Aqeel Mahmood – Inspirational Stories of the Young Companions
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of acceptance at a young age for learning and developing bravery and independence. They also emphasize the benefits of treating children differently, including helping others, and stress the importance of praising and understanding oneself. The speaker also discusses the importance of understanding one's strengths and weaknesses for achieving success in life and building one's own success. Finally, they emphasize the importance of doing good deeds for one's health and personal growth.
AI: Summary ©
Inshallah, today, we're going to be
discussing and talking about the young companions
of the messenger of Allah
and inspirational
stories,
that we can,
derive
from the lives of these young companions.
And we're gonna go through
a number of the companions,
as many as time will permit inshallah.
And
I want to
go through some
specific,
incidents
and situations
that
these young companions were in,
things that they narrated themselves, things that other
companions narrated about some of the young companions,
things
about how they interacted with the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And
the reason why I want to do this
is so that we can see
how the best of creation
used to interact with the young companions.
Did he used to treat them exactly the
same as
adults or
as old people or did he
treat them differently?
Would he say
specific things to them? Would he use
specific gestures or do specific things,
you know, for these young companions
which left an impact? And we'll see inshallah
that
these young companions were inspired to do great
things in the future
Because of
the seeds which were sowed
by the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam when they were young.
And,
you know, when
I was in and may maybe when many
of you were younger,
there's always times that you remember
when somebody you admire, somebody you respect, somebody
you love,
somebody you have a lot of, you know,
you look up to them,
you always remember those moments when they did
something for you or they said something to
you.
And you remember it even when you're older.
You know, maybe they did they did a
favor for you. Maybe they said something to
you.
Maybe they said something to you that encouraged
you to pursue a career,
you know. Or they gave you something
and you remember them because of what they
gave you, a gift. It could be a
small bottle of, perfume,
a small bottle of musk, you know, or
something else.
But you remember them because of how they
treated you.
You know how they
how they interacted with you, the things they
said and the things they did.
And even more so what happens sometimes
is depending on that person's sincerity
and also
how
well he treated you,
it actually doesn't just
make them,
memorable to you when you're older,
but it actually defines you. It develops you
as a human being.
Meaning you want to imitate them, you want
to be like them when you're older
because of how they treated you. When someone's
nice to you, when someone's good to you,
they do things for you, you want to
be like them because you remember how much
of a positive impact they were on you
when you were younger. They become your role
models.
And so when we talk about the young
companions of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
they had the messenger of Allah as their
role model,
as their teacher.
And so when you have the greatest man
who ever lived as your teacher, as your
role model,
even the smallest gesture, the tiniest thing, the
smallest thing that you do has a huge
impact
because it's powerful, it's effective. You know, we
remember small instances, small incidents,
you know, a moment, a minute, a few
minutes being with someone and we remember it
even when we're older.
We admire them, we respect them many years
later. So imagine what it was like with
the companions
when they had moments with the messenger of
Allah alaihis salaam.
Some of these incidents are incidents
which
show us
these young companions
as
not companions who
are young with regards to their intelligence
and their maturity.
You know today if we were to look
at somebody
who accepts Islam
and let's say that person who accepts Islam
is 10 years old.
Let's say somebody you hear a story, you
read about some somebody or you hear from
someone that somebody accepted Islam and you ask
how old was he? He says he was
10 years old.
And he did it from his own free
will. Let's just say you hear a story,
you hear somebody accepting Islam at this age.
What would you say about this person, about
this 10 year old
child?
What would you say about him?
You would say he's somebody
Maybe you would say he's somebody who's intelligent.
This child is smart.
This child is, you know, not like other
children.
For him to be able to distinguish between
right and wrong,
truth and falsehood,
to him for him to be able to,
you know,
compare
religions
and look at what's correct and what's incorrect,
what's right and what's wrong, for a 10
year old, this is something which is is
unheard of, isn't it? Something which is rare.
I know a close
friend of mine who accepted Islam at the
age of 14,
Muhammad Tim. One of the dua's who's He
comes here regularly. 14 years old. 14 years
you think, subhanallah, 14 years.
You know? A 10 year old accepting Islam
is something which you will think this isn't
a child.
And there was a companion who accepted Islam
at that age. Who was that companion?
Confamous companion.
Everyone knows him.
No.
We all know he accept Islam at a
young age. But what we don't know is
you know,
the the impact and the importance of him
accepting Islam at such a young age. Everyone
says here he was the first from the
children to accept Islam. What does that mean?
It's something big, isn't it? It's something huge.
Because for a child to accept Islam, it
it means he's not a child anymore in
a way. He's a man. He's able to
distinguish between right and wrong. He sees the
messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam praying and
he starts to ask, what are you doing?
And then the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wasallam starts to explain to him about Islam
and he wants to accept Islam. And so
the messenger of Allah sallam tells him, don't
tell your father what we're doing because
I don't want to spread Islam to that
level yet. They were a minority at the
time and they were going through stages of
spreading Islam and giving dawah.
And so for him not only to
inquire about
Islam,
but also to be able to keep a
secret at that age, at the age of
10 years old. Subhanallah, this shows you his
maturity.
