Kamil Ahmad – Lessons from the Seerah #70 The Battle of Mutah
AI: Summary ©
The upcoming events at the Sira, including the Battle of Mu' alike, have a history of conflict with Quraysh and Al Harith DS. The appointment of the Prophet sallam Alaihi wa sallam to lead a large army is due to the risk and danger of the conflict and the need for backup leaders. The history of the Prophet sall campaigns, including the appointment of leaders and the use of the term "angreats," has been discussed, including the importance of "angrearts" and the need for a sword of Islam to fight against Muslims. The importance of unity among Muslims is emphasized, and the need for men to be part of a family is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Last week we continued
looking at some of the events that took
place after
Khaybar. And
this time we had moved on to the
8th year after the Hijra.
So we looked
at Umrahul Qaba.
The long awaited Umrah
that the muslims
were
waiting for.
And so we covered that.
And also how the Prophet
married one of his last wives and that
was Maimouna bintulharif
in Mecca while he was there.
And then we spoke about
another
great event
that took place
and that was the Islam of 2 very
very important companions.
And they were Amr ibn al Haws and
Khalid ibn al Walid.
And so today we move on to
the next
most important event
at this time in the Sira and that
is
the Battle of Mu'tah
which took place in the 8th year of
the Hijra.
Now we previously mentioned
that after
the treaty of Hudaybiyah,
Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam now had the opportunity
to focus his attention
elsewhere.
For years, he's been battling against Quraysh,
and then you have
his enemy
in Medina, the Jews.
And now after Khaybar, he's done with both
of these.
And so
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam starts to
focus on
sending
emissaries or messengers
to other places
to give other people dawah.
And
we're gonna talk more about this next week.
The various
messengers and emissaries and letters that the prophet
sent to
various
leaders and kings around the world
inviting them to Islam.
But here what we want to talk about
is one of those.
And
that was his companion Al Harith ibn Rumayr
al Azdih.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sent him with
a letter
to
the leader
of the Arabs
of Basra
which was
a part of Asham.
And in those days, this land was under
the rule
of the Romans
or the Byzantines.
But it was well populated by
the Arabs
And these Arabs were Christians.
Now before
the emissary of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam reaches
his destination.
He was apprehended by one of
the local governors of the Arabs
and
he was detained
and
they killed him.
And this was
around the town of Muhtar,
which is towards the southern part of the
Sham,
in what is today a part of Jordan.
Now
this had never happened before
nor will it ever happen again.
This was the only Messenger of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam who was treated this
way, who was killed.
And this was a red line.
Not only for the Prophet but
the customs and traditions
of nations and civilizations
where
an emissary and a messenger
is never harmed.
You know, this is an ancient custom and
tradition.
Not specific to the Muslims, but among everyone
until this very day.
And so
when Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam heard about what had happened,
In Jumada Al Ula of 8th year, he
mobilized
a huge army
of 3,000 men
to attack the lands
of the Romans.
And so this would be
the first time ever that the Muslims
were gonna face off
against this new enemy.
And it was also gonna be the first
encounter
between the Muslims
and the
Christians.
In fact,
this was the first time the Muslims were
going to face off
against another people
from outside of the Arabian Peninsula.
Now usually,
Rasulullah hilalahu alaihi wa sallam would appoint
1 leader
over
an army or an expedition
that he sends out,
and that's it.
However, this
time, Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam
said
that the amir is gonna be Zayd ibn
Hartha.
If he falls and is killed, then the
second in command would be,
jafar ibn abi Talid.
If he is killed, the third in command
would be,
Abdullah ibn Rawaha.
Now why did the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam do this?
We mentioned
that he would never do this. This is
the only
time it is ever recorded
that
he appointed 3
leaders.
And so it could have been
because of the risk
and the danger that this particular
encounter posed
causing the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam to
take this step of appointing
to back up amirs.
Or it could have been that the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam knew beforehand
that
they would be killed.
In fact, in one narration it mentions that
one of the Jews
came to the Prophet
and said
that
the prophets of Bani Israel,
if they would ever do this, what you're
doing today,
where they would appoint backup leaders,
then it means
that these leaders are gonna fall.
It means they're gonna die.
And so now that we know that the
Prophet
appointed some of his companions over this army,
the question is,
why then is this called a?
First of all,
in the books of Sirat,
it is sometimes referred to as a
and other times it's referred to as
Those who called it razwa
are the likes of the Imam al Bukhari,
in Sahih al Bukhari.
