Hussain Kamani – Stories of the Companions – Safwan bin Umayya
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AI: Transcript ©
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In today's gathering,
we turn our attention to
a companion of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam
whose story is
a little different from
some of the other companions who we've had
the chance to spend time with over the
past few sessions.
His name is Safwan bin Umayyah His
father was one of the leaders of Maqamukarama,
and was actually,
unfortunately, a horrible man.
He tortured Sahaba,
was regular in the gatherings where the Prophet
was spoken ill of.
He plotted against the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
on so many occasions
after Nabi sallallahu alaihi wasallam publicly called towards
Islam.
For almost the next 10 to 15 years,
he dedicated himself to stand in opposition
to to Rasulullah
in the Sahaba.
When the Quraysh came for the great battle
of Badr,
this was a big moment for them.
They wanted to put an end to Islam.
The battle of Badr started off
when there was a concern of a caravan
that the had sent to Sham
so the prophets of that caravan could be
used
to invest in an attack against the Muslims.
That's where this whole thing started off.
The Prophet
made an intent made an made an attention
to
intercept that caravan.
Abu Sufyan, who was leading the caravan, evaded
the Muslims.
And when he arrived in Mecca, he announced
to the people of Mecca that there's no
longer a need for this war. We're good.
We're safe.
But the Quraysh were so past that caravan,
they were waiting for this as an opportunity
to wage a full war against the Prophet
They prepared 3 a 1000 people strong.
All of the leaders of Quresh joined that
caravan, that army.
And the reason why they were a part
of that army was because they were confident
victory was theirs.
And they were confident that this would be
a day that
poets and historians would remember until the end
of times.
So they wanted to be caught in those
pictures and in those highlight reels. They wanted
to be a part of that moment of
celebration.
They were so confident they would be victorious
that
they actually departed
not only with swords and animals, but also
with
celebration.
What they needed, they had the singers with
them. They had the confetti with them. They
had a party cake them that we are
going to be victorious,
and there is no question there.
Therefore, the Quran
tells
us,
Do not be like those
that they exited their homeland
with arrogance.
And showing off to people that we are
surely going
to
be
victorious.
Now you fast forward to the battle of
Badr,
and the aftermath of Badr.
All of those leaders that came with victory,
they were now lying there dead.
Abu Jahal, no longer around.
Umaya, no longer there. And you went through
the list of people who sat and plotted
against the Prophet
for the last 15 years, and they were
all gone.
When the Quraysh returned back from the Battle
of Badr,
those that were captured,
the Prophet
after consulting with his companions
had given them a few options. If they
wanted to be released from captivity,
they could do so by giving a ransom,
and either the ransom could be given on
behalf of their family members, on their behalf
by family members,
or
they could educate the Muslims in Madinah
with knowledge they had and
let that be their ransom.
So those that had knowledge, those who knew
how to read and write began to teach
right away, knowing that they could be released
through this.
And then on the other hand, and by
the way,
the the the culture of reading and writing
in Madinah Munawwala,
this is one of the most important parts
of a change in that culture.
Arabs earlier on did not have the skill
of reading and writing. It was common for
them to not know how to read and
write. But the fact that the Prophet
placed this as ransom,
changes and it causes a shift.
So in Madinah Munawwala now you have so
many more younger men and women
who have this beautiful ability to read and
write, and that plays a role in the
preservation of the Quran and sunnah
as years will pass by. This is gonna
be an important moment, a crucial
The battle of Badr, not only was it
a blessing for the Muslims
in the battlefield, but it was also a
blessing for the Muslims in the ransom as
well.
The preservation of Quran and sunnah in some
capacity
benefits from how the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
dealt with the captives of Badr.
On the other hand, the Muslims now began
to
come in in in in troves
with wealth and presented that as ransom, took
their family members, their tribesmen back home.
When the Quraysh arrived back to Mecca after
a devastating loss,
the children of those that were killed ended
up taking leadership.
Abu Jahal's son was Ikrimah.
He now was a leader of Makhanu Karamah.
Umayah,
his son was Safwan
Safwan Abdul Umayyah, who we
sit together to study.
Safwan Abdul Umayyah
At that point in his life, he's not
a Muslim. He is now promoted as a
leader of Mecca.
Their blood was hot.
They had lost their fathers.
They had lost their brothers. They had lost
relatives. They had lost people from their tribe.
Allah's equivalent to this, the Quraysh
had no record of.
The Quraysh were destroyed like this. It wasn't
just 1 or 2 people, everyone got wiped
out.
So all they wanted was vengeance.
And this is where
you need to bear in mind the story
of Safwan al Umayyah
plays out from.
In the past, some of the Sahaba who
stories we covered, how they accepted Islam and
what their lives were like. Many of them,
they met Nabi salallahu alayhi wa sallam during
the Hajj
season, as pilgrims and they accepted Islam there.