It shows you his intelligence.
For him to be able to accept Islam
at the age of 10, it shows us
his wisdom.
And of course when
he was older, he became a judge.
And he used to judge among senior companions
like Umar radhiallahu an. So
subhanAllah, when you see people accepting Islam at
a young age, it's a sign of a
person's maturity, a sign of a person's intelligence.
You know, a sign of a person's wisdom.
And aliyallahu
an, of course, he was known for his
wisdom. He was known for his intelligence. He
was known for his sharpness.
Also for a a child to accept Islam
in today's world
is something you would you would be impressed
with. But for a child to accept Islam
in a time when there's no Muslims around,
and he's accepting a religion which only a
few people are upon,
this is also something huge. You know he's
accepting Islam when nobody's a Muslim.
Everybody is an idol worshiper.
A 10 year old boy just, you know,
follows whatever his parents are doing. He doesn't
think teenagers,
you know, follow what their parents are doing.
They don't Adults forget teenagers.
Adults just follow what their parents are doing.
You question what they're doing, they say, oh,
it's my my parents are doing it. I'm
just following somebody. I don't wanna know. I'm
just, you know, copying whatever, following whatever my
my dad tells me to do, isn't it?
Okay? And obviously there's some benefits to that.
At the same time, when it comes to
the truth, when it comes to the haqq
for a person to accept Islam
at the age of 10 to recognize the
truth, when everybody else is basically worshiping idols,
it's similar to the story of Ibrahim alayhis
salam. How Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guided Ibrahim
alayhis salam to the truth.
So alir radhiallahu an, for him to be
able to accept Islam at a time when
nobody was accepting Islam,
it also shows his bravery.
And of course alir radhiallahu an was known
for his his bravery
inside and outside of battle. The famous story
when the messenger of Allah
made the hijrah and was
in the bed of the messenger of Allah
when
the messenger of Allah
left with Abu Bakr
to perform the hijrah from Makkah to Madinah.
And when they saw
in
bed, he was sound asleep. And when they
later asked when he was asked later on
about how he felt, he said the sweetest
and then the most comfortable sleep I ever
had was that night.
Even though it was one of the most
dangerous times
in Islamic history.
So Ali radhiallahu an,
we look at his maturity,
how he accepted Islam, when he accepted Islam,
the age of which he accepted Islam.
It shows his ability to be able to
distinguish between right and wrong. It shows also
his independence
at the age of 10 years old to
be able to choose his own path at
that age.
And you know that's something which we don't
give our children, those of us who have
children who are older. I mean I have
one child who's very young. But those of
you brothers and sisters who have children who
are older, you know, I think we have
to
question how much independence we give them, and
how much we're willing to,
treat them like adults,
and
how much
we're
trying to make an effort
to make that
that shift
from
being a child to being an adult. Because
Islamically,
there is no adolescence in Islam. And I
think a lot of the problems we have
with, you know,
teenagers today
is that
they are adults
when they reach the age of puberty. They
want to be adults.
And so when we
don't treat them like adults,
it's a sign of frustration on their part.
And so when they become frustrated, they start
to act
impulsively.
They start to do things and say things
which they normally wouldn't do. They start to
challenge authority. They start to do other things.
But it's only because we treat them like
they're children,
like they're adolescents. They're not adults here.
Whereas in Islam, there is no, you know,
area between childhood and adulthood. Once a person
reaches puberty, he becomes an adult. He becomes
obligated to perform the prayer and to fast
and so on and so forth.
Another companion I wanted to talk about
was
a companion who was known for
being a mufasir of the Quran.
Abdulai ibn Abbas radiallahu anhu.
Both he and his father, they were companions
of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. And when we look at his
his his early life,
he was somebody who had lots of interactions
with the messenger of Allah.
And later on he became a teacher teaching
the Quran, teaching tafsir to his students. And
he had many students.
Ikhima,
the servant of Ibn Abbas, he was one
of the greatest scholars of tafsir. Whenever we
read tafsir Ibn Kathir, for example, you see
his name coming up repeatedly
about, you know, ayat and the the tafasir
of certain ayat. Ibn Abbas
he says that when I used to stay
in my aunt's
house, the messenger of Allah
would also be there. Why would he be
there?
Because
is the wife of the messenger of Allah
subhanahu wa sallam.
So ibn Abbas, he said that we would
I would stay there
and the messenger of Allah
would wake up in the night and he
would start to pray.
And I would stand up and I will
start to pray with him.
And you notice how the messenger of Allah
doesn't wake
He just stands up and he starts to
pray. But it's ibn Abbas because of his
environment, because of what he sees happening around
him, that he wants to pray along with
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
You know how children always want to imitate
people they admire.
You know, somebody wears a certain type of
clothing, they want to wear the same clothes.
Somebody's got certain shoes, they're like, oh, I
want to wear the same shoes like him.
Somebody speaks a certain way, they want to
speak like him. All the street, you know,
the street words and the slang and everything
Because they, you know, they admire them, they
look up to them.
You know some someone does something haram, someone
says something haram, because they admire them they
wanna copy them.