Imam Muslim,
ibn Ishaq,
ibn Hisham, these writers of this era,
and Ibn Qayyim in Zadil Ma'ad.
So
why did they choose to call it a
gazwah?
To call it a sari'ah makes sense.
Now
the difference between the 2 we have mentioned
several times already.
In the books of Sirah,
a refers
to
any
battle in which the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam
participated in.
The prophet
went out and participated in it. Therefore it's
called a ghazwa.
A seriyyah which is an expedition,
it's a military campaign.
It refers to something where the Prophet sends
out men on a military campaign.
He himself does not go out with them.
So Mu'tah,
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not participate
in it.
Then why is it
that these great scholars refer to it as
a razwa?
Some of the scholars say,
the reason for that
is because of its significance
and because of its huge size.
And so because of that, it was given
this, we can say, honorary title
of being called
a razwa.
As we have seen,
are usually small in number,
sometimes a few men.
The most is a couple of 100,
200, 300 men.
But here you
have an army the size of 3,000,
right?
So
because of that, it was called a razua.
So now
the army
left Madinah
and reached
present day
Mahan,
which is a place in present day Jordan.
In those days, as I said, the entire
area of
Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan
was called a sham.
And so they reached
a place called Mahan
and there they received intelligence
that the Romans
had gotten word of their army.
And now they were mobilizing a force to
confront the Muslims.
However,
the news that the Muslims received was not
good.
If they received news that
this is an army
that they're meeting that is
3,000 strong,
it would have been fine.
If they had received news that this is
an army
that is twice their number,
even that would've been fine.
In fact, if we speculate and say that
they receive news
that the army that they were gonna confront
was 10 times their size.
Even that
would not have been a problem.
Why? Because
these are the sahabah of the Prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam
who by now
were well trained.
And when we say well trained, we don't
mean
militarily,
but what we mean by that
is in bravery,
in courage,
in
the power of iman
and tawakkul
and so on and so forth. And
we have seen
what this resulted in, having this, what it
resulted in in the various battles
that they fought and they won
when all odds were against them.
But guess what the news was?
The news that they got
was that they are about to face an
army
of how many?
200,000.
A 100,000
Roman soldiers
in addition
to a 100000
Christian Arabs from those lands.
And so this was
disastrous news.
3,000
versus
200,000.
There's no comparison.
Until
until this very moment, the Muslims had never
heard of such numbers before.
In the past,
the largest force that faced against the Muslims
was
10,000 in the battle of Al Ahzab.
And here they're facing off
against an army of 200,000.
And
who are we talking about?
We're not talking about,
you know, armies that they have faced before.
Various
tribesmen.
Here we're talking about the Roman Empire.
The superpower of the world at that time,
they were
well trained,
well armed,
professional soldiers,
a professional army.
We're not talking about,
you know, tribes and everything.
We're talking about
a professional army from the superpowers of the
world at that time.
And so
when this news reached them,
it demanded
shura.
The Amir Zaydib Al Haritha radiAllahu anhu,
he consulted with some of the prominent sahaba,
and he asked them what should we do.
Some of them said,
let's
send
a message back to Madina, to the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
and ask him what should be done.
Perhaps he can send us reinforcements
or
tell us to do something else.
So let us wait.
Abdullah ibn Rawaha
who
was the 3rd in command,
he said,
what you dislike
is what you have come here for.
He said to them, O Muslims,
what you dislike is what you have actually
come here for.
You dislike death.
But what you have come here for is
shahadafi
sabi lillah, to die for the sake of
Allah.
And so here he was reminding them
of their original objective,
Telling
them that they left their homes
wanting
to die in battle
to attain the status of the shahid.
And so if that is the case
then why are you hesitant?
And then Abdullah Ibra Waaha, he went on
to say,
we are not fighting them by means of
our numbers or our strength.
We are only fighting them with this deen
with which Allah has honored us.
So go forth,
it will only result
in one of the two outcomes.
Either
victory
or a shahada or martyrdom.
And so this now
motivated
the Sahaba
and energized them and gave them the morale
that they needed.
And so they said, by Allah,
ibn Rawaha is right. And so they decided
to go forth
no matter
what the consequences would be. And so
they marched ahead
until they reached
the plains
of Mu'ta.
Now
when they reach there,
and now they see the army in front
of them,
Among the Muslim
ranks was
one of
the new Muslims who had joined them.
