Ismail Kamdar – The Women of Perfection- Maryam and Aasia
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
The prophet
told us that there are 2 women who
have attained the devil of perfection.
David Hariam,
the daughter of Iran, and Asiya, the wife
of the father.
Today, I'm just gonna share a brief brief
biography of these 2,
righteous and great role models
from which we can all take lessons. And
before I do that, just a brief comment
on this hadith. This hadith is often misunderstood
by people. Alright. The Hadith says that
many men attain perfection,
but only 2 women attain perfection, not Yom,
the wife of the fellow.
And
some people misunderstand
this to mean that,
men
more men are pious and only 2 women
in history are pious. This is not what
hadith means.
Right? There are four levels of piety.
There's the prophets.
There's the righteous, the Swolehiyin.
There's the martyrs, the shohada,
and there is the truthful, the siddhiyatim.
When it comes to the shohada,
the siddhiyin, and the siddhiyatim,
there are many men and many women throughout
history who have reached those levels.
The highest level, that would be ambiya,
those who are mahasoon, those who are similar,
those who communicated with Allah
through revelation,
that level,
many men raised, but only 2 women reached.
And those 2 women are Mariam and Assia.
Now this all has a difference of opinion
where Mariam and Assia,
nonprofits
who reached a prophetic level of of of
perfection,
or are Okari actually consider them to be
prophets. There were a handful of scholars who
actually considered Maryam and Asiya to be prophets
because they did receive a type of revelation.
Specifically in the case of Maryam, an angel
literally came to her and told her, you're
going to have a baby. Right? She spoke
to the angel to pray. Right? That is
a type of revelation. But nonetheless, Hadith is
not in any way
demeaning woman as is a major problem in
our times. A lot of Hadith are misunderstood
to put woman down when you actually study
these Hadith in a proper context. That is
not what these Hadith are saying. So So
in this case, for example, when the hadith
says,
many men have attained perfection, only 2 women
have attained perfection, it means many men became
prophets, only 2 women reached the level of
prophets in their piety.
Right? But in other levels of piety, men
and women, there were many in our history.
So who are these 2 women who read
such a high level of piety that they
are on par with the prophets?
These women are mentioned together towards the end
of Surat Kahmin.
One of them is Mary, Mariam,
the
mother of Jesus,
and the other is Asiya, the wife of
the pharaoh. And their stories are very different
from each other. These are 2 very different
models of piety.
1 is a woman who is raised in
righteousness.
From the time she is born, even before
she is born, a mother makes no want
to have a righteous baby.
She is raised in righteousness, and her whole
life is one of righteousness. The other is
a woman who grows up in the worst
possible environment,
the house of the pharaohs.
She becomes a queen in the house of
the pharaohs. She becomes
part of the system that is oppressing in
genocidal people. Yes. She becomes a model of
righteousness and martyrdom from within that system.
2 very different models of piety. And what's
interesting about Surah Takhti, Allah
says,
Allah gives an example for all of the
believers in the wife of pharaoh and in
Mary, the mother of Jesus. So in this
tour, Allah is saying that Mary and Asiya
are not role models for women. They are
role models for all of us. They are
role models for all of the believers.
Mariam's piety
and her tawakkul
and her du'a is something we can all
take lessons from.
Assia's self sacrifice,
giving up of the duniya and martyrdom
is something everyone can take lessons from. We
don't have to limit these lessons to specific
genders. So Hari alayhis salah is considered the
greatest woman to ever live. The Virgin Mary
is, in Islam, we consider the greatest woman
to ever live. This hadith says she reached
the level of perfection. In the Quran, in
Surah Alai Imran, who was subhanahu, it says
that he chose her over all of the
woman in the in the universe, that she
is the absolute highest level.
Another hadith, she's mentioned amongst the leaders of
the woman of Jannah. And
the biggest sign that she's the greatest of
women is that she's the only one mentioned
by name in the Quran, and there's an
entire surah named after her. Now some of
the scholars ask why does the Quran talk
about so many women but only mentions one
by name? It was to give her a
special status. It was to give her a
special honor to see that she was on
a higher level. So what makes Babi Malai
Salam so special?