Someone else had one story, someone had one
story. But Safwan
story starts from a place of deep anger.
And
it's not just an emotion. He's willing to
dedicate his life to destroying Islam and the
Muslims.
He stands against the prophet
in every major battle.
In the battle of Uhud, he was by
the side of Khaled bin Walid
as they attack the Muslims,
resulting in a loss
of many great companions.
You know, over 70 Sahaba lost their lives
in the battle of Uhud because of this
tactic adopted
by Khalib al Murih radiya radiya radiya radiya
radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya
radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya
radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya
radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya radiya
radiya radiya radiya
radiya
He was also present in the battle
of the Confederates, Khazutullah Hazab,
also known as Khandaq.
When everyone gathered together to destroy the Muslims,
all the Arabian tribes that were interested in
hurting the Prophet
and Muslims,
rather than going at this one at a
time, they came together as one big group,
one big confederation.
Safwan bin Umayyah
marched the Quraysh
into that battle as well, alongside Abu Sufyan
and others.
One day,
Safwan was sitting by the Kaaba,
in the Hijrah, to be more precise,
in that small little circle around the Kaaba
which is a part of the Kaaba. Small
little circle, they were sitting there.
He was with a buddy of his who
was
considered to be a relative,
Omayr. Omayr was
lamenting over the battle of Badr.
How horrible that was, and the outcomes were
devastating.
And for Omer, the reason why this was
even more difficult,
his son was captured as one of the
captors,
and he was still in Madinah Manubuah.
He couldn't free his son.
So he was away from his son. They
lost so many people.
So in that moment,
Umayr said to
his relative,
Safwan ul Umayyan,
That after losing our elders
and the
horrible loss we suffered in the battle of
Badr, there is no beauty in life anymore.
There's no taste to life.
And then Omer said,
If I was not drowning in debt right
now, there are people that I owe money
to.
I need to live to earn and pay
back those debts and ensure that I don't
do people wrong.
And had it not been for a large
family that relies on me that I must
support,
Had I not
carried the worry and responsibility of these two
things, a debt that I owe and family
that I am responsible of, that if anything
were to happen to me, they would be
hurt.
I would take this moment right now, and
I would run to Madina Munawara with my
sword, behead Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Safwan, when he heard this,
he jumped on the opportunity.
He saw that there was a willing man
that was okay with going to Madinah
and committing
this
horrible act
in his eyes, a courageous act,
and was willing to take on this suicide
mission.
It was clear that Umayr understood that by
going and hurting the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam in Madinah Munawwara meant I can't come
out alive. I will be killed.
You can't ask someone to do that. But
here he was volunteering
that if someone can take care of my
debt and take care of my family, I
will go and end the Prophet
Anger,
rage.
Safar al Saw this in him, and then
he said,
Your debt is now mine.
Your family will be the same as my
family for as long as they live.
There will be nothing that I will spare
them in.
Omid, when he heard this promise, was overwhelmed.
He said to,
Abu Sufyan, let's do this. I'm sorry. To
Safwan, let's do this.
Don't tell anyone what our plan is. Keep
the secret between us.
We're sitting around the Kaaba in the Khidr.
No one can hear us. You heard it.
I heard it. We're gonna keep it just
to the 2 of us. No one will
know.
Safwan said, I won't tell anyone.
Go do your thing.
Omer took his sword and sharpened it,
and then dipped it in poison.
The idea of dipping it in poison was
that even if you don't kill someone
with a decisive blow,
a nick, a small little cut
could open up the body for the poison.
And once that poison makes its way in
the body,
sooner or later, that person will die.
One sad reflection here is that his calculation
was actually quite correct.
This is actually what led to the passing
of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
In Khaybir, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was
invited by Zaynab Yahudiya for a meal, and
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam accepted it. And
when he took the meat and put it
in his mouth, Jabeel alaihi wasallam informed him
that the meat is poison, don't eat it.
But the meat had made contact with the
saliva of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam. So
he pulled it out.
She was killed. She was executed because another
Sahabi died from eating that meat. The prophet
salallahu alaihi wasallam personally did not hold her
accountable. He let her go.
But later on, when the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasallam years later as he was passing away,
he said that I could still feel the
poison of Zaynab Yahudiya in my body.
That poison that she fed me, I still
feel it till today.
So Almeida dipped his
sword into the poison
and marched right on to Madinah Munawwala.
When he entered into Madinah, Umar
was sitting with a group of companions.
Just outside they were sitting,
and they were talking about their victory of
Badr.
That man, Badr was awesome.
We really
delivered a blow to them. Allah
sent angels.
What a phenomenal victory. We were outnumbered 3
to 1, and Allah
still gave us the victory. They were just
reminiscing over the beauty of the battle of
Badr,
when he saw Umayr.