And that was
Abu Hurayra radiAllahu anhu.
We mentioned that he had only recently
come
with the delegation
of his
tribesmen,
And he met the Prophet
in Khaybar
only a few months ago.
And so this was his first battle that
he was participating in.
What does he say?
Abu Hurayra says,
I attended the Battle of Muttah.
When the Mushrikoon
came close to us,
when we saw them,
we saw what no one could face
of weapons,
of preparation,
of silk,
of gold.
He says,
my eyes were dazzled.
My eyes were stunned.
And so here Abu Hurairah
is telling us his experience.
He is new to this.
Not only
were the numbers
incomprehensible,
something no one could imagine.
But now the show of force
which is one of the tactics that
these armies use
to bring out
their wealth
and the glitter and the glamour of the
dunya,
and for sure the drums were beating,
to demoralize
the enemy,
to make them think you can't face off
against us, you stand no chance.
And so they came in a show with
all of their numbers,
with their wealth, with their clothings,
their silk, their gold.
As a
result, Abu Hurayrah
was stunned. He couldn't believe his eyes
and the shock
it could be seen in his face.
So
standing next to him
was Sabeth ibn Arqam radiAllahuhan
who was a seasoned Mujahid.
He saw
the reaction of Abu Hurayra
and he said to
him, oh Abu Hurairah,
it seems
that you're seeing a huge force.
Abu Huraira says, Yes, definitely.
Thabit he said,
You were not with us at Badr.
We are not given victory
through numbers.
He said to him,
we Muslims
are not victorious because of
our strength
militarily
or because of our numbers.
And so here he was handing down a
lesson
to his junior, to Abu Hurayra radiAllahu anhu
that
a lesson that is only learned
through experience.
He was telling him
that we Muslims
do not view the world
through a material
worldly lens,
but rather we Muslims we see things differently.
Now
the numbers
at Badr
were nothing compared to what we're talking about
here.
Right?
Then it was 300
Muslims versus
a 1000 of Quraysh.
Only triple their size.
And on top of that, in the Battle
of Badr,
the Muslims had witnessed something.
What had they witnessed?
First of all, it was their first encounter.
Right? The battle of Badri was their first
ever battle.
And secondly, they witnessed
a force from outside of this world
and that is the angels.
And so Thabitib ibn An'akam was telling Abu
Hurairah
to forget about the numbers.
Forget about the show of force.
This is not
going to decide
who is gonna be victorious,
but rather
it is our iman
and our tawakkul in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The higher, the stronger that is,
the more the help of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will be.
And so after that,
the battle started
and Zayd ibn Haritha radiAllahu an,
he was ahead of the army
and not behind them,
and he was carrying
the banner
with courage and leading by example,
And so he marched forth.
In the narration, it says
that he went into the enemy lines
until he was lost in a sea
of horses and soldiers.
He penetrated into the enemy
until you could not see him anymore.
He was immersed
and he was surrounded
by spears coming from every direction
and
swords
stabbing from every corner.
Until
there was Zayd no more.
That's it.
He fell and he was martyred.
So then
the banner was carried by Jafar ibn Abi
Talib radiAllahu anhu.
Remember
that Jafar
had just recently gotten back from Abyssinia.
We mentioned this
last week
or the week before
That
Jaha'far ibn Abi Talib and the Muslims were
living in Abi Sunni and the Prophet told
them to come. And they had arrived while
the while the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
was still
khaibar.
And so
the Prophet
we mentioned when he arrived,
what did he say? He said, I don't
know
which joy I should be more happy about.
Winning
the battle of Khaybar or
the arrival of Jafar.
But yet even then, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam did not keep him with him.
Right away, immediately he sent him off
on this battle.
And so
this was also the first battle for
Ja'far ibn Abu Talib.
He carried the banner
and
in the heat of the battle,
he felt that his horse
was hindering him
and slowing him down
because even the animals, they could sense.
They could sense the enemy
and
it seems as if his horse didn't want
to go any further.
So he dismounted
and he stabbed his horse and he killed.
He killed his own horse.
Now the scholars, they take from this
that it's permissible to do that where
we kill animals.
Obviously, it's haram to kill an animal for
no reason.
And that's why there's strict rules when it
comes to hunting in Islam.
We don't
kill animals for no reason.
And so if we're not gonna eat it,
we're not allowed to kill it.