Isn't it? And that's because a person looks
up to somebody, he wants to be like
them, he wants to do the same things
as them. And we look at ibn Abbas
he admired the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam so much, he would want to
copy him in everything that he wanted to
do.
Everything he did. So when he would stand
up for qiyamulay,
he would wake up, he would see the
prophet
praying,
and he will stand up and he will
start to pray with him.
So it wasn't a case of
him being told that stand up and let's
pray.
There's another famous story of 1 of the
duas.
He I've mentioned this story before as well,
how he would pray, he would sleep during
the night and his mother would come into
his room and would offer
in his in his room.
She wouldn't she wouldn't wake him up or
anything. She would just pray night, pray in
his room. And after a period of time,
because he saw her so often, every single
night praying,
what did he what did he start to
do? He would just get up, perform and
start praying as well.
Because, you know, the things you see around
you, this the way you see people behave
around you, obviously it has an effect on
you. You're a product you're a product of
your environment, isn't it? Whatever you see happening
around you is gonna have an effect on
you. And this is why the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
that man is on the religion of his
friend. So look at who you become friends
with because you're influenced by who you socialize
with, who you hang around with.
Ibn Abbas
he
would always be asked questions about the messenger
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
and
he was once asked by a man
the man asked him, did the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam ever joke?
And so Ibn Abbas he said yes.
He said that once
he took a huge shirt, a very baggy
shirt
and he put it over some of his
wives.
And so because it was so huge, you
know when someone wears something really baggy, it
doesn't even fit them. Okay, something funny.
And so he describes this, you know, this
incident
of how the messenger of Allah would, you
know, have play around
with his wives and with the companions and,
you know, he had a sense of humor.
And this shows us how ibn Abbas, he
had this he was able to observe and
he was able to see how the messenger
of allahu alaihi wa sallam would behave with
other people. And this is what we do,
you know, when we admire someone we want
to see how he behaves, how he treats
other people, how he looks at other people,
how what how he speaks to other people.
What what does he do with them? What
does he say to them? What doesn't he
do? And then you you copy other people.
You imitate them
because it's somebody you admire, somebody you look
up to. Once he was,
with Maimunah
and ibn Abbas
came in while the messenger of Allah was
with Maimunah,
and he left
a bowl of water
for the messenger of Allah to perform wudu.
And so when the messenger of Allah saw
the the bowl, he asked his wife, said
who brought this this bowl?
And he said she said,
Abdullah ibn Abbas.
And so the messenger of Allah sallam started
to supplicate for him and he said,
oh Allah give him understanding of the religion
and give him knowledge of attaweel, of tafsir
of the Quran.
And of course because of these applications of
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
this is why he became the mufasir
of
the companions.
The great one of the greatest
scholars from the companions of the messenger of
Allah subhanahu wa sallam.
And one of the lessons we can learn
from this is when you do something good,
then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will always
reward you with something good.
And
what's interesting is
sometimes we want to do something good
for other people, for them specifically.
You know we help them with food or
clothing or you know, or or money or
you know, help
them, you know, if they're if they're, you
know, having issues in the house or whatever
kind of help, you know, you you offer
to them, you're helping them, you're doing it
for them.
But what you don't realize is when you
help others, you're actually helping yourself, you're benefiting
yourself.
You know?
And this is why the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he said that
that
Allah helps a slave so long as a
slave helps his fellow Muslim brother or sister.
So in fact you're helping yourself. There's a
famous story of,
the man who
found a very expensive necklace and he gave
it back to the man who lost it,
And he never accepted any wealth or money
in return, he just gave it back.
And he was a student of knowledge and
he was very very poor, he never had
he never had any money. So after this,
after he gave the necklace back to this
man, very expensive necklace, he never asked for
any, you know, reward or anything.
He traveled for knowledge and the ship he
was uncapsized, and he ended up on a
land where he didn't know anybody.
He went to the masjid, he started to
recite Quran, the people saw him reciting Quran,
they said we want you to teach our
children Quran.
So he started teaching the children Quran. A
number of years went by and they wanted
him to marry an orphan girl from the
from the town.
And when he married her,
he saw
the very same necklace that he gave up
that he gave back to that man many
years ago.
And so he became surprised and he said,
what's wrong? He said, I saw this necklace
many years ago
and I gave it to an old man
who lost it. And they all started to
make the kabir. It's a very short I've
just made it made the story very short
and concise.
I did a talk on this. It's on
Youtube about the story of the necklace. So
they all started to do takbir.
He says, why you're making takbir? Why are
you so excited?
They said because
the mother of the the father of this
girl,
he would always make dua and he would
always say, oh Allah, marry my daughter to
a man who is as righteous as the
one who gave me back this necklace many
years ago.
So subhanAllah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
caused this man to go all the way
to the land where this father this man
came from
just so that
his supplication would be answered.
My point is when you do something good
for somebody,
then when they make dua for you,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will respond to that
dua
even if he has to drag you from
one place to another, even if you don't
like what's going on.
Meaning there's some benefit at the end of
trials and tribulations that you go through. And
Ibn Abbas
he
gave whatever he gave to serve the messenger
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, not expecting
anything.
Doing it for himself, for his own and
of course for the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, of course.
