Taif Lessons
Date:
Channel: Ibraheem Menk
File Size: 24.32MB
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AI Generated Summary ©
The difficulty of traveling on foot is a complete waste of time and people need to be prepared to handle the journey. The message of Islam is to accept the truth and not pursue negative behavior. forgiveness is key and accepting the message in order to become a stronghold of Islam. The importance of forgiveness and letting go of baggage is emphasized. Open-minded and allow others to speak their own truth is also emphasized.AI Generated Transcript ©
Is a city
that is only 90 kilometers away from Mecca.
So anyone who has been to the city
from Makkah to Bukar'ala
will realize that it is a short distance
away.
But the elevation
between Mecca and Ta'if
is great.
So, Mecca is only 300
meters above the sea sea level,
and Taif is 1,900
meters approximately
above sea level.
So for a person going by motor vehicle,
it is just the journey of about an
hour.
But someone who is
journeying
by foot
would take quite some time and they would
have to go quite an elevation. Imagine
going from 300 meters to 1,900
meters.
And this was the journey that Rasoolullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam undertook.
And not only did he undertake a journey,
but it was a journey in
a region that is very hot.
At times, the temperature reaches 45,
50 degrees Celsius.
Rasulullah Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam undertook this journey
on foot
and alone.
Some people go to say that Zayd ibn
Uhari,
the mawla of Rasulullah Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
was with him.
And some say he was all alone.
Imagine undertaking
this journey
all alone
in the heat and going from an elevation
of 300 meters to
1900 meters. That means the difference is 1600
meters of elevation
climbing up into the mountains. In fact, even
if you go by car today,
you will realize that as you are going
up, it is difficult. The car will find
it difficult to go up.
It is a strain on a motor vehicle.
So imagine what Rasulullah
alaihi wa sallam went through. And this was
after the boycott
and after 'Amul Quzr, the year of sadness,
when he lost
his dear wife
and he lost his pillar of support, his
own uncle.
So he goes to life
hoping
that he will receive
some sort of help and support for his
dawah, for his call to Allah
Now I'd like to draw our attention to
something.
If this was a journey that was undertaken
for any other purpose,
then perhaps a person would have faltered, would
have given up, would have said it is
not worth
undertaking this journey.
But because it was for Allah
then Muhammad sallallahu
was happy to undertake the journey. He was
prepared to do it. Why? Because he had
purpose.
So when Insan has purpose in life,
by and large,
the person will find it easy
to do what they have to do. Why?
Because there is a purpose. There is a
reason why I am going there. And what
better reason
then
for the sake of our creation.
The reason why we were created in the
first place. And that is to worship Allah
and to call towards Him
because ultimately
we will end up with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So he had this purpose in mind and
he went he undertook the journey.
Fearless.
Going to people whom he doesn't really know.
So he goes to these people. And
you know interestingly,
the journey is undertaken alone, solo.
And we will return to Allah
alone,
solo.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
And you will come to us.
You have come to us all alone.
In the manner that we created you,
single as well.
Allah
brought you into this world all alone. You
were single. You were one human being and
you will come to
to Allah on the day, of judgment in
the same manner that He created you
naked,
barefoot.
Before Allah
So when we have
something
to undertake in our lives,
especially if it is a journey towards Allah
Something that will bring us closer to Him,
then
we need to remember that sometimes
we have to be alone.
You are calling to
inviting people to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You will find resistance.
You will find people push back. You will
find those who reject your message. You will
find those who will
get up and put up videos against you.
Why? Because you are engaging in that
which Allah once of you that which the
did.
You see,
we may think
that but I'm not the ordinary man is
not engaged in dawah.
The ordinary man is not engaged in calling
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But in reality,
this is the responsibility
of all.
And
every single person in his home is a
He's
a
Oh you who have believed,
save yourselves and your families from the fire.
What is that? Allah
is telling you to call your own family
to Allah
To call those who are in your circles
to Allah
The people you meet at work
are your responsibility.
You must invite them to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. You know the time of salah is
being called. You take them to the masjid.
Something wrong is happening in the workplace.
You try and rectify it in the best
manner possible.