But here they say
that Ja'far radhiallahuhan,
he did not want the enemy
to use it.
And so that's why he killed it.
It could have been used against us, against
the Muslims.
Anyways,
he gets off the animal, he kills him,
and then he moves forth on his foot.
He fought
until his right arm was severed.
Then he held the banner in his left
hand.
His left hand, his left arm was cut
off.
And then
he held the banner
in whatever whatever was left of his two
arms, hugging,
hugging the flag.
And then
eventually
he was stabbed
and he was killed.
Now later on when
when they found his body, they found
dozens
of stabs
from swords and spears.
Some narrations mention 30, other narrations mention 90.
In Sahih al Bukhari,
Abdullah ibn Rama
whenever he used to mention Ja'far,
he would call
him Dhu al Janakayim,
the man of 2 wings.
Why?
Because Allah replaced his 2 arms
with 2 wings
that he would be flying in
Jannah with.
As we know,
that is the reward of the shahid
that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned.
That the shahid,
his
soul is
in the body
of a green bird
roaming about in Jannah.
Eating from the fruit of Jannah,
drinking from the rivers
of Jannah.
So after that,
the 3rd,
Amir,
'Abdulla ibn Rawaha,
he takes over leadership of the army.
Now,
Abdullah ibn Rawaha,
he was eating some meat that was given
to him
to gain some strength.
As he was eating,
he heard an uproar
from
a certain corner of the battlefield.
What was that? It was basically the Muslims
saying that their second in command had fallen.
So 'Abdulla
ibn Rawaha, he says to himself,
'Are you still immersed in the dunya?'
Meaning this meat that he was eating.
And then he threw it aside
and he jumped into the fray
and he fought until
he also
fell as a shahid.
So now
the 3 leaders who were appointed by Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
were all killed.
Tabitibin Arqam Radhi
Allahu Mohan, who we just mentioned,
who was standing next to Abu Hurayra.
He picked up the banner
and he asked,
'Choose from among you, O Muslims,
a leader to lead us.
He said, Who's gonna be our leader?
So they said, You.
He said, no.
I'm not going to be your leader.
So guess who he gave the banner to?
He gave it to someone
who was also
a first time
in the Muslim ranks.
A new Muslim
who had just joined the Muslims
and the Prophet
sends him out
in this battle.
And that was
Khaled ibn al Walid radiAllahu an.
And so not only would this be the
first battle
that he fights in in the ranks of
the Muslims
but also
the first one that he leads in.
And so they gave it to Khaled ibn
al Walid.
And everyone was satisfied with him being their
their leader, knowing his skills,
knowing his capabilities.
Now
meanwhile,
back in Madinah,
the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
was
receiving the news of the battle live. He
was getting live coverage of what was happening.
From where?
From Jibreel alaihi wasalam.
And so in Sahih al Bukhari,
Anas narrates.
He says, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
was informing the people
about the death
of Zayd,
Ja'far
and ibn Rawaha
before the news of their death had reached
them.
He said with his eyes flowing with tears,
'Izayd took the flag and was martyred.
Then Ja'far took the flag and was martyred.
And then ibn Rawaha took the flag
and was martyred.
Finally,
here the Prophet is telling the companions.
He's saying, Finally
the flag was taken
by one of the swords of Allah. Sayyful
min sufillah.
And Allah gave victory to them.
And so
it was Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
who gave this title
to Khaled ibn Walid.
Last week when we mentioned
the story
of Khalid ibn Walid becoming Muslim, we mentioned
that this was his title. Who gave it
to him in this hadith?
It is the Prophet
who gave him that title.
And so he was the sword of Allah.
On that day,
the Muslims were in need
of a sword of Allah rising
to give them victory.
And Allah gave it to them
through Khaled ibn al Warid.
The Muslims
were in need of a sword of Allah
yesterday
and they are in need of a sword
of Allah today,
in everyday and age.
Rasulullah He Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam went on to
say about
his 3 appointed leaders.
He went on to say,
And it would not please them to be
with us today.
After mentioning that they all fell,
he said,
They would not be happy to return to
us today.
Basically, he was saying that Zayd ibn Haritha
and Jafar ibn Abi Talib
and Abdullah ibn Rawaha
were much happier where they were
in Jannah
rather than remaining in the dunya.
And so they don't want to come back
to us.
They're happy
where
they are.
And so the shahid
does not want to return to the dunya.