He was not a Muslim.
Everyone knew that this man hated Muslims.
They would refer to him
as,
as,
I think the word is shahad, if I'm
correct.
No, sorry. Harrash. Harrash. The one that instigated
people in the battle of Badr. He was
the one that instigated the enemies to fight
even harder and be more aggressive against the
Muslim Taharash.
That's what they refer to him as. So
Muhammad
knew that this man was no good news.
And not only that, he had a sword
with him.
For context,
carrying swords
when people traveled was somewhat normal to protect
yourself from any animal or a burglar or
a thief.
But when you were inside the city limits
where people lived,
it was not okay to walk around with
a sword.
You couldn't have it on display. That was
a that was an act of incitement that
you're trying to instigate someone. So you wouldn't
carry your sword
in public
sight when you were in the markets, for
example, or when you were in the Masjid,
for example, or walking around in the common
streets. People would put their sword away, keep
it with their animal. They wouldn't walk around
with it in the city.
Umar radiAllahu ansham
that,
this man had his sword.
On.
This man is an enemy of Allah.
He is a dog.
It's very hard language here.
This dog is an enemy of Allah
He is Umayr He
has not come but with evil in his
mind.
He is the one that instigated the enemy
against us in the battle of Badr. And
Hazarana Hazarana is to count. He was the
one the Quraysh sent to estimate our numbers
when we faced off in the battle of
Badr. They didn't know how many were we
were, so they sent him. He came as
a secret person, secret agent, and hid behind
bushes, and was counting people 1 by 1.
And he was the one that told them
how many we were, and was involved with
the strategy
of how to destroy us.
Umar
immediately got up
and approached to Surah sallallahu alaihi wasallam. The
Prophet of Allah,
asked him what happened. He said, Rasulullah,
this Omayr ibn Muhab is here,
and he has his sword on display.
The Prophet of Allah
said, send him in.
The sujaha of the Prophet
the courage,
and not only that, how much the Prophet
of Allah
trusted Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Let him in. It's okay. He has a
sword. It's okay. Let him in.
Grabbed his sword and grabbed the belt and
yanked him inside. And there was another Ansari
Sahabi there. He said, come inside with
me.
Rasulullah
There were a few guys there, he said
all you guys come inside with us.
And he told them that when we sit
down in front of the Prophet, you guys
keep your eyes peeled on this man, he's
dangerous.
If he doesn't make a single move, you
guys tackle him, take him out.
So a group of them came inside and
they surrounded him. Omar radiAllahu alaihi wasalam was
holding him extremely tight.
The prophet
said,
let him go.
He releases him.
Rasulullah
then addresses Umayr directly. Uddunu You Umayr, come
close.
When someone has a sword, you don't bring
them close. You tell them to speak from
a distance.
But he was a Nabi of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
blessed
him with knowledge of the unseen.
Nabi salallahu alaihi wasallam knew how to handle
the situation.
Come close.
Fadana.
He came very close,
and then he said to the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam,
good morning.
This was their pre Islamic greeting.
You greet me with these words,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
now that we're Muslim has given us a
greeting much more beautiful than good morning.
Now the greeting is a salam.
This is the greeting of the inhabitants
of paradise.
The Prophet
asked him,
why are you here?
He said, Well, my son is a captain.
I came to release
him. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
if she came to release your son, then
why do you have this sword around your
neck?
He said,
May Allah destroy these swords. Clearly, they haven't
been much useful lately, because they lost in
the Battle of Badr. Right? He said, These
swords haven't been useful lately. What good are
these swords?
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam then
asked him a second time.
Tell me the truth. Why did you come?
He said, I promised I only came to
free my son.
So then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said
to him, okay, if you won't tell me
why you came, let me tell you why
you
came.
The Prophet
said, rather you and Safwan both sat next
to the Kaaba in the hijr.
And you remember those that were killed in
the battle of Badr.
And you
said,
had it not been for my death and
my family, I would have gone and killed
Muhammad.
So Safwan accepted your proposal immediately,
that you come here and kill
me. But Allah
has placed a barrier between you and your
outcome. You will never be able to achieve
what you came here for.
Only Allah knows how many malaikah must have
been there to protect Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
The promise of Allah.
You take a moment and sit in the
seat of Umayr al Duwah.
He came so far.
His goal is so close.
The weapon is right around his neck.
It's been doused in poison. He's ready to
make his move.
But when the truth presented itself,
when he knew very clearly there is no
way in this universe the Prophet of Allah
could have told him everything he just told
him without revelation.
He says, You Rasulullah,
O Messenger of Allah.
I dedicated myself to extinguishing
the fight, the light
of Allah
I was the one that stood against you
the most.
But after hearing what you've said,
it's become clear to me that you receive
revelation.