And the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam makes dua for him in his absence
and he reaps the rewards years later by
becoming a teacher of the Quran, by becoming
a mufasid scholar of the Quran. The point
being when we do good deeds, we should
always realize and remember
that at the end of the day, we're
always going to benefit.
You know, even though sometimes
we might not realize how we're benefiting,
there's always some element of benefit. And this
is why the famous hadith
of Ibn Abbas
when
and this is also a beautiful hadith of
him with the messenger of Allah SWAMI,
when
he was
riding
on the back of,
a riding beast
and the messenger of Allah was riding the
the riding beast. He was on the the
camera, on the horse.
And
even though Ibn Abbas
was very young, you know, maybe maybe a
teenager,
you know, maybe 15 or maybe younger,
he's riding behind the leader of the Muslims,
the final messenger of
And, you know,
people become very
proud, they become very happy.
They feel like they're very important
when they're in the front seat of a
car,
especially
when the person who's driving it is somebody
who is
really respected and really loved by people.
You know,
kids love to sit in the front.
Makes them feel good. I'm sitting in the
front now.
You know that my brothers and sisters, they're
all in the back. I'm sitting at the
front today.
And when the person who's driving the car
is the one who let him sit at
the front and he's somebody they love, they
admire, they respect him,
they feel like he's my you know, he
loves me more than anybody else.
You know the famous story of the companion
who asked the messenger of Allah sallam, who's
the most beloved person to you? Thinking it
would be him.
Because that's the impression
that the companions would get from the messenger
of Allah sallam. That every time he dealt
with them, it was like as if they
were the most important person. They were the
most beloved person to them.
So ibn Abbas, just by riding along with
the messenger of Allah sallallam on the same
riding beast has an effect. It had an
effect on him.
Because this hadith, whatever the messenger of Allah
told him in the hadith he remembered.
And so the messenger of Allah, it's a
famous hadith.
It's in it's in,
a tirmidi
and he says that I was riding behind
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
when he said to me, oh young man,
I'm going to teach you some words, I'm
gonna give you some advice.
Be mindful of Allah and Allah will protect
you.
Be mindful of Allah and Allah will protect
you. Be mindful of Allah and you will
find him in front of you.
So the messenger of Allah is giving him
this advice.
Why he's riding with him?
You know, while he's on this
riding beast admiring the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, you know, feeling happy, feeling
proud.
You know, nobody else was with the messenger
of Allah sallam on the same riding beast.
Nobody.
It was him.
The messenger of Allahu Salam chose him specifically,
alia sasalam.
So ibn Abbas, he says, he gave me
these words of advice.
Be mindful of Allah. Allah will protect you.
Be mindful of Allah, you will find him
in front of you. If you ask Allah
if you ask then ask Allah
meaning don't ask anybody else, always ask Allah
If you seek
If you ask anybody for help, then ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for help. And know
that if the whole nation were together to
benefit you with something, they wouldn't be able
to benefit you except with what Allah has
already recorded for you. If Allah doesn't want
to benefit you with anything, nobody can benefit
you if Allah doesn't intend for that to
happen.
And then he continued and he said, if
they were together to cause harm to you,
nobody would be able to cause harm to
you except for what Allah has already willed
and recorded that's going to cause you harm.
And he said the pens have been lifted
and the pages have been dried.
This was the advice of the messenger of
Allah sallallahu sallallahu sallallahu
anhu, who was a child at the time.
And when you give advice to a child,
especially advice like this,
be mindful of Allah, Allah will preserve you,
Allah will protect you. This is advice that,
you know, this hadith is a is a
golden hadith.
You know, it's a famous hadith. It's a
hadith full of benefits,
and he's not telling it to an adult,
he's telling it to a child.
But you know when we give advice to
a child,
you know, one of the first senses that
start to be stimulated,
in the human being is
the hearing,
what they hear. And that's before they're even
born. That's when they're in the womb of
the mother.
So giving advice to a child is never
too early to give advice to a child.
You know,
a a a 2 year old child,
you explain you you talk to them,
and they're picking things up. You know, they're
picking words up here and there. They're connecting
words.
You know, they they pick things up, they
realize, they remember things.
So there's always benefit in in teaching children,
telling children certain things. You know, giving them
whole set you know, sometimes we have the
habit of with children, we all we only
mention 1 or 2 words.
You know?
Door,
carpet, book.
You know, we don't wanna mention whole sentence.
We think that's gonna make them confused. They're
not gonna know what's going on.
It's gonna confuse them. But with children, they
they're they're expunges, they pick things up very
quickly.
So when we see ibn Abbas giving being
given this advice by the messenger of Allah
sallam, it wasn't like, you know, he was
he's too young, he doesn't he won't understand,
this is just something
maybe I should tell somebody else.
He's been told this advice even though he's
a child. And sometimes we have this habit
of not giving
young men advice because we think they're too
we think they're too young. He won't understand
he's too young yet.
You know, these are big words or they're,
you know,
they're he's he's too immature. He's not mature
enough to understand.