Why? Because it is your responsibility
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave you. Yes.
You may find resistance.
Yes. You may may find people turn against
you as a result, but you are doing
it for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You must engage with
sincerity,
and you must engage in a good manner.
And this was the way of Rasulullah salallahu
alaihi wa sallam. Here we find that he's
in front of the leaders in Taif.
And he addresses them and says, I am
calling you to
I am calling you to none other than
your purpose of creation.
The reason why you are here in the
first place And that is to worship Allah
alone. So that is something
that naturally
identified with. But what was their response?
They responded by saying,
Did Allah
not find anyone better than you?
Did he only find you? Why could he
have not found anyone better than you? You
see, Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam came from
nobility,
but he did not come from a rich
and wealthy background.
He did not have much. So what did
they say? Allah not find anyone better than
you. And they knew at this point that
the followers of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
were poor.
So they rejected
Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasallam. By and large, it
was the poor people that accepted the message
of Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasallam. So now, if
the rich and the noble of society accept
the message, then it is seen as a
degradation
for them. They are putting themselves lower
and they are bringing themselves down. So they
rejected the message of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam based
on the level of wealth that he had.
The level of power that he had. They
rejected him. And this is what we find
generally
amongst the people.
I have seen the people, they
incline
towards those who have wealth,
those who have power, those who have position
and authority.
And those who have nothing, then the people
will turn away from them. The people will
move away from them. So this is what
they did to Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Sallam. They rejected his message not because his
message did not have substance,
but because of the position of the man
that they saw. You are nobody.
And this is what Allah
says to us.
Allah
says,
did Allah
not send this message to anyone
besides
a person like you? Could he have not
sent it to someone greater than them from
these two cities of Mecca and Taif?
And this is what the message was. So
Allah
chose. And we need to realize that no
matter where the message is coming from, we
must accept accept it if it is the
truth. You see sometimes, a young child
in the home says a word of truth.
And they say something and we stand up
and we reject immediately. Why? Because it is
a child. Who are you to tell me?
Who are you to say? But Allah is
the one who employed that child to say
those words to correct you at that time.
Sometimes the father is smoking.
The mother is not wearing hijab. And the
child learns something from the cartoons that they
are watching.
And the child says, but mom, why don't
you do this? Why are you not wearing
hijab? Yet the person that the cartoons I
am watching, they are wearing hijab.
That message is a message. Don't think. It
is a message from that child alone. It
is a message from Allah
through that child.
Allahu Akbar.
Allahu Akbar. So sometimes we need to understand
that no matter
where the message is coming from, whether it
is friend or foe,
friend or enemy,
we accept that message because it is the
truth and Allah is the truth. And this
is what
ties into Islam as well. You know, Allah
tells us that
speak the truth and
be honest and judge with the truth and
justice.
And judge with the correct judgment.
The scales that have the correct balance.
Why? Because
that is the truth and the truth ties
into Allah
In fact, He says,
Even if it is against your own self.
Sometimes you find yourself in a situation, car
accident,
Something happened and it is your fault. You
know that it is my fault. You get
out there and you acknowledge, dear brother, it
is my fault.
I made this mistake. I will pay for
the damages. It is okay. Yes. I may
not manage
all the total amount but I will manage
whatever I can today. I will pay tomorrow.
I will do this and that. It is
against you. You are in a tough situation.
You know you can't afford it but you
speak against yourself. Why? Because the truth matters
more.
And even if it is against your own
parents
and those who are close to you. You
know, this happens in the marital home as
well where we find that the mother and
father at times they are wrong.
And we cannot say to our own parents
that look
mom, dad with the most
respect to you.
Unfortunately here, you are wrong. And my spouse
is right.
And I think we need to make amends
and we need to find a way forward.
What we do, we say, no. That is
my mother, my father. I have to respect
them. Yes. Respect them. But that does not
mean that you take away from the rights
of your own spouse. At times, we do
injustice
towards our spouse simply because it is my
mother. It is my father. I can't tell
them anything. I can't say anything to them.
If you cannot say find someone who can
explain to them that perhaps in this situation,
you need to consider that mom, dad, you
were wrong.