And he becomes
Muslim.
O Messenger of Allah,
I want you to grant me permission to
go back to Makkah.
Now that I have seen the light, I
want the people of Makkah to hear it
from me. I want them to become Muslim.
That's the beauty of Islam.
The beauty of Islam is that once someone
becomes Muslim,
and they see the world from another perspective,
all they desire is for everyone else to
see that same beauty.
They want the whole world to see it.
You know,
8 years ago,
my Sheikh when he was alive, Allah Alhammul,
he asked me
almost exactly 8 years ago. Actually, it might
be like to the day. We the story
that I'm about to share with you might
be 8 years to the day.
8 years ago,
my Sheikh, he
he asked me to
go to
Africa, in particular Zambia
to give some
to the to the locals there. He said
go there and do some This
is the first time in his life he
asked me to do this,
to go somewhere far and I didn't really
have too much of an itinerary.
He asked me, so I said, okay, Bismillah,
I'll
go. So I landed in Lusaka for the
first time in my life. I met some
of the locals there and went to some
masajid.
And then
it was in Ramadan. This all happened in
Ramadan.
And then from there, I,
made intention to travel to Chapada.
So
I sat in the smallest flight of my
life.
There are maybe 6 passenger seats in total
in there.
And we landed in Mufue,
small airport. Again, the smallest airport I have
ever seen in my life.
It was kinda like a
Texas size gas station.
That's where the whole airport was, a really
small airport.
And I remember reading about this exact same
airport before.
Sheikh al Hadidwana Muhammad Zakir Khan, he
visited this exact same airport many, many decades
ago, many years ago.
And that's a whole different story. I'd love
to share it with you guys because,
the guy who,
landed that plane, when he landed that plane,
he said, we should have all died.
And then he turned to Sheikh Zakaria
and said to him that you are a
godly person. I was definite that we were
going to cross this plane tonight.
Right? And the people on the ground, they
lost electricity. There was no way to land
that plane. It was dark. But the people
in the city, the people in the village,
they gathered together, and they said that there's
one more flight that's coming in, and there
is a Muslim scholar on there. So they
gathered their cars, and they lined it up
on the side of the runway, and everyone
turned their headlights on.
And it was using those headlights that Sheikh
Zakere
flight landed. It's a fascinating story
again. So I landed at that same airport.
And then from there, there was a brother
who said to me that,
we wanna take you to a particular place.
And we went there
and I kid you not. It was
an absolute jungle.
That's where we were. Everyone lived in tents
there.
The Musula was a hut. There were no
walls on the side. It was just like
straw on top, and we prayed salah there.
I'll never forget we prayed Fadr salah.
And while we're praying Fadr salah,
I can hear elephants, like, maybe 50 feet
away from me. 50 feet away from me
behind, I can hear elephants.
The brother of whose house we stayed at,
Ismail,
he had locks on all of his cabinets.
Imagine every cabinet has a lock on it.
So I asked Ismail, why do you have
locks everywhere? He said because the monkeys rob
us all the time.
So he said to me, Ismail one day,
he said you know what? He used to
respect me a lot. I said, Shaykh, you
know, I'm gonna take you deep inside the
jungle. I wanna show you the animals.
I said, okay. Let's go. So there was
a we got together.
It was it was Ramadan. Right? So it's
close to iftar time after Asar salah. He
said it gets a little cold in there
so he wrapped us all in shawls. These
big blankets are not like thin ones. Blankets
wrapped them in there. And we went in.
There was this African brother that was driving
us.
Actually, we prayed salah in the in the
in the park. Alright? We didn't pray salah
before we left. We left before Asim, and
then we were in the park going deep
inside. And this guy, for some reason, thought
it was a wise thing to chop the
top part of his jeep off.
So there was no nothing on top of
us. Nothing. It was just open.
And we're just driving past bulls, and hyenas,
and giraffes,
cheetahs,
lions.
And I'm not kidding you. Like I It's
it's it's an absurd story. I remember at
one point we were driving and he goes,
and he turned the car off.
I said, Ishmael, what happened? He goes, he
used to call
he he he used to say my name
interesting. We used to go
because
So I whispered. I said, what happened?
He goes, I could smell lion dung. There's
a lion here.
These guys are good. Like they know, and
this is where they live.
And just a few moments later, a line
crossed us closer than this camera is to
me.
And there's nothing on top of the car,
it's just a chopped off car. And it
was an albino lion.
It wasn't just any lion.
I took a picture with it. I was
terrified. It was probably the scariest selfie I
took in my life. I was completely, like,
paralyzed that I said, no, I have to.
This is unbelievable.
I've never been so close to a lion
unprotected like this. So we took a picture.
We stopped for.
We there was 2, 3 of us. We
stood in line for prayer. 1 of the
brothers, he led us.