Except in one case, the Prophet shawallahu alaihi
wa sallam mentioned in a hadith,
that the shahid would never want to return
back to the dunya because of what he's
enjoying
in the akhirah.
Except
that he would rather come back to the
dunya
to be
killed again.
To get that reward again
and to get more reward,
the more you are slaughtered and slain
in the Path of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
In another hadith
concerning these 3 companions,
one day
Rasulullah
narrated to the companions a long dream that
he had seen.
He was taken by an angel
who showed him different scenes.
At the end of the dream,
he said,
then we we climbed a high place
and I saw 3 men sitting,
enjoying themselves, drinking wine.
I asked, who are these?
They said, these are Jafar,
Zaid,
and Ibn Rawaha.
Then we went to a higher place,
and I saw 3 men.
I asked, who are these?
They said,
these are Ibrahim,
Musa,
and Aisa.
And they are waiting for you to join
them.
And so
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told us
in this hadith
of
where these 3 companions are.
So now
Khalid ibn Walid,
he took the banner
and he started to lead the Muslims in
the battle.
He says about himself,
9 swords broke in my hand that day.
And by the end of the day,
I only had 1
broad
Yemeni
sword that survived with me.
So the question
was not whether
Khalid
could handle the swords
but rather
could the swords handle Khaled?
Imagine that
9 swords
broke
in one day.
What on earth was Khaled ibn alim? What
he doing with these swords?
Obviously, he was killing
his enemy
and he was
butchering them so bad that all these swords
couldn't handle
his strength.
Nonetheless,
no matter how much the Muslims fought,
no matter how much courage
they showed,
they were still massively outnumbered.
And
they needed to quickly figure something out.
So what
Khalid ibn Walid
tactfully did
was
that he planned
a slow retreat.
Again, who are we talking about here?
Khaled ibn al Wayd.
The one who did what he did to
the Muslims in the battle of Uhud.
And so he took them by surprise. He
caught them off guard.
And so Khalid ibn al Walid is
he is a leader by birth.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gifted him with
military
skills
and intelligence.
So he said, we don't we don't stand
a chance against this enemy.'
So what he did is he planned a
slow retreat.
He didn't want
to do a fast retreat because
if he did that, then the enemy would
take advantage of that
and and just come after them and crush
them. Right?
So he made the Muslims to continue to
fight,
to continue to hold on
all the way until
nightfall.
So now that it was nighttime and
there would be no fighting in the dark,
what he did
is by the morning,
he switched up the army.
He took
the right flank of his army
and placed them on the left side.
And he took the left flank
and placed them
on
the right side.
So
when they woke up in the morning
and the Romans saw the Muslim army,
the right flank of the Romans
were seeing a different people in front of
them.
And the left flank of the Romans,
they were seeing new people in front of
them.
And so
they thought
that the Muslims
what's going on here?
They must have received reinforcements overnight.
And so they said to themselves,
if the Muslims were able to hold ground
against us when there are only 3,000 men,
The entire day they're fighting against us
and they were able to hold ground and
they're only 3,000.
Then what are they gonna do today
after having received
reinforcements?
And so now
Khaled, he noticed
that the enemy was confused.
He saw their faces
and he ordered the Muslims to attack right
away.
They attacked
and they just pounce on them
and they scatter them.
And so the Muslims took them by surprise
killing and slaughtering 100 of them,
making them to retreat.
And this
was the victory
that Rasulullah
was talking about
when he said,
Finally the flag was taken by one of
the swords of Allah
and Allah gave them victory.
And so was this battle a victory or
a loss or a defeat?
Well, we have the words of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
It was a fati from Allah.
It was a victory
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So when that happened,
when the Romans started to retreat,
obviously,
you know with their numbers, they could easily
retreat,
regroup
and then come back.
However,
this was a plan of Khalid ibn Walid.
When they started to retreat,
Khalid ibn Walid after attacking them,
he immediately
started to retreat his own army.
Obviously, they're not gonna continue to chase down
the army
of the Romans.
They're too much for them.
So
Khalid ibn al Walid cleverly,
he took this opportunity
to retreat and
they all came back to
Madinah.
Rasulullah
visited
the children of
Ja'far ibn Abi Talib,
and told their mother.
He called on their mother
to bring their children,
to bring her children.
Who was the wife
of Jafar ibn Abi Talib? We mentioned this
in his story
when they made Hijra back to Madinah.