And that is Islam.
That is Islam. Sometimes we say that, no.
If I speak out, then I'm disrespecting my
parents. No. It is not disrespect.
If you do it in the correct manner,
then that is Islam itself. That is what
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants of you. So
this all ties into accepting the message. These
people rejected Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam. One
of them going as far as saying
that if you are a Nabi of Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala, then you are greater
than for me to respond to you. And
if you are not a Nabi of
then you are too low for me to
respond to you. Meaning, regardless of who you
are, then I will not respond to you.
He went to find a philosophy
to respond and he responded in this manner,
rejecting the message of Allah
And Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam leaves this
this gathering.
And as he leaves the gathering,
not only did they
set the urchins of the city upon him
to pelt him and to hurl insults at
him, but they drove him out of the
city.
And as he is walking, his shoes become
clogged with blood.
What
was he there for? Was he there to
seek some money? Was he there to seek
some help and support and assistance for something
that would benefit him and his family? No.
He was there for
Yet he is being taunted and there are
stones that are being pelted upon him. Salallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
And he leaves the city.
And when he gets to the outskirts of
the city,
they say that from where he walked to
where he finally rested was
42 to 43
kilometers.
There are different narrations, but they say it
was 42 to 43 kilometers.
By the time Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam
rested, who was this? Who was this? This
was
the
best of creation most close to Allah
So do you think that if
Allah tested him, he will not test us?
You will be tested as well. So Allah
tested him. He got to the out skirts
of the city and there he rested.
And
Jibreel
comes to him
and says,
This is the angel of the mountains. If
you wish, I will tell this angel of
the mountains and he will command that the
2 mountains come together and crush these people.
They are over. They are done for for
what they did to you. What is the
response of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam?
At this juncture he finds it within his
heart and this tells us that his struggle
was for Allah
His heart was somewhere else. It was with
Allah
He says, perhaps they have rejected me.
O Allah forgive my people for they do
not know.
Oh Allah, forgive my people for they do
not know. Perhaps
some people will come from the future generations
that will accept Islam.
Look at the vision of rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. He realized that this is greater
than me. This is greater than my suffering.
What is more important is for these people
to accept Islam
and for them to become a stronghold of
Islam. Today, if you go to Taif, they
are all Muslimi.
Imagine Rasulullah
salallahu alaihi wa sallam decided and said let
them be crushed, it is okay.
That would have ended there and the story
was over. But Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
had a greater
priority
and that was for them to accept Islam
and not only would they benefit but he
would benefit as well.
So
anyone who then made a
and anyone who prayed salah and anyone who
did something good from that city, the reward
goes to who? To Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
So it
is sometimes difficult to forgive.
It is sometimes difficult to say, let me
leave it and let it go.
And it is okay and it doesn't matter
but that is what Allah
wants of us
especially when it is to do with the
deen,
especially when it is to do with the
religion
of Islam.
Forgive for the sake of Allah.
And even more so, even easier when it
is to do something
with your own
self.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam never took revenge
for himself. You stomped upon me. It is
okay. It doesn't matter. And,
he comes and he pulls upon the collar
of Rasulullah
until it leaves some marks on the blessed
neck of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam. And
what does he say? He simply says, it
is okay, Umar. Umar was ready. He wanted
to punch up this person. He says, leave
him. It is okay.
Let him say what he wants to say.
Why? Because this is to do with me.
It is has affected me. Doesn't matter. Let
it go.
Forgive
them and let it go. And this is
the attitude that a successful person has. Why?
When you forgive,
not only are you forgiving the person and
allowing them to carry on, but you are
forgiving yourself as well. And you are letting
go of the baggage that you are carrying
with you. This person I have not been
speaking to them for 20 years. Why? Because
20 years ago, they refused to marry my
daughter.
That person I am not speaking to him
for 10 years. Why? Because he came and
we had an altercation and we fought in
our shop.
Let it go. You are holding on to
baggage. You know what that baggage is like?
It is like a backpack that you put
on to your shoulders.
And every time that you carry a grudge,
there's a big boulder that you are taking
putting into that backpack. What will happen? What
will happen?