There were 3, 4 of us. The driver
was standing by the side.
The African brothers. I said to him, Habib,
why don't you come and pray with us?
He was really reluctant so I just grabbed
him by the shoulder. He wasn't Muslim. I
just grabbed him and I said, come here.
And I pulled him in the self and
I put him next to me.
He prayed salah, and then after salah we
continued to go. And this time, the brother
that was driving us, he took us
up to the top of a mountain,
really up high.
And we got to this place, and it
was right at the time of,
right Maghrib
time.
So I held that guy by the shoulder,
and I apologized to him. I'm sorry. I
said, I'm sorry. He said, why?
Throughout the entire ride,
everyone kept calling him boy.
Boy, come here. Boy, go there. Boy, do
this. Boy, do that.
And this is not how we should speak
to other people. We shouldn't call people boy
in a demeaning manner like a servant.
So I sat him down. It was almost
a Iftar time. I'm telling you, like, maybe
not even 3 minutes left to Iftar. I
sat him down and I said, I just
wanted to apologize for the tone that people
use
when they when they talk to you.
He said, no. There's nothing. What are you
upset about? So they called you boy. He
said, no. My name is Boyd.
I was like, oops.
That one backfired.
But this is true story. He said, my
name is Boyd, not boy. It's like, oh,
these guys in there touch me. They need
some
in their life.
Then I told him, then he said to
me, but I appreciate you caring about me.
And I really appreciate you calling me to
stand next to you
in prayer.
No one has ever asked me, someone like
me from back my background
to stand next to someone like you. You
guys are foreigners. You guys are wealthy people.
We're poor people. I've never stood shoulder to
shoulder with someone before like this.
Maybe 2 minutes left to have thought and
I thought, yeah. This is the perfect time.
This is give the dawah.
So, I pitched Islam to him.
And
he just smiled,
and
on the spot accepted Islam.
On the spot, he accepted Islam.
They called the alan. I took the data.
I gave him half. I had half.
And then he said to me that, I
have a request for you. This is the
part this is the reason why I told
you this story. This next part. He said,
I have a request.
I said, what's your request?
I need you to come back to me.
I need you to come back with me
to my village. It's not too far from
here. I'm gonna gather
everyone in the village together, and I want
you to invite them all to Islam.
And for some reason when he said that
to me, the story of Umayr bin Wahab
came to mind. That when he became Muslim,
the first thing he said, O Messenger of
Allah, let me go back to Makkah and
invite
everyone. I'm gonna invite everyone to Islam.
Umayr radhiallahu anhu came back to Makkah.
Abu Sufyan was waiting for him. I'm sorry,
I keep saying Abu Sufyan. Safwan bin Umayyah
was
waiting for him.
He wasn't allowed to tell anyone what was
going on. So Sifuan just told people that
very soon we will receive news
that will relieve you of your sorrows of
Badr.
You won't have to worry about Badr anymore.
Very soon I'm gonna bring you news. And
everyone's like, what's the news? What's the news?
He couldn't tell anyone.
Someone
arrived in Mecca and said, hey, I saw
Umayr on his way back from Madinah.
Sefan got really excited.
He said, no, but, that guy had weird
vibes. I think he's Muslim now.
Abu Sufyan was shocked.
Omayr radiAllahu an,
He met Abu Sufyan
And Abu Sufyan, he threatened him and he
said, by Allah, I will never benefit you.
I will never you know, our relationship is
done.
You know, I will never talk to you
ever again. Get your face.
Get away from me. I never wanna see
your face ever again.
Umayr radiAllahu anhu,
he made a promise to Rasulullah
salallahu alaihi wa sallam that he would give
dawah, and he did.
And he continued to give dawah. So many
people went on to become Muslim as a
result of the dawah of Umayr radiAllahu an.
Some of them became Muslim before the conquest
of Mecca, while others became Muslim
after the conquest of Mecca.
As I mentioned, Safwan continued to
oppose the Prophet with
all of his ability.
One day, Musula salallahu alayhi wasalam made the
dua
after the battle of
Oh Allah, curse
You Allah, send your curse upon Abu Sufyan.
You Allah, send your curse on Harith bin
Hisham.
They have played a key role
in the defeat the Muslims faced in the
Battle of Uhud.
Allah cursed them all.
Falaazalat,
Allah
revealed in
That laysalakaminilamilamilashayun.
Oh Yatubalayhim.
It is not upon you, oh messenger of
Allah. Allah can accept their repentance. You're cursing
them. What if Allah gives them to do,
and they repent to Allah
So what happened?
All 3 of these people became Muslim.
So faradayallahuwan
becomes Muslim later on,
Abu Sufyan becomes Muslim,
and
Harith bin Hisham also becomes Muslim.
