam, the one who preserves his lineage.
This is what they're saying about him. This
is the atmosphere in which imam Hussain grew
up. The Umayyad authorities
also had these secret homeland security agents
all around the
empire, especially in Iraq, especially in Kufa.
Why in Kufa? Because Imam Ali alaihi wasalam,
when he became Khalifa in 656 of the
common era, he moved the capital from Madinah
tul Munawara to Kufa, and it was a
brilliant move. It gives them more of a
central location to deal with growing problems in
the north, out of Syria with Umayyad.
And,
there was this menacing group
of puritanical
muslims called Al Khawarij,
who believed that anyone who didn't believe as
they believed was a non muslim,
and they could kill them and plunder them.
Right? Puritanical
fire and brimstone Aqeedah. So eventually one of
them accused imam Ali of kufr.
This is unbelievable.
Right? And they made a pact in the
haram in Mecca.
In the Haram in Mecca, 3 of them
said I'm going to go kill Amr ibn
al-'Aas, I'm gonna go Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan,
and you go kill Ali ibn Abi Talib.
In Mecca they shook on it, in Mecca
they go the other 2 are not successful,
but this one Abdulrahman ibn Muradi al
Abdulrahman
Abdulrahman
al Muradi al Muld whatever his name is.
He went into the Masjid and Kufa instructs
Imam Ali and killed him. The prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam says in a hadith
that imam suyuti relates in the tariqul khulafa.
The ajeeb hadith.
He says to him that 2 individuals will
have an extremely painful torment in the inferno,
in the in the * fire. This hadith
of of the prophet
sallam.
2 individuals will have the most painful torment.
The fair skinned man of Bani
Thamud who hand strung the Naqatullah
during the time of Salih alaihi wa sallam.
And the man, he's talking to Ali, and
the man who is going to strike you
here,
and this will be saturated with blood.
So imam Ali is walking out of the
masjid according to
by Abuhamal al Ghazali, book 40 of the
Ikhya, he's walking out of the masjid after
praying salatul fajr,
and this man, Abdul Rahman
al Buradi
pounces on him, strikes him on the top
of the head. And immediately his skull splits
and blood pours down his face, and saturates
his beard, and he falls down and he
screams
I have triumphed,
I have won,
I have gained victory
by the Lord of the Kaaba. You've
gained victory, you were killed by this man.
Because he understands, he's attained what?
He's become a martyr.
Alaihi Salam.
So,
Imam Hussain,
is in this type of environment. Now there's
also an interesting interesting hadith that's mentioned in
Mam Suyuti as well. That the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam said to Ali, you Ali,
Oh Ali, no one loves you except a
believer,
and no one hates you except a hypocrite.
Abu Saeed Al Khudri RadhiAllahu ta'ala Anhu used
to say, he said,
We used to be able to tell who
is a Munafiq
in Medina because they had hatred for Ali.
Aversion to Ali.
Aversion to Ali is a sign of nifaq.
Unfortunately,
in some places even today, you mention the
name Ali, and muslims have a visceral reaction.
Muslims,
we have to be very very careful.
Some of this vapor as sheikh Mohammed Al
Nidawi, may Allah preserve him, and this vapor
of those days has trickled down into our
contemporary society
regarding Imam Ali alaihis salam. That you mention
his name and people have a bad reaction
to it.
So at that time you can imagine naming
your son Ali had political ramifications
because he's been cursed on the minbar of
Bani Umayyah.
They didn't even name their sons Ali, Imam
Hussain names 4 of his sons Ali. Ali
Akbar, Ali Asghar, Ali ibn Hussain Zainul Abideen.
4 of his sons he named Ali.
So any type of behavior
that was even remotely perceived as as subversive
by the Umayyad policy was harshly dealt with.
It was Umayyad
foreign and domestic policy
to hunt down and kill
descendants of the prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
How pitiful, this is their foreign policy.
Hunt down the family, the descendants
of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Now interestingly,
according to ulama,
when Muawiyah radhiyallahu alaihi wa'ala Anhu died, and
we have respect for Sayna Muawiyah.
Min ashabirasulillah.
Right? The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam met
Muawiya and made du'a for him. We have
a good opinion of all of the sahaba.
When he died in 60 hijri, there was
a difference of opinion between him and Ali.