His wife was Asma bint Aramais
radiAllahu anha.
She said, You Rasulullah, I have already bathed
them, washed them,
and oil them. Meaning, they're ready to go
to bed. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he said to bring them.
And so he hugged them
and he
tried to cheer them up
and then tears were filling in his eyes.
Asmaat, she asked,
did something happen?
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, yes.
Ja'far has been murdered.
And so she screamed when she heard this
news.
And Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told her,
if you fear
for your children,
like who's gonna look after them,
then I will be their wali,
I will be their guardian in the dunya
and the akhira.
Meaning, I am responsible for them.
I will take care of them,
not only in this dunya, but I will
also be with them in the akhirah. And
so this was an honor
for the children of Ja'far,
ibn Abiif Palib radiAllahuhan.
Now although Asma
was in deep sorrow
over the death of her husband,
Nonetheless,
after her waiting period, after her Arda was
over,
she was approached by
Abu Bakr
to marry
and she actually agreed.
And they had a child.
He was Muhammad
ibn Abi Bakr.
Then when
Abu Bakr passed away,
Asma ibn Turamis married.
The brother of Jafar.
Who is
that?
Ali ibn Abi Talib.
So now Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr
was brought up in the household of
Adhaali radiAllahu Muhammad.
And they had a very strong relationship.
And Muhammad, the son of Abu Bakr,
was a staunch supporter of Ali radiAllahu an.
And in the Khalafah of Ali radiAllahu anhu,
he appointed him as the governor over Egypt.
Then later
on, in the events that occurred between the
Sahaba,
where you had wars between the Sahaba,
and in the war between Ali Radhi Allahu
Muhammad and Mu'awiya,
Mu'awiya was able to conquer and take
Egypt. And so Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr,
he was chased down to the countryside
of Egypt
where
he was eventually killed.
But the point here is,
look at how
close he was to Ali radhiallahuhan
all the way until the end. He remained
a staunch supporter of of his, and that
is because
he was brought up
in his household.
Now
what were the casualties
of the Muslim army
in the battle of Mu'ta,
one would imagine
that the figure would be very high.
If 3 of their leaders were killed,
then you could only imagine
what would have happened to
many of the companions.
However,
surprisingly
enough
the number of deaths were extremely low.
Ibn Kathir,
he says that the number
of casualties, the number
of martyrs among the Muslims were only 12.
And he comments on this, he says.
So according to these reports,
after he came to the conclusion that there
were only 12, he said according to these
reports,
the total killed should be 12 men.
You know, he says
that this battle that looked like a disaster,
that looked like an annihilation of the Muslim
army,
only 12 men were killed.
Then he said,
2 armies
of opposing faiths.
1
of those fighting for Allah's cause and numbering
3,000 men, and the other of disbelievers
totaling 200,000.
A 100,000 Romans and a 100000 Christian Arabs
battled against each other with the resulting deaths
of only 12 Muslims.
This is truly
amazing.
He says,
And a large number
of disbelievers were killed. So imagine that. Only
12 Muslims were killed but a large number
of the kuffar were killed.
He says, Khalid alone stated
that 9 swords broke
in his hand and in the end only
a broad Yemeni sword remained with him.
So how many
must he have killed
with all those swords?
Not to mention,
all the other brave
soldiers of the Muslims
from those
who were hamalatul Qur'an,
those who
were bearers of the Quran, memorizers of the
Quran,
who killed
those cross worshippers
upon whom be the curses
of Ar Rahman
of Allah at that time
and forever.
So this is
the account of Ibn Kathir
raimahuallahu
ta'ala.
Now before we conclude,
we'll just mention one last
Sharia
that took place
at this time.
The sari'ah known as
that Salasir.
And so only a few days after
the Muslim army returned from Muttah,
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam assembled
another army.
But this was smaller in size,
which was sent
on an expedition to a place called that
Salasil,
which was at a distance of about 10
days travel north of Madinah.
Again, towards the north,
towards
a sham.
But this time, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
appointed
another
companion and he was also
a first time
participating
in a battle.
He is also a new Muslim.
And this was Amr ibn al Ahaz
who we mentioned historian becoming a Muslim last
week.
And so the purpose of this sari'ah
was to punish one of the tribes.
This was a tribe of Qudu'a
for two reasons.
Number 1, because
they had participated
alongside the Romans.