And the narrator at the end of it,
he says
that,
That they all became Muslims and made great
sacrifices, but haraf and hisham, his Islam excelled
far.
Time passes by, they continue to confront one
another, face off one another, pushing against Safwan
stands with the Quraysh, the Prophet
is with the Muslims, and they keep clashing
again and again.
In the 8th year after migration,
the Muslims
conquer Mecca.
And when they when they conquer Mecca, the
Prophet
instructs the Sahaba,
We want
minimal casualties.
We don't want there to be a bloodbath,
we don't want people to die in troves.
Minimal casualties.
Let's go, and let's conquer Makkamukaram. Allah
is going to open the city for us.
When it became clear that the Quraysh did
not stand a chance because the Muslims basically
attacked them all at once.
It was like from multiple directions, caught them
off guard,
and the Quraysh did not even stand a
chance. Some of them tried to push back
Akhima, and some others tried to push back,
but they weren't really successful.
Safwan was a leader of his people. This
dua is from Sayyid Aisha
He knew that they would all get captured
and they would be killed.
He had opposed the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
very strongly.
Immediately he ran away from Mecca.
Why?
To kill himself.
That I'm gonna throw myself in the ocean
and end my life because there's nowhere in
this peninsula I can go where the Muslims
won't capture me.
They basically have control over the full peninsula.
I need to kill myself.
Umair ibn Nawwaha,
his old buddy that he promised to never
speak to,
He approached Rasulullah
salallahu alayhi wasalam, and said, I'm messunrullah, I
know Safwan.
He's a good guy.
Please
give him a man, give him safety.
Without hesitation,
Rasulullah
said, Huwa amin, I've given him protection. Nothing
will happen to
him. Umair was shocked. You Rasulullah,
I'm gonna rush over and tell him right
now, this news is so
amazing that even he won't believe it.
Give me something that I can show him
that will be proof
that this message has come from You, and
there is no doubt in it at all.
You have granted him protection.
The Prophet
said, Okay.
What did Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wasallam give him?
He took off the turban from his head.
When the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam entered into
Maqamukarama
as a conqueror, the Ruwah is in Sahih
Muslim. Nabi was
wearing a black turban that day. It was
a symbol. Everyone saw on Fath Hammakkah, the
Prophet was wearing this beautiful black turban. So
Rasulullah
took his turban off, he gave it to
Umayr, and said, Go save that man.
Umayr rushed to catch up with Abu Sufyan.
Abu Sufyan had one of his servants with
him, Yasar.
In a distance, they saw someone coming.
When he inquired who it was, he was
informed that it was Omayr.
Safwan
thought to himself that this man is here
to kill me.
The Prophet of Allah has sent him to
capture me and then behead me.
When Umayr came close,
he informed him,
by Allah, the Prophet of Allah has granted
you safety. Nothing will happen to you.
And then showed him the turban of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Safwan turned away and said, get away from
me.
Don't speak to me. Get away from
May my mother and father both be sacrificed
to you.
He is the most honorable of people,
the most forgiving,
most forbearance, the best of people is Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
Get over your stubbornness.
He is your relative. Ibn Ammik, you're all
from Quraysh.
His honor is your honor.
His
His prestige is your prestige.
His kingdom is going to be yours. Why
are you turning your back against Him? He's
one of you.
Safwan
then opened up.
I worry that he's going to kill me
if I go back to Mecca.
Maybe he's giving me safety. But when I
go there, maybe he'll capture me. Maybe he'll
hurt me in another way.
Umay responds to him, The
Prophet of Allah is forbearance. He won't do
anything like that. The 2 of them returned,
and they stood in front of Rasulullah
When he stood there, he said to the
Prophet of Allah that
this man claims that you've granted me safety.
Is this true?
The Prophet
responds, Sadatah. Yes. Safwan
says, well,
I need 2 months to figure out what
I'm going to do.
I'm not ready to become Muslim
or be captured.
Give me 2 months to
figure out. Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, do you want 2
months? How many will I give you?
4. Take 4 months. Go figure out whatever
you wanna do.
Now he's back in Mecca.
In this time, one important thing to know,
Ibn Shihab Azuri narrates this.
He says,
That at the conquest of Mecca, many of
the men became stubborn and ran off,
while their wives went on to become
Muslim.
From the people who became Muslim
was
Safwan's wife became Muslim already.
He ran off.
His wife said, I'm not going anywhere.
The Prophet of Allah is amazing. And she
became Muslim.
For Aslamat Yawmul Fathir, she became Muslim.
Now
I'll come back to her story and her
relationship with him, inshallah, in a few moments.
Now what happens with Safwan? He's finally he
left, he finally made it back to Makkah.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam announces,
we've conquered Makkah,
everything here is stabilized.
We need to now march towards Hunayn.
Or for easier perspective for those of you
who
who may not be so familiar with the
geography, we need to go to Taif.