Right? And Ali was on the right, ultimately
that's what we believe as
Right? But we don't curse anyone, that's from
the Ashabir Suri Laihi Sallallahu Alaihi Salam. Difference
of opinion based on ijtihad.
When he died in 60 hijri, his son
Yazid succeeded him.
And Muawiyah stipulated according to sunni and shi'i
tradition, Muawiyah stipulated in his final will, speaking
to Yazid, that if
Al Hassan ibn al Hussain ibn ali does
not give you bayah,
let it go.
Don't worry about it.
Don't force the issue.
It'd be extremely imprudent of you to do
that, just let it go. But Yazid has
ego issues
Like many despotic tyrants of today, they they
don't wanna give up power like this man
in Syria. He's not gonna give He's lost,
he's not gonna give it up. Doesn't wanna
give it up.
Right? Despotic tyrancy.
So he's like a an archetype of the
pharaoh,
of the firaoun.
Right? So listen to what Allah Listen to
how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes
the firaoun, and think of it in terms
of Bani Umayyah and Yazid and Imam Hussain
alayhi salaam. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in
the firaouna ala firaat.
That the pharaoh has exalted himself on the
Earth.
He thinks very highly of himself, the pharaoh.
He said.
I am your Lord most high. The ulema
say that the pharaoh used to eat bananas
all the time. Why? Because it makes you
constipated.
Because he didn't like to relieve himself, because
he thought he was God. He thought it
was beneath himself to relieve
himself.
And he turned his people into factions and
denominations.
Right? This is what he does. The Firaonic
methodology, the Firaonic archetype, people under his dominion,
the immediate reference is to the Egyptians,
He he divides them up into different denominations
and then sends these shayateen in human form
into the populace
to sow seeds of corruption amongst the people.
This is what he does according to the
tafsir.
Right? Take attention away from him, what he's
doing. No. It's their fault. Fight amongst yourselves.
It has nothing to do with me.
Right?
And then what does he do?
Then he takes according to the tafsir, he
takes one ta'ifah, one group of the people
under his dominion, and he really oppresses them.
Okay? So with respect to the pharaoh, this
is who? Bani Israel.
Because Bani Israel were talking about what? There's
gonna be a savior, a deliverer, Musa alaihi
salaam is going to come, he's gonna drive
us out of here, he's gonna defeat the
pharaoh.
So the pharaoh is afraid of losing his
temporal power, his kingdom, his political authority.
Right? So he takes the one group that
he fears most rebellion from,
with respect to Yazid, this is who?
But then the Quran is very specific as
to how he oppresses them,
He kills their males,
He hunts the men and kills them.
And He leaves the women alive.
Now the women
are dependent upon the very system that slaughtered
their husbands and sons.
He is of those who sow corruption
in the earth.
So it's just as Musa alaihis salam spoke
truth to power,
you see,
Imam Hussein
alaihis salam alaihis salam is going to speak
truth to power. And when I say power,
I'm talking about temporal power, perceived power.
We're told in the Quran that from the
alifiraun
there was a believer. Now we're not talking
about Asiya alayhi wa sallam, that was his
wife. The Quran says rajulun mumminun,
rajulun mumminun means alifiraoun.
There was a man from amongst his family
that believed
in Musa alayhi wa sallam.
And what does he say in the council?
He says
Today or this day you have the mulk
apparently
apparently you have the dominion,
right? To the firaan,
But that's
not In reality Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
the mulk and the power is with imam
Hussein and the power is
with Musa alayhi salam Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says in the Quran
They're not the same. Foul things and pure
things. Even if
the the the sheer numbers
of the foul things should surprise you. Oh,
there's so much of it. Right? Think about
Imam Hussain alaihi salaam, 70 or so people
surrounded by 30,000,
30,000
armed soldiers of Yazid.
Truth is truth and falsehood is falsehood.
So at this time a letter arrives
in Medina from Damascus.
Addressed to the governor of Medina whose name
is Alwaleed bin Uqbah. And he tells his
deputy Marwan Al Hakam
who is a notorious person
that says you have to force bay'a from
4 men
in
Medina. Force them to make
And he said from 2 of them you're
going to have a little bit of issue.
Abdullah ibn Abbas, Abdullah ibn Omar. And from
the other 2 you're gonna have a lot
of issues.
Abdullah ibn Zubair,
Al Hussein ibn Ali.
And he says with this last one if
he doesn't give you
then bring his head back to me.
Imam Hussain alayhis salaam.