But when we look at these companions and
what, you know, what they used to be
given, how they used to be spoken to
by the messenger of Allah,
it doesn't cause them harm. They don't go
crazy because they don't understand it. It's like,
oh no, it's too much, you know, brain
overload. They're not children are not stupid.
You know, when you give them this information,
they either going to register it at least
at the at the minimum
or they're going to digest it, understand it,
remember it for a later time.
And at the very least,
they're gonna be
feeling like as if they're adults,
simply because you gave them the advice in
the first place. Even if they don't benefit
from it,
they'll remember it or they'll remember how you
dealt with them, how you treated them, how
you spoke to them like a man, like
an adult. And straight away that's gonna have
some benefit, it's gonna have some effect.
The scholars they talk about this hadith, they
mention lots of benefits.
They say this hadith
teaches, you know, teaches this young companion and
also indirectly it teaches us as well,
especially the young from amongst us, it teaches
them victory
because the messenger of Allah is telling him
how to be victorious
in this life, in this dunya.
If you want to ask for help, ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If you want to
be successful
then
help or be mindful of Allah and Allah
will help you, Allah will preserve you.
So it's it's key
principles
in how to live your life successfully.
It's also about patience. If the whole world
is against you, then they can't harm you
whatsoever unless Allah
intends for that harm to take place.
So he's bringing about, you know, patience to
this young companion, Abdulai ibn Abbas
There's another companion
by the name of Usama Tubunu Zayd,
and he was the son of the former
adopted son of the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, Zayd ibn al Haritha.
And he was actually called Zayd ibn Muhammad.
In fact the companions they would say, we
never knew
Zayd to have any other name except Zayd
ibn Muhammad, because everyone thought he was a
son of the prophet because of how close
they were, and he had basically adopted him.
This is before Islam.
After Islam,
he took the name of his father, how
Islamic he was supposed to, so he became
Zayd ibn UHaritha.
Usamat ibn UHaritha was the son of Zayd
ibn UHaritha
died in the lifetime of the messenger of
Allah
When the messenger of Allah was on his
deathbed,
he appointed
Osama as
the general
of the army,
but
he was only 18 years old.
So he wasn't even 20 yet.
He was 18 years old and
he was
appointed as the general of the army. Bearing
in mind, the army itself had people like
who we've already talked about his bravery and
so on and so forth. People like,
Uthman and Umar
all these great companions.
But he was chosen out of all of
them. And,
you know, people started to talk.
You know, somebody who's so young,
why would somebody so young? There's many other
people who are more experienced
going out to battle. And so the messenger
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
realized that people were saying things about
Osama bin Azay being so young and being
the general of an army.
And so
he said, verily, I've heard what you're saying
about
his leadership,
him being appointed
as the leader of the army.
And he said that
you're criticizing
him
just like his father was criticized before him,
and he is only somebody
who is an offspring of his father,
Meaning
him and his father,
he's a he's the son of his father.
You know when people praise somebody
and they say he's just like his father,
you know, in a good way.
He's like his father in the way he
behaves, in the way he acts, his personality,
his character, his bravery, so on and so
forth.
And then he says, verily he is the
most beloved person to me.
Talking about Usama tul Masayd.
And this is in front of the companions,
and Usama Tum Nazeid is there as well.
And he says
that by Allah, he is the most
beloved person
to me, and I advise all of you
to be good and be,
you know, be honorable towards Usamaatul Nuzayd.
Now
of course here the messenger of Allah is
praising Usamaatul Nuzayd,
but just think about how Usamaatul Nuzayd would
feel
when he's being praised. You know, sometimes we
don't like to praise our children.
You know, it's like, you know, we can't
I can't praise him.
You know, it's just not I'm not gonna
do that. It's it's it's awkward.
You know, it's it hurts to it hurts
to praise him, and I'd rather criticize him.
It's easy to criticize him. You know, praising
is too is too is too much work
for me. It's too much effort.
But you can only imagine the you know,
just think about your own lives,
how people praised you when you were younger.
And, you know,
famous author Mark Twain, he said I can
live on a good compliment
for 2 months.
Meaning if somebody says something good about me,
it motivates me to do good things. For
2 months, I can just live off one
good compliment.
So imagine when somebody is praised, imagine if
you praise your your children or, you know,
your younger relatives or younger siblings,
imagine the effect it will have on them
in the future as well. It'll motivate them
to do something, motivate them to be someone,
you know, motivate them to do good things
as opposed to them, you know, hearing and
seeing things which will encourage them to do
something which is haram. So it's subhanAllah it
shows us the effects that it can have.
Usamaatul al Uzayd,
he was sent out to fight against the
Romans
and
while he was leaving Madinah, the messenger of
Allah passed away.
And he came back because he heard the
news. It's obviously a big it's a big
thing. And so Abu Bakr radhiallahu an again
sent him out when he became the leader
a number of days later.
And the people started to tell Abu Bakr
and look, situation has changed now. People are
people are leaving Islam.
We have many enemies.
So maybe you should keep him behind, send
somebody else to send to take to to
go on to to, you know, take this
army. Or don't even send this army in
the 1st place,
because you know we have other
issues to deal with. And so Abu Bakr,
he
said, how can I
annul an order which was given by the
messenger of Allah himself?