There are many qualities of Mami Malai Salam
that made her so special, starting with her
upbringing.
Surah Alai Imran tells us that, Baniyah, alaihis
salaam, even before she was born,
her parents are making dua, oh, Allah, give
us a righteous child.
So from the beginning, we know that she's
growing up in a righteous household. Her mother
and father were righteous people raising up on
this thing, and she grows up to be
a worshipper of Allah
This is a woman who spends her life
in a special corner of of the what
would be the masjid of that time,
just worshiping Allah.
And we and she reached such a high
level of worship and piety
that she experienced karamaat, miracles.
And she had the duas answered immediately.
This is a woman who had miracles and
duas answered immediately. When you think about
the miracles of Mariam Alaihi Salam, of the
Virgin Mary,
we have, for example,
she would have fruit in her apartment that
went out of season.
So the prophet Zakaria alaihi salaam was in
charge of visiting her. And the prophet Zakaria
would come to her to to check her
and see if she's okay and if she
needs anything, And he would find in her
apartment
fruit that's out of season,
which is in that time impossible to get.
Right? Nowadays, sometimes you can import it or
you can freeze it. In those days, it's
impossible to get fruit that's out of season.
Right? So he asked her, and this whole
story is in Surah Alaihi Salam.
Zabdariya, alaihi salam, asked her, how did you
get this?
And she replied, from Allah,
and then she says something amazing. She says,
Allah provides for whoever he wants without limits.
Allah provides
for whoever he wants without limits.
Now a beautiful lesson from this story
is that at this point in time, Mariam
alaihi salaam
inspires Zakaria alaihi salaam. You see, Zakaria, the
prophet Zakaria, he and his wife, they were
tested with not being able to have children.
Anyone who has not been able to have
children know that this is a great test
from Allah. Right? It is human nature that
everyone desires children.
And so they were tested with not being
able to have children. And this went on
for a long, long, long time. Decades, they
could not have children. They are now old,
way past the age of being able to
have children.
But zakariah at that old age,
when Maryam tells him Allah provides without limits
of whoever he wants,
Allah once says
immediately,
Zakariya makes dua.
Immediately upon hearing the words of Maryam being
inspired by the words of Maryam, Zakariya alaihi
salaam beats dua. And he asked Allah for
a righteous child, and Allah gives him a
miracle. He gives him the miracle of his
son, Yahya, who becomes the next prophet.
And so Bariam alaihi salaam, she is
not just someone who grew up in righteousness
and had miracles, but she's someone who inspired
others as well. And we learned from her
that Allah provides with our limits.
And this is something that I want us,
to think about. Each of us have in
our lives
problems that seem unsolvable.
Each of us have in our lives trials
that seem unbearable,
but Allah provides our limits.
Think about that and make du'a for Allah
to solve your problems. Nothing is beyond Allah's
capabilities
to solve.
Madi malayalam
grew up in righteousness, spent her life in
righteousness, and Allah chose her for one of
the greatest miracles that this world will ever
see,
the birth of Jesus, peace be upon
him. Allah
to show us his power to create anything
out of that thing. He created Adam alaihi
salaam with our parents. He created Eve from
Adam without a mother.
And then the third of these perfect miracles,
he creates Jesus
from Mary without the father.
And so this becomes a 3 miracles of
creation to show us that Allah can create
what he wants, how he wants. And it's
a beautiful, beautiful story mentioning about Surah Alai
Imran and Surah Balayam.
I would like you to go and read
it. Read the Arabic, read the translation, sit
and think about this very powerful, very beautiful
story.
Madi malaise salaam, she is in a private
chamber worshiping
an angel comes to her chamber in the
form of a man. She seeks Allah's protection
from this man. And the angel said, I'm
here to give you good news from Allah
that you are going to have a baby.
And she's confused. She's never been married. She
never said, how is she going to have
a baby?
And the angel tells her that this is
for Allah.
And she goes through the process of being
pregnant, of having a baby. Allah gives them
more miracles, that baby becomes one of the
5 greatest prophets.