So imam Hussain alayhis salaam
he asked for a delay and they say
you have until fajr time. So in the
night he prepares to leave
Madinah, gathers his things with his family and
his companions, and they leave. They leave Mecca.
They leave Madinah to go to Mecca, a
reverse hijrah,
which is what the future Mehdi will do
according to the ulama
of ahlusunna wal jama'ah, that he will be
a refugee from Madinah into Mecca,
mimicking
the future Mehdi. So he stays in
Mecca for 4 months
seeking refuge in the house of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. And during this time,
a flood of letters
come into Mecca from all over the Muslim
world. Especially from Iraq, especially from Kufa.
Encouraging him to be our leader, you stand
against injustice,
and tyranny, and oppression, be our leader. Because
they knew, they knew that Imam Hussain
would never ever pledge allegiance to open fasik.
It's impossible. He can't do that, he doesn't
go against the Quran.
There's an interesting hadith that is graded as
sahir, that is quoted a lot by contemporary
ulama,
Sheikh Mohammed Al Nidawee quotes it a lot.
Interesting hadith,
in which it says,
The first one to change my sunnah is
a man from Bani Umayya. And remember,
the essence or the reality
of the sunnah has always been preserved in
the
itra.
Right? So when we talk about the sunnah,
we're talking about Ahlulbayt, they're inseparable.
That's how we reconcile our 2 hadith. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said
and the fasadi umati
falahu
ajru
falahu
ajru meati shahid aukumakalalahu alaihi wa sallam Whoever
holds fast to my sunnah during the time
of the corruption of my ummah will have
the reward of 100 shuhada, 100 murder witnesses.
Hold fast to my sunnah which is never
detached from Itrati, from the family of the
prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam. They preserve the
sunnah.
And bukhari and muslim, mannalaghhi ba'an sunnati falaysaminni.
Whoever turns away from my sunnah is not
from me.
Again, when we think about sunnah, we have
to think about Ahlulbayt.
Whoever turns away from the Ahlulbayt. Who is
Ahlulbayt? Imam Hussain.
He's not from me.
Hussain.
SubhanAllah.
What an what an unbelievable statement from the
prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam. Hussain is from
me, and I am from Hussain.
So Hajj season begins,
and many agents of Yazid,
they come into Mecca
as harij, they're wearing ihram,
and they have weapons under the ihram. Think
about this, coming into Mecca
with ihram during Hajj season to do what?
To kill the grandson of the prophet shalallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
It's really Ajib.
And the imam
alaihi wa sallam, he cuts short his hajj
and decides to leave Mecca. And the question
why leave Mecca?
Because according to the ulama, the second
cannot violate the first the
second wait,
the itra cannot violate the Quran.
They're never going to deviate from one another.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
Whoever enters the sacred precincts is safe. So
Imam Hussain alaihi salaam, in order to preserve
the sanctity
of Mecca,
he sets off into the desert knowing his
fate, knowing what's going to happen to him,
and he took women and children with him.
And the question is why take women and
children
if you know you're going to be massacred?
Why do that?
And the Ulema say, the Ummah was sleeping,
they needed to be shaken
out of their
what? Ghafla, heedlessness,
complacency. The sunnah is being changed.
The family the family of the prophet is
being hunted down and killed.
So imagine as our ulama said that he
had only taken the men.
He only took the men.
Then the
Yazidi propaganda,
right?
Would have said what? Yeah, he he came
out and we had a flag of peace
but he attacked us.
They would have killed all the men, and
buried them, and then make make up a
story about it. Very easy.
He attacked us, and unfortunately
he was killed in a skirmish.
It was friendly fire,
it's too bad.
Right? So Imam Hussain takes women and children,
because ultimately
it was the women and children who would
tell the truth about Karbala,
it was them who would tell the truth
about what happened on that day. People like
Asayd Zainab,
in the court of Yazid speaking truth to
power,
this type of shuja,
this type of courage.
There's a poem here by It's
a quatrain in Farsi.
He says, Shah has Hussein,
Baldash
Hussein, Dean Panah has Hussein.
Said, Hussein is king, Hussein is emperor, Hussein
is religion, he's the hope of religion, he
gave his head not his hand into the
hand of Yazid.
Ajeeb.
So approximately 70 kilometers from Kufa, they come
to a desert called Karbala, and the imammonous
followers find themselves
surrounded by the army of Yazid. Now Now
this is very interesting.