Meaning he's the one who ordered for this
to take place.
He gave the command.
I can't, you know, redact a command that
was given by the messenger of Allah
himself. So Osama al Zayed, he left. He
was a general of the army. He went
and
we know,
he went on this expedition and he was
victorious in the battle,
you know, even though he was so young.
Some people are talented and you can see
that talent at a young age. And And
that's another lesson for us as well, to
recognize
the strengths and weaknesses of ourselves
from a young age. Look at what our
passions are, what we love doing,
what makes us who we are.
You know sometimes a person
becomes 30, 40, 50 years old and then
he realizes he's been doing something, he's not
even that good at. You know he's doing
something that he's not a specialist in. He
enjoys, he has a passion in something else.
He's good at something else, but he doesn't
realize it till later. And that's because of
a lack of mentorship, a lack of people
who we can, you know, have as role
models, people guiding him along the way, people
encouraging him.
So all of these things they add to
confidence, they add to a person's, you know,
personality and they develop him, you know, as
a as a human being, as a Muslim.
Another companion by the name of,
Zayd ibn Thabit.
Somebody who was from Madinah,
and even though he was from Medina, he
wasn't from Makkah,
and he was a young child, he had
memorized
between 13 to 19 surahs of the Quran.
Even though he's not even in Makkah,
and he's a child.
He's learned all of these surahs.
And because obviously those who are in Mecca,
they're with the messenger of Allah SWAMI.
So it would make sense that they're learning
more surahs. So for a child to learn
this many surahs, and and of course the
Quran is still being revealed. So for him
to learn this many surahs
is something impressive. And when the messenger of
Allah alaihis salatu wa sallam
heard about this when he went to Madinah,
he was impressed.
And he recognized
this skill that Zayd ibn Thabit had, of
being able to memorize surahs.
He had this knack of memorizing.
And so he told Zayd ibn Thabit,
he said learn the language of the Jews,
learn
Hebrew because the messenger of Allah alaihi wasallam
would interact with the Jews in Madina, and
he would have dialogue with them. So he
said learn the Hebrew language so we can
study the scriptures that the Jews have. And
so Zayd ibn Thabit he said,
he said I learned their book, I learned
their language
He said,
not
15 days hadn't gone by
until
I had basically learned the whole of the
Hebrew language.
15 days, and he learned the whole of
the Hebrew language.
So it's about recognizing a child's strengths and
weaknesses.
Now sometimes a child will do something and
will think to ourselves he's messing around. He's
being silly. He's talking back. He's too sharp
for his own good.
He's too sharp for his own good. He's
too he's being too witty. He shouldn't be
that witty at that age. No. Don't talk
to me like that.
But we have to recognize the strengths and
weaknesses of children.
Somebody who's very sharp with his speech, maybe
he's gonna be somebody who's eloquent.
Maybe he can be a poet. Maybe he
can benefit Islam by being a speaker, a
khateb,
an orator.
You know, somebody who's always
physical, who's always, you know,
very physically active
and maybe he's always, you know, fighting or
something like this with his siblings,
okay, we can channel that energy into him
doing something more productive,
doing something more beneficial.
So it's all about recognizing a child's strengths
and weaknesses just like Zayd ibn Thabit had
the strength which the messenger of Allah recognized,
and he channeled it, you know, to something
more beneficial.
Another companion by the name of Asma bint
Abi Bakr
She was somebody
who was
the daughter of a companion,
Abu Bakr radiaahu an.
The granddaughter of a companion,
Abu Khuafa, the father of Abu Bakr radiaahu
an, who eventually became a Muslim.
She was
the
wife of a famous companion,
Az Zubayr.
She was the mother of a famous companion
who was the daughter the son of
Azubair?
Her
son,
her child with Azubair radiaallahu an was the
famous companion of Azubair radiaallahu an. And she
was a sister of a famous companion,
the wife of the messenger of Allah So
she's somebody who had a high status.
And
when she accepted Islam, she was 14 years
old.
14 years old when she accepted Islam.
And
there's many stories about her.
It's said that
when she married Az Zubayr radhiallahu an, they
were both very very poor. They never had
that much wealth,
and
she would actually help him,
you know, to sustain
a living,
to have some kind of income by basically
making bread.
So she would make bread and she would
sell the bread. And that's how, you know,
they would try to make a living.
So, you know, even though she was somebody
who was of a of a younger age,
she recognized the importance of, you know, having
a a halal income,
having a healthy income. You know,
doing things with your hands,
working
and
benefiting yourself and living an honest livelihood
is something which bears fruits as opposed to
doing something haram. Making a quick buck here
and there,
making easy money
through Haram means is something which isn't gonna
bring about
success. It's not gonna bring about happiness.
You'll feel more of a satisfaction when you
do things which are halal and permissible
and things which take more effort
when you have that reward at the end
of it, because you feel like you've done
more to to earn it. You've done more
to achieve it. You've done something good and
honest.
And
stories mentioned about her, in fact, when she,
made the hijrah
to
Mecca,
she
was the 1st
from
the Muhajidin
to give birth. She gave birth while she
was at Kaaba.