That baby grows up to be Jesus,
the son of Mary, one of the 5
greatest prophets. And so the mother of Jesus
was one of the women who attained perfection,
and she is a role model for us
in piety. She is a role model for
us in Tawako. She is a role model
for us in making du'a. She's a role
model for us. So what happens when you
raise your children in righteousness?
And so we all should study the life
of Mariam alaihi salaam and take lessons from
her and try to emulate her piety, try
to emulate her dua, try to emulate her
tawakkul because she is the model of perfection
in all of these areas.
The story
of Asiya, the wife of fellow,
is not mentioned in as much detail in
the Quran
as the story of Mariam alaihis salam.
But what is mentioned is deep and powerful,
and he puts on a level of piety
that most of us cannot even imagine.
Asiya is the wife of who is, at
that time, the most powerful man on Earth,
but also the biggest dictator
on Earth, a man who is leading a
genocide against the believers.
To put things in context.
Imagine if the prime minister of Israel's wife
had to convert to Islam.
Right? If the man leading a genocide
against the believers, and his wife converts to
Islam. This is the story of Asiya. Asiya
is the wife of the family,
and
she accepts Islam.
And we don't know the details. There are
multiple narrations in the history books. For most
of them,
we cannot ascertain the authenticity.
Right?
But what they do
show us is that she had accepted Islam
much earlier on, and she kept it hidden
for obvious reasons.
And she's not the only one. Many people
in the household of the pharaoh had accepted
Islam, but they kept
it hidden because they knew that he's going
to kill them if he finds out.
Asia is also responsible,
according to some of the historians,
for raising the prophet Moses, peace be upon
him. That it was
her who
when Moses was a baby and
he was put in the basket and put
in the runway, it got her who found
the basket and, who decided to adopt Moses.
Now I'm not completely convinced about this,
because historically,
there is some difference of opinion whether the
Philom
when that raised Moses and the Philom that
Moses spoke to as an adult whether they
were the same person or not. Right? Because
Philon is a title.
It's a title.
And
according to most historians,
one pharaoh raised Moses and his son who
grew up with Moses is the is the
next pharaoh that Moses confronts as an adult.
So it gets a bit murkier because the
details are unclear. But the Quran doesn't ask
us to go into details about history. It
asks us to take
lessons from history. And so the story of
Asiya is literally confined to a single verse
in the Quran
to drive home one very important lesson.
The issue of martyrdom, the issue of
sacrificing yourself for the sake of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, the issue of standing up to
a tyrant
and speaking the truth regardless of the consequences.
Asia is portrayed as the model of all
of this. The prophet
told us the greatest
jihad is to speak the truth in the
face of a tyrant.
Pharaoh was the greatest of tyrants and Asiya
speaks the truth to his face. As Allah
tells us towards the end of Surat Al
Haram.
Allah gives you the example for all of
the believers in the life of the battle.
When she said, oh my lord, build for
me a house near you in Jannah,
and save me from pharaoh and his deeds,
and save me from these oppressive people.
So it's summarized in 1 verse and one
duab.
The entire story of the wife of the
father, a woman who attained perfection.
What do we mean by attained perfection? One
of the hardest things for any human being
to do is to stand up to a
tyrant ruler knowing that you are going to
be tortured and killed for doing so. This
is one of the hardest things for anyone
to do.
Now if you are the wife of that
tyrant,
you are even more at his mercy.
And if you grew up in that type
of household, with all of those luxuries and
all of that wealth,
you're not psychologically
prepared to be tortured or to be killed.
Right? People who grow up in luxury normally
grow up very soft.
So this is child upon child. This is
like the highest level of someone who has
everything to lose and nothing in this world
to gain from standing up to a tyrant.
Yes. She does so.
Asiya stands up to her husband,
and she tells him that Allah is the
Lord, not him, because Farah claimed to be
God. And she tells him that Allah is
God, not you.
And she faces the consequences for doing so.
She is tortured
brutally and publicly by her husband
for a long time.
His hope is that the more he tortures
her, perhaps at some point she'll break and
she'll accept him as God and things can
go back to normal,
but she refuses to do so.