They were one of the
Arab tribes
who had participated
in the Battle of Mu'ta.
And number 2, because they were becoming
more and more hostile towards the Muslims, moving
closer and closer to Madinah with the intention
of attacking the
sari'ah consisted of 300 men.
When they had almost reached their destination,
Muhammad ibn al-'Aas was told that the army
had mobilized a huge army.
So
he
was trying to go slowly,
he was
trying to move carefully,
He would hide during the day
and move during the night. But nonetheless,
word had reached them and so they had
mobilized a huge army.
So he sent a message back to the
Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
asking for reinforcements.
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam immediately sent him
reinforcements
and
this group
came under the leadership
of Abu Ubaydah ibn al Jarrah.
And it also consisted of some of the
big companions,
the likes of Umar and Abu Bakr.
So
with the Muslim army now well equipped
and
well manned,
The fighting began.
However,
when Umar ibn 'Aas
went deep into
enemy territory,
He found that
the opposing army
had broken up
and its soldier its soldiers and its troops
had scattered
in various directions with
each man
trying
to save his own life.
So this is in brief,
this particular military campaign known as
Sariyat
that
Salasil, it took place right after
the Battle
of Mu'tah.
And so we conclude
with a few lessons
from
these two events.
The first lesson that we learn
is
the spirit of sacrifice.
And wanting
to fight for the sake of Allah,
and wanting to sacrifice
your life.
You know, this spirit
that existed among the companions.
We have seen this throughout the Sirah. This
is not the first time.
Nor will it be the last.
And we have seen it once again here
in the battle
of Mu'taa.
History has never recorded
anything like
the high morale
and the high spirit of the Sahaba.
When even
you know, where even when they are
outnumbered the way they were,
they still persisted on
and fought until the end.
You know, even here,
the Battle of Badr was exceptional.
They stood firm and they won that battle.
But here, there's no comparison
between this battle and the Battle of Badr.
Right? But still,
look at how
they reminded one another
and how 'Abdu'l ibn Rawaha came and said,
what are you guys talking about?
You know,
why are you hesitant?
This is why we have come here for.
And this is something that would continue
from that day on, the spirit
among the Muslims and it would continue until
the day of judgment.
As the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam tells
us
that a group
from my Ummah
will continue to fight
in obedience to the command of Allah, 'ala
amrillah,
remaining dominant,
remaining victorious over their enemies.
Those who oppose them will never do them
any harm
and they will remain in this condition until
the day of judgment, until the hour comes.
Meaning,
there will always be a group from the
Umma
until the day of judgment
who will remain fighting in this way
even if the odds are against them.
No matter what the consequences,
they will dig deep.
Why?
Because
they know what it means
and they know what awaits them.
And so what we learn from this battle
is
that Allah's victory,
it comes
when we have this high spirit
and these high determinations
to face off against our enemy.
Victory will not come
if our morale is low
and we look at our enemy as being
mightier
and impossible to defeat.
And this is a lesson that we learn
time and time again.
Look at our Islamic history
and you see this
until the present day.
Look at what's happening
to our brothers and sisters in Palestine,
But they're fighting on. They're facing
an army that is backed by the super
power of the world.
They're outnumbered.
They're out
equipped and yet they are fighting.
And the enemy is admitting
that they have never faced
an army or an enemy like this before.
All other
battles that they had fought against
were against conventional armies.
The Arab states when they fought against
Israel,
they didn't last a few days.
But this time
it's been going on for months
and
they're constantly
being given blows. They're
being given blows
and
they are being defeated.
The second lesson that we learn
is that some battles
are worth it
even if no apparent victory
is achieved.
We already said that the Battle of Mutta
was a victory
as testified by the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. But
if we're observing this battle and we're thinking,
well, it was useless.
What did we achieve? What did the Muslims
achieve out of that?
They achieved alike.
No battle
is fought
and
is useless
without there being any objectives achieved.
And so
in this particular battle, the muslims learnt a
lot.
It was the first time that they encountered
this particular enemy.
And so they learned much about this enemy
that they previously did not know about.
They learned about their land and their terrain.
They learned about their weapons
and their skills.
They learned
about their military tactics.
So now
in the future
when they go to face off
against the same enemy, which they will as
we will see,
they know
how to prepare themselves.
Not only this
but also
this battle
put fear in the hearts of the Romans
as well as their Arab allies
from the various Arab tribes
that had participated.