She gave birth to Abu Dhabi n Zubair
while she was in Kaaba. And this was
a big big
victory for the Muslims because
the non Muslims, they said if you guys
leave Mecca and you go to Madinah, you're
gonna have problems. You're gonna have illnesses. You
know how when we move to another country
or we live in another country, we become
ill. We have problems. We're not able to
we're not able to adjust
to the lifestyle and the atmosphere and the
environment and the weather and so on and
so forth. They said the same thing. You're
gonna go there. You're gonna become sick. You're
gonna die. You're not gonna survive over there.
You're not gonna have any children.
Your bloodline is gonna be cut off. You're
gonna be cursed.
So when they had a duaibn Zubair and
a duaibn Zubair was healthy, they became happy.
This was a good sign. It was a
positive sign.
Also a famous story is mentioned
about how when Abu Bakr radiaahu an was
going with the messenger of Allah
on the hijrah,
she prepared the
their belongings.
You know, the the whatever they're gonna take.
And from what they were going to take
was the wealth belonging to Abu Bakr radiallahu
an.
And he had 6,000 dirham altogether
that he owned,
which is a lot of money, £6,000
is a lot of money.
He had 6,000 dirham at the time,
and he took all 6,000 dirham with him.
Never left anything behind.
You know that's how much he loved the
messenger of Allah alaihis salatu wa sallam. And
so
when he took the wealth,
Abu Bakr radiallahu an's father came and he
was blind.
And
when he heard that he hadn't left any
money behind, he became angry as a father
would.
And he said why hasn't he left any
money behind? He became very angry.
And so
Asma she was somebody who was very sharp,
very wise.
So she said, no, he has left money
behind. He has left something behind for us.
And so
she put other things inside the the box
where you leave money
and she put like something over it. And
she told Abu Khufra radhiallahu an, she said,
look there is money in here.
And so when he put his hand inside
the box and touched around and felt something,
he thought, okay, he's left some some money
behind.
Now there's wisdom in this because
when there's issues between
when there's
conflict between 2 people,
the one who resolves the conflict between 2
people
is somebody who's praiseworthy in Islam.
In fact, one of the times you can
lie
is when you're reconciling between
2 parties. You know, if somebody's upset with
somebody else, you go to that person, you
say, look, Abdullah really likes you. Know, he's
he really respects, really loves you. He wants
to be your friend even though he hates
him. And he
says, really? He's saying this, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
He wants to be your friend. So you
go to Abdullah, you say the same thing
to him.
He says, really? He says, yeah yeah. He
really wants to be your friend. So when
their next middle, like they hug and they'll
become best friends. They become best friends. Even
though you're lying, the goal is something which
is greater, reconciliation between 2 people.
And so the reconciliation between the father and
the grandfather is something which is in her
own interests
because it's family.
So subhanAllah, it shows her wisdom. It shows
how she's trying to diffuse
domestic situations,
domestic conflict.
You You know, this is wisdom that, subhanAllah,
the companions
they grew up with, you know, they saw
from the akhlaq and from the etiquettes of
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
from, you know, his wives and so on
and so forth. Also a famous story of
Asma'a,
we will we'll conclude with this inshallah,
is how when she was taking,
the belongings that they were going to take,
that they were going to carry with them
on the journey, the hijrah,
from Mecca to Medina,
she was packing all of these things
and of course they're poor. They don't have
any wealth.
You know, they were very, very poor.
She had to bake bread and salve the
bread just to make some money.
You know, for somebody to do that, that
shows, you know, how poor a person, how
desperate a person's become.
So when she was packing all of these
things,
she was trying to find something to basically
tie
the
the luggage with. Obviously in those days, they
never had suitcases.
They would put everything in like a big
cloth,
wrap the cloth up, and then you tie
it with something.
But she couldn't find anything in the house
to tie up those belongings with. That's how
poor they were. There was no rope, no
threads, no
belts, nothing
for her to tie up the the the
belongings with.
And so what she did was she ripped
off some of her own clothes,
ripped sheets,
strips off,
and basically used 2 strips from her own
clothes to tie the belongings
that they were going to take to to
Madinah with, with them. She tied them up
with her own clothes.
And so this this shows you
it shows you her wisdom, it shows you
her intellect, her sharpness, her intelligence,
and also shows you her commitment to Islam,
how she's willing to do anything,
even though she has nothing.
And
when they made the hijrah themselves,
Asma and Zubair radhiallahu anhumma,
they
became blessed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
due to their sacrifice
and due to their patience when they were
poor, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala later on when
they were in Madinah, blessed them with lots
and lots of wealth.
They became very very wealthy when they were
in Madinah.
So the point is here,
whatever you do,
you're doing for yourself. You're doing for your
akhirah.
You're doing for your own benefit.
Whatever sacrifices you make, you're benefiting yourself in
the akhirah. And that should always be the
goal in the sense that, you know, don't
expect anything in return
from the person you're helping.
If they don't say thank you, if they
don't pay you back later on, it's fine
because inshallah the ajer and the reward from
Allah will inshallah be greater and be better
because of your patience.