Interesting point in history and even going on
in the world today with Gaza,
every time tyrants
try to
beat the fate out of people
through torture, through genocide, through any of these
things, not only that it made the fate
of those people stronger, it makes other people
convert to Islam.
And this is what happens here with Asiya
as well. People are witnessing
her fate against the tyranny of her husband,
and she becomes an inspiration for the people.
He said that he tortured her and tortured
her out in public in front of everyone.
And instead of giving up,
she looks up to the sky and she
makes dua.
And she said,
my god, build for me near you a
house in Jannah.
She asked Allah to give her a house
in Jannah. She has given up this world
completely.
She doesn't want anything of this world anymore.
All she wants is Jannah to be near
her, Lord.
And some of the narrations say
that there were miracles she experienced at this
moment that Allah showed her a house in
Jannah.
You see, like, in Karamat that many of
the righteous
experience when they've been tortured or when they
are close to death or when in a
moment where they might give up, that Allah
may show them
Jannah, or they may show them what awaits
them in the Afira if they remain firm.
And so
some of the scholars say that she experienced
this miracle at that time, and that put
her heart at peace.
And this angers the fellow
that no matter how much she he's torturing
this woman, she is getting stronger and stronger
in her fate. And in the second half
of her dua, she says,
save me from pharaoh and his actions.
She frees herself from pharaoh's tyranny and his
genocide. She doesn't want anything to do with
it, and she asked Allah to save her
from being a victim of his oppression.
Persame me from these evil people.
Assia is killed
by the
pharaoh through this torture.
Now, people who think in only terms of
dunya, they may say, she asked Allah to
save her from the pharaoh,
but Allah let the pharaoh kill her.
Now when you think only in terms of
this world, you think, okay, She asked to
be saved
from him, but he killed her.
What's going on here? I mean, see, people
may just ask the same question today about
Gaza. That people in Gaza are asking to
be saved from the Zionists and they still
die.
Well, being saved in Islam
does not necessarily
mean a worldly victory
because she got her house in Jannah.
She got her status as one of the
women of perfection.
She got martyrdom.
That Allah subhanahu wa'ala reminds us in the
Quran that this is the greatest victory.
The greatest victory
is not anything you attain in this world.
But if you get to Jannah with all
of your sins forgiven, if you get to
the highest levels of Jannah, it doesn't matter
what happened in this world, you have attained
the greatest victory.
The story of ASIA is relevant to our
times
because we are living through a time of
genocide,
and many people's fate
is shaken by the genocide that they are
seeing in Gaza and what seems to be
something that's not not ending where it doesn't
seem to have any, you know, hope
that it's going to end anytime soon.
And people are losing faith because of this.
Ask us to look at the story of
Moses
and pharaoh,
and we see that when Asiya is being
tortured and when she is killed, at that
point in time, it doesn't look like there's
any hope.
But a few years later,
the miracle happens
and the tide turns,
and Moses wins. The prophet Goose, alayhis salaam,
wins. And that is how the history of
the world plays out. There will always be
challenges and challenging times where things seem hopeless,
but nothing is ever hopeless. We tie back
into the story of Madiba, alayhis salaam.
Allah provides
for whom he lives without limits.
When the time is right, Allah will send
his victory.
When the time is right, Allah will send
his miracles. When the time is right,
the people of Palestine will prevail, and they
will be victorious.
Until then, this ummah needs to be patient.
We need to have the wakkul. We need
to be optimistic. We need to think good
about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We need to
make du'a, and we need to play our
role
in ensuring that the tide keeps burning in
the favor of the Palestinians
and that Allah
will grant us victory with them, insha'Allah, if
we keep playing whatever little role we can.
Whether it's through dua, whether it's through boycotting,
whether it's through speaking the truth, whether it's
standing up to times, whatever it is, each
of us must play whatever role we can.
And so these two great women, Asiya and
Mariam, are
our role models. Mariam is the role model
of piety and and.
And Assia is the role model of standing
up to a tyrant
regardless of the consequences. And we ask, Allah,
to give us the strength and the piety
to follow in their footsteps and to try
and delight them, and may Allah swan will
make these great women our role models and
allow us to benefit from their legacies and
the legacy of all the great men and
women throughout our history.