You will be weighed down and it will
be difficult for you to move forward. So
it is better for you to let go
of it. Pull it off your shoulders
and say, May Allah forgive this person, I
forgive them as well. So Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam let it go and
then he makes a dua
to
Allah. And he makes a dua for their
mercy, and for their forgiveness, and for their
guidance. The same people who drove him out
of the city. He makes a dua for
them.
One of the most important parts of that
dua
is, oh Allah,
if you are not angry with me then
I don't care. It doesn't matter.
As long as you are happy with me,
O Allah, it doesn't matter what they have
done to me. I will make dua for
them. Here I am calling out to you,
O Allah. What matters is my relationship
with you. So long as you are not
angry with me, I am happy.
This was the messenger
making dua for a people who had oppressed
him. And this is the
height of
Ihsan.
Ihsan is to be to do over and
above what is required of you.
To go further and beyond the person that
has harmed you, the person who has been
swearing you, talking bad about you. You raise
your hands up to
Allah Not to call out against them, but
to say, you Allah, forgive them. You Allah,
grant them goodness. You Allah, open their hearts.
You Allah, grant them open their doors of
risk. You make dua for that person.
That is Islam.
That is
That is the pinnacle of goodness. So try
and be good to those who have been
evil to you. And when
you are going through suffering, you are going
through difficulty, what is the greatest form of
Ibadah?
It is to call out to Allah
to raise your hands and connect with the
one who has the solution
with Him. You know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tells us,
respond to you. Your Lord said call out
to me, I will respond to you. In
Christianity, you have to go through Jesus Christ.
In other religions, you have to go through
idols
and other forms
of deities that they worship.
And in Islam, you go directly to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And the beauty of it
is
the imam and the shaykh and the one
whom you see as religious in society have
equal opportunity to you. You don't need to
come to the imam and say, seek dua
for me, O Imam. You don't need to
go to the sheikh and say, call out
to Allah for
me. No. You and him have the same
opportunity to call out to Allah
Your route to Allah
is exactly the same as his. All you
have to do,
raise your hands to Allah
In fact, you don't even need to raise
your hands to Allah
for your dua to be accepted. That is
a sunnah of Rasulullah
Call out to me, I will respond to
you. Yours is to make the dua.
And the response will come from Allah
And when your servants when your when my
servants ask you about me, oh Muhammad, then
I am near. You see, sometimes we feel
we are far away from Allah
We have been doing wrong for a long
time. We have been disobeying
Allah displeasing him. Perhaps we have an addiction
to cigarettes or we have an addiction to
alcohol or we have an addiction to pornography
or we have an addiction
to something that is haram and we've been
doing it day in day out for a
long time. So we think that we are
far.
When you when my servants ask you about
me, then indeed I am near.
All the distance between you and Allah
is?
Is simply a dua away.
It is simply a dua away. So you
may think that you are far away and
Allah will not accept from you. But all
it takes is,
Subhanahu wa ta'ala hears you. Yes, my servant.
What do you want? Allah
is prepared to give you.
I respond to the caller when he calls
out to me.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has one request,
let them respond
to me.
And believe in me so that they may
be rightly guided. You want a response
to put yourself
in the right condition. Yes. You've now called
out to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But now
begin with your salah.
Increase your dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Make yourself a better person, a person that
can be responded to and will be responded
to by Allah
Not only should you call out to Him
but improve your life as well. And this
is actually
and amazingly
a coping
mechanism for the person who is suffering, for
the person who is going through struggle and
strife. This is a coping mechanism. What it
does is
it gives you the understanding
that I have Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I
can turn to. I can always turn to
Allah
I
can always ask Him. I can always seek
from Him. You know sometimes we feel all
alone and we feel like there is nobody
there. Remember Allah is always there. And remember
the call of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
where he was calling all alone in solitude
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and that is
your saviour.
That is what will benefit you. That is
what will help you. May Allah
grant us the ability to call out to
Him. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant
us the ability to understand
that
this life is a short existence.
Insha'Allah,
tomorrow we will have a short Q and
A,
session. I will give you a number
that you can call, send messages to Insha'Allah.
You can send a text message.
you can ask
you can ask