There's hadith that mentioned this event, and these
are hadith again. All of the hadith I'm
quoting to you is hadith of
And sometimes when I quote these hadith, I
have to make a faith
confession.
You can say, Oh, maybe this guy is
a Shiyi or something.
Right? No. I'm Hanafi, I'm Maturidi,
I'm Ba'alawi in my tariqah.
Sunni.
These are hadith in our books.
This hadith and the mustadrak of Al Hakim.
Sound hadith, rigorously authenticated hadith.
Related by Uma Sallamah, Radhiallahu Ta'ala Anha, Umu
mumineen. The Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wa Salam was in her quarters and
he was sleeping.
Dajah, he's lying down.
Then he suddenly woke up and he was
very bothered by something,
and then he went back to sleep.
And then
again, he woke up again, Went back to
And this happened 3 times.
And she says on the 3rd time,
she says
He woke up a third time and in
his hand was some red soil,
and he's kissing it.
And she said, what is this? And he
said, Jibreel
imam Hussein alaihi salam, will be slaughtered in
a place called Karbala, and this is the
dust from the place. This is Sahih Hadith.
Another hadith of the Muslim of Abu You
Allah,
related by Abdullah ibn Nujay, he says that
he heard from his father that he was
walking with Imam Ali. They were going to
Siffin, on the banks of the Euphrates River.
And
Imam Ali was walking by the river and
he started to shout,
Who's Abu Abdullah? This is the patronym of
who? Imam Hussain. So Nujay says, What are
you talking about? And imam Ali says, that
I walked into the room of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam one day, and tears
were streaming down his face.
And I said, What's wrong? You Rasulullah.
And he said that Jibil Alaihi Wasallam gave
me the news, that this son of mine,
Hussein Alaihi Salam, will be slaughtered on the
banks of the Euphrates River. This hadith according
to the books of Ahusl Sunnah wal Jama'a,
are books.
So for several days, I know I'm running
out of time. I think I'm already out
of time.
Am I out of time?
So we'll conclude inshallah ta'ala.
For several days the army of tried to
force allegiance
from Hussein by cutting off their water supply,
which is a tactic
of,
you know, the military industrial complex
of Yazid. You know, if you don't agree
with us, you're not going to eat, you're
not going to drink, we're gonna cripple your
economy. They did this to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam in Mecca. Right? The mukaata'abani
Hashim.
Right? Don't trade with them, don't give them
food,
go live in the desert.
Right? This torture and cruelty, but today we
call sanctions.
You don't agree with us, you're not going
to eat. That's torture.
Right? No. It's it's a much better sanctions.
Right?
It's not massacre, it's collateral damage. Shock and
awe campaign. Right? This type of thing.
So
we won't go into specifics as to what
actually happened on Yomi
Ashura. We know what happened to Ali Akbar,
and Ali Azra, Zain ul Abideen,
Al Abbas, and Hor, and Muslim been Aqil
before,
and Zainab, and Sukhana, and Fatima. We know
about ibn Ziyad, ibn Saad, and Shimer, and
all these things. The main point is that
the taziyah,
the passion
narrative of Imam Hussain is metamorphic.
It's meta transhistorical.
It's metahistorical.
In other words the army of Yazid according
to one of the liberation theologians is a
floating signifier.
Imam Hussain represents
anyone who says no to tyranny and injustice.
While Shimer and Yazid
represent any militant thug, who rapes and murders
and tortures and colonizes.
So we see a lot of Hoseini archetypes.
Malcolm x for example. Think about this in
the 19 sixties.
How racist people were in the 19 sixties.
People are still racist, never gone away. Going
on a television show surrounded by
nothing but white Americans,
grilling him on things. That's
a Right? Standing up to the racism and
oppression. That's a Hussaini archetype. Martin Luther
King, archetype.
Rachel Corey, this woman who stand in front
of a Israeli bulldozer,
to protect a Palestinian home. And she was
callously and barbarically killed by this bulldozer.
Hussaini archetypes. Anyone who says no. Imam Hussain
sacrificed his life to set a trans historical
example,
not to vicariously
atone for the sins of humanity as in
Christianity, no. But rather to give us an
example of virtue by which to live in
this life, and to have success in the
next life. Insha'Allah ta'ala. Wassa Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
wa Sallam.
Wa alhamdulillahirabbanaalam.