We need to attack the people there.
Why did the Prophet
need to march towards Taif?
The reason was because once Maqam ul Karamah
was conquered, the people of Ta'if were convinced
the Prophet of Allah was going to march
towards them next.
So they begin to gather armies,
not just out but outside of life. That's
why the battle of
Hanain and, is The the battle of Hanain
actually occurs between
and Makkah, in the hills and mountains there,
Between the hills and mountains. So they actually
began to advance in some way towards the
Muslims in Makkah. Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
didn't want any battle happening in Makkah, so
he said, Everyone wrap it up here, we
gotta go stop those people. We gotta go
stop these people.
Now you have so many people who have
just become Muslim.
And was
just conquered, so now there were the number
of the Muslim army just increased, almost doubled.
And now they were all getting ready to
head out towards
for the battle of Hunayn.
The people that have now joined the army
did not have access to swords.
They didn't have the weaponry needed.
Rasulullah
turned to
Safwan.
Said give me weapons.
Give me weapons. You have weapons. You're a
leader of Makkah. You guys are are stocked,
give me access to your weapons, we will
give it to the people, we will go
fight and come back.
Safwan was still trying to figure out
who Rasulullah
was.
So he asked the Prophet of Allah,
These weapons you want, are you asking or
are you gonna * them from me? Like
what's the relationship here? How are we doing
this?
The Prophet
said,
I will only take them if you willfully
give them to me.
He said, okay, you can borrow all the
weapons you guys want.
But
I'm coming with you guys to watch over
my weapons.
So he actually joined in the battle of
Hunayn while not being
he wasn't Muslim.
Right?
And one thing the,
scholars point out in this Diwaya of Ibn
Shihab, one thing at the end,
Even though they were on 2 separate faiths
in that moment,
the Prophet
did not annul their marriage.
He wasn't Muslim, she was Muslim.
He came back, and then he becomes Muslim.
I'll share the story of his Islam
momentarily.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam allowed them to
remain in marriage off of that first marriage
of theirs. There was no new marriage that
took place after they became Muslim. Now there
obviously is some legal discussion here which is
beyond the scope of this conversation.
That if someone leaves Islam in a marriage,
what happens to the marriage?
What if the husband is the one that
becomes leaves Islam, becomes Muurthaz? What if the
woman is the one that becomes Muurthaz? What
if they were
never Muslim, and then one of them becomes
Muslim?
These are all different scenarios and different possibilities,
and they have different rulings.
Do we have stories and instances where people
were married and from different faiths
at the time of Rasulullah Yes,
we do. Nabi's
daughter Zayd
is another example.
Her husband becomes Muslim much later on,
yet the Prophet
allowed for that nikah to continue. This is
a nuanced issue,
and it's one that involves,
legal understanding, so we're gonna leave it out
of the scope of this discussion. But I
just wanted to point it out, just wanted
to point out in this conversation today,
that
Safaan
becomes Muslim later on, his wife becomes Muslim
first.
The battle of Hunil occurs. Another very tricky
battle for the Muslims.
Allah
grants them victory,
and they're
headed back to Mecca.
While they're walking back to Mecca,
Abu Sufyan is looking at the spoils of
war.
Was a big city.
Those people had a lot of animals.
They When the Muslims were victorious in the
battle of Taif, they came into a large
amount of spoils of war.
So was just staring at the spoils like,
wow,
that's a lot.
This is wild. The bank just blew open
for the Muslims with the conquest of 5.
While he's staring at it all, the prophet
has his eyes on that
this man is mesmerized by this wealth.
The prophet of Allah asked
him, are you shocked?
Are you shocked by these oils?
He said, yes.
The Prophet of Allah said, huwalak.
It's yours.
And one narration, the prophet of Allah first
gave him a small amount and then give
him some more and then give him some
more and give him some more.
This is where the whole concept of
giving zakat to people.
To draw them near to Islam.
This is where this comes
in. Now
before anyone thinks that zakat was used to
buy people into the faith,
like other faiths may do, that's not what
this was.
Abu Sufyan was already a wealthy person. Money
didn't change it for him. What changed it
for him was knowing
that Rasulullah
was not after his wealth.
That's why he asked at the beginning, are
you going to forcefully take my weapons, or
are you asking me?
Do you guys understand this? It was Nabi
letting them know by giving him that, We
aren't here to take from you, we are
here to support you.
This
played out in many different ways, where Rasulullah
would sometimes give to someone who was ready
to become Muslim. The only barrier between them
becoming Muslim,
and where they were was a financial concern.
So Rasulullah
used zakat money to give it to them,
so they can overcome that. Later on, Safar
becomes one of the greatest companions to give
zakat.