He used to always give charity. He used
to give so much charity,
okay, that people would basically
start to say to him, look, you're giving
a bit too much. It's like giving it's
like somebody who goes to passes a beggar
on the street and gives him a £1,000.
It's not something you would do. You know,
sometimes we pass these beggars
and we think, you know, I'll give him
a pound, £2. I'm feeling generous. Yeah. I'll
give him £5.
Somebody gives a £100 to a beggar on
the street.
You know, you'd think, hang on. Come on.
£100?
Just you're pushing. That's a bit too much,
isn't it? You don't have to give £100.
Give him give him a 5 if you
wanna give him something.
So Uthman
would give huge amounts of money to beggars.
So they would say to him, look why
are you giving so much money? He said
because
I need the ajr from Allah more than
he needs the money.
Meaning it's not about the money, the money
is just
a way for me to go earn good
deeds from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so, you know, that's one of the
lessons we can maybe take from today inshallah,
is the importance of doing good deeds,
of course, for the sake of Allah.
Our intention is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is going to reward us.
That's our ultimate goal. It shouldn't be that
maybe a few years later, you know, that
person will help me when I have some
issues,
you know, he'll pay me back later,
you know, he'll say thank you, he'll be
good to me from now on. You know,
it shouldn't be for those reasons, it should
be for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And
even if that person doesn't help you, maybe
he'll be back to you later on, The
reward with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is something
which will never go away. So we ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that
he
blesses
us
and those
who are young from amongst us with wisdom
and with intelligence
and giving us foresight and vision to be
able
to understand and recognize
our,
our specialties,
our
skills,
and how we're able to
benefit
the Muslims
in
the present and also in the future. If
there's any questions, then I'll do my best
to answer them, inshallah.
Yeah. So the brother is asking, what advice
did Esma
give to her son when she was very
old? So Abdul Abid al Zubair,
he became the leader of Mecca,
and
there was civil war
taking place,
and
Hajjaj was basically going to attack
Mecca, and he was going to kill,
Abdul Laban al Zubayr and others.
And
he went to his mother. He asked him
for advice because he said that if I
am killed by Hajjaj,
Hajjaj is gonna crucify me.
Because this is how Hajjaj was. He was
a vicious ruler,
and he killed many companions.
So
he said if I die, I'm going to
basically be
crucified. That's what he's gonna do to my
body.
And so he's telling his mother,
of course, because it's your mother.
And if you tell your mother, I'm gonna
be crucified if I do this,
what's your mother gonna say?
Don't do it. That's the last thing I
want to happen to you. So Asma Radiaahu
Anha,
she said to,
Hassan
when he asked her this, when he's told
her what might what might happen,
she said that
the goat doesn't feel the skinning
after it's been slaughtered.
Meaning it's fine.
Nothing's gonna happen to you because you're already
dead.
You won't feel you won't feel a thing.
Go out
and do what you feel like you need
to do.
And when she saw him,
going to battle, she saw him with a
with a shield.
And she said, why have you got a
shield?
You don't need a shield.
And so he threw the shield away and
he fought until he became a shahid.
So this was the advice that he was
given by his mother. Again, and she lived
a long life. She lived until she was
a 100 years old, as her brother mentioned.
All of her teeth were still intact
when she passed away. That's what some narrations
mentioned, and Allah knows best.
Okay. So the brother's
the brother's asking about,
my father and what effect he had,
because he was someone who passed away when
I was 4 years old. I went to
Medina because of my father.
Yeah.
So I didn't know. I I have,
just a few memories of him.
But,
yeah. I went to Medina because of my
father. That was my always my goal.
So alhamdulillah.
Yes.
So when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
when the messenger of Allah says,
literally it means protect Allah, Allah will protect
you. But what the scholars, they say, how
do we be protect for how do we
protect Allah? By protecting the deen. And protecting
the deen can take many forms, you know,
safeguarding your family,
you know, refuting those who are against Islam,
against the Quran, against the sunnah, and so
on and so forth. So there's many ways
in which a person can,
be mindful of Allah. This is why scholars,
they say, be mindful of Allah and Allah
will protect you. They don't say protect Allah
because obviously it wouldn't make any sense. You
can't protect Allah. Also, some of the scholars,
they they said that,
one of the meanings also is being mindful
of
being yourself being mindful
of committing sins,
you know, whether it's through your tongue or
through your through your limbs. And this is
why some of the scholars,
they said one of the scholars by the
name of Tabari,
he said when he was asked why he
was still strong at an old age, because
he was somebody who was still very fit
and very healthy even when he was old.
So he said these are our limbs
when
we
protected
our limbs from sins in our youth,
Allah protected
them for us in our old age.
So sins have an effect on our
on on us, you know, on how we
are physically and how we are mentally
on, you know, our
situation in the future and our family issue.
That's why some of the scholars, they would
say that we would recognize that we had
committed a sin. We would see the effects
of our sin on our family members,
on our family.
Meaning I something would happen. You know, you
go home sometimes and things kick off from
out of the blue
between spouses. You think where did that come
from? How did that happen?
Sometimes when we commit sins, it's a result
of it's because of our own actions, because
of our own sins.
You know, we
we we sow the seeds and then we
reap, you know, the the good or the
bad.