He's giving, and giving, and giving, and an
argument can be made that much more was
given than what he, much more he ended
up giving, than what he received from Rasulullah
Because he lives until either 41
or 42 years after Hijra. And this incident
occurred in the 8th year after Hijra. And
Safwan bin Umayyah
remained as a wealthy person until the end
of his
life. He was from a strong family that
had a background in business. Continue to give
zakat, give zakat and sadaqa, give zakat and
sadaqa. This was a far sidedness of Rasulullah
Saffan
after experiencing this generosity of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, he says,
as we see from the narration of
al
Musayb. The Prophet of Allah gave me and
gave me, He gave me so much.
I hated him more than I hated anyone
on the face of this earth.
He kept giving me, and kept giving me,
and kept giving me. And every time he
gave me, my heart softened more. And and
it softened more and it softened more until
he became the most beloved person to me
on the face of this earth.
This is the dawah of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi
wa sallam. Sometimes you have someone that resents
you, Alhamkulillah.
Sometimes you have someone that resents you. One
of the easiest ways to win them over
is be kind to them.
Find your own way of giving them.
Just be generous and give, and make sure
they know that you're giving, not to rub
it in their face, but so they see
what's happening here. So they see the transaction,
the akhlaq transaction I'm talking about. That your
harshness isn't resulting in harshness,
it's your harshness being met with
your reason, with your kindness, with your forbearance,
with your smile.
Rasulullah
kept giving, and kept giving, and kept giving.
And every time he gave, Safwan noticed
Nabi's generosity,
and then he becomes Muslim.
Safan
narrates
that someone said
that whoever doesn't do Hijrah
will be destroyed.
He will face destruction in the hereafter in
the world. Hijrah is necessary.
Which was true, the Prophet
mandated Hijrah. Anyone that was in Makkah was
required to migrate to Madinah.
So when he heard this,
immediately he grabbed his possessions
and migrated
to Madinah.
He left Mecca. He arrived in Madinah.
He didn't even spend the night with his
family. Immediately rushed to Madinah.
Fanezalah Ar Abbas
Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib who was previously one
of the leaders of Makkah, the uncle of
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. They had a relationship
because he was a leader. He was a
leader. His father was a leader. So he's
he went over to Abbas' house, washed up
there, had a little meal,
and then said to him that I've migrated.
I'm gonna figure things out. In the meantime,
he went to the masjid to go to
sleep there. It's an open space.
He had a sheet
tied under his head for support.
Someone robbed
him.
1st day in Madina,
sleeping and measured the, and what happens, guys?
Someone robs him.
He captured that guy.
He brought him to Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam assessed the
situation, and what was robbed was of significant
wealth.
If it's a small amount that's robbed, the
hadd isn't given.
Punishment is not applied. But if it's a
significant amount, what is that significant amount? Again,
that's a fiqhih discussion.
It was beyond the threshold.
Therefore the punishment was applied.
That man was presented to Rasulullah
The matter was investigated,
he was punished, his hand was cut.
After he was punished,
he saw him
and he felt pain in his heart that
man, that guy got punished because of me.
So immediately he came to Rasulullah
and said, I forgive him.
I forgive him.
The Prophet
said, you should have forgiven him before you
brought him to me.
The punishment is given to him, and then
after that you forgive him. Right? Imam Malik
Ramtullahi also narrates his
So Farhan radiAllahu an doesn't have too many
ahadith directly that he narrates from Rasool Allah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. There are a few of
them. One of them he narrates about eating
meat directly from the bone.
How it's how it how it increases the
the the meal in in joy and flavor.
So he narrates that. There's another where he
talks about plagues,
that, you know, if a person,
you know, a person dies from plague, or
a person dies in the battlefield, or a
person dies from drowning, or a lady dry
dies
while giving birth, or a person dies from
a stomach illness, how they are all marchers.
He narrates a hadith like this from Musulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam too.
His son
fought by the side of Abu Laban Zabih
radiyaallahu an and was also killed in Mecca.
As for Safwan ul Umayyah radiyaallahu an, he
passed away in Maqam ul
Karima, according to one opinion
in the year 42 after hijrah,
right after
Mu'awiyah radiallahu anhu was appointed as Khalifa.
And another opinion is that he actually
was,
that either was 41 after hijra or 42
after hijra. May Allah
elevate his maqam and allow us to learn
from the beautiful lessons of Safwan radiAllahu an
and how Nabi salallahu alayhi wa sallam interacted
with him. May Allah
give us such moments moments of enlightenment as
well. And may Allah
allow us to live in the life
and the example of these great people. After
he become Muslim, he dedicates his life to
serving the deen. He goes on to participate
in the decisive battle of Yarmouk against the
Romans.
They didn't just become Muslim, they flipped themselves.
May Allah
allow us to live with that change as
well, and give us Himba and Tufik to
overcome our nafs and live our best lives
in the obedience of Allah.
Allah.