Not only that,
but it also showed
the rest of the Arabs
that the Muslims
were now
prepared to fight others.
For years, the Muslims were fighting against local
tribes,
but now it was the first time where
they went and fought against
a foreign enemy.
So imagine the impression
on all of the rest of the Arab
tribes that had not yet embraced Islam.
Which is why after this battle,
many tribes started coming
and embracing Islam. They came to Madinah
in delegations and in groups
to embrace Islam.
The third lesson that we learn
is the care
that the early Muslims had
for Muslim women
and particularly
widows.
We see this from the life
of Isma'binturumayis
In fact, we see it from the life
of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself
and the various women that he married.
We mentioned this when we covered the various
marriages of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
We mentioned how
many of the women that he married,
they were old in age.
They were widows.
They were left alone.
And so the Prophet
he cared about his companions.
Likewise,
the Sahaba radiAllahu anhu.
No woman
in that society
would ever be left behind.
If anyone was divorced,
she would
immediately be married right after her hidah.
If any
if any woman was widowed
right after she's done her her waiting period,
she would be approached and she would be
married.
They would not allow any Muslimah
to be left alone, unmarried.
And
this tradition,
it cannot be revived
unless we Muslims
accept
polygamy,
unless it is promoted and accepted.
And so it's important for every
man and woman to be a part of
a family.
This is how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala created
us.
So in these days,
or rather in those days,
Muslim men would marry
Muslim women
whether they were divorced, whether they were widowed
or whether they were old.
It didn't matter.
But unfortunately today,
Muslim men are looking for only
young women.
It's a taboo to marry an older woman
or a woman who is divorced, or a
woman who is widowed.
Likewise,
it is a taboo
for a man to marry more than 1
wife.
In fact, many women,
they won't accept it.
As a result
we have seen
what do we see today in our Muslim
communities?
Numerous Muslim women
who are single
and unable to get married.
We find this. So many are unable to
get married
for these reasons.
However,
this was not the case in the past.
And we see it from the life of
Asma'a bintur Meis.
Her husband Jafar ibn Abi Talib passes away,
Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu marries her. He passes
away,
Ali ibn Abiutalib radiAllahu anhu
he marries her.
Never was a woman left
alone, unmarried.
Finally, the last lesson that we'll mention,
the importance
of unity among the Muslims,
We learned this from 2 incidents.
The first is in the Battle of Mu'tah
when Thabit
ibn Arqam took the banner
and said that,
'O Muslims,
appoint a leader among you. Our 3 amirs
have fallen.
The 3 appointed
leaders that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
appointed, they have all fallen.
We can't continue like this.
Someone has to raise the banner, someone has
to step forward and lead us.
So
he saw the importance of having a leader
and how we could not continue
divided. We have to unite
with 1 leader.
And we also see this
in the sariyah of that is Salasil that
I just mentioned.
When Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam sent the reinforcements
under the leadership of Rubaydah ibn Jalrah,
he gave him strict orders
to work together with
Muhammad ibn al Ghaz
and
not to become disunited.
So when Abu Hurbaydah
reached,
and it was now time for salah.
So the 2
groups
were together now.
The first group was under the leadership of
Amr ibn al-'Aas. The second group
which contains
Abu Bakr and Umar
under the leadership
of Abu Ubaydah
ibn Jalrah. When the time of salah came,
Abu Ubaydah he stepped forward
to lead salah.
He thought, you know, I'm the leader.
But Hammur ibn al-'Az came to him and
stopped him.
He said,
you have only been sent as reinforcements.
I am the leader.
So how did Abu Ubaydah ibn al Jarrah
react?
Did he start to argue with him?
Did he say no to Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam sent me as a leader?
No, instead
he gave in
and he said,
yes you are our leader. And he let
him to lead them in salah.
And so
even though,
Muhammad ibn Al-'Az
just became Muslim yesterday.
There's no doubt
that Abu Ubaydah
is more knowledgeable than him.
You have Abu Bakr, you have Umar. They're
more knowledgeable.
But yet
Abu Ubaidah bi al Jarrah,
he told him go ahead lead us in
salah.
And so this shows us
the importance
of having a leader and following the leader
even if he may be
lower than us.
Whether in his deen
or in his knowledge.
As long as he is the rightfully
appointed leader of the Muslims,
then he deserves to be followed
and obeyed in that which falls in line
with Islamic teachings
and laws.
Not if he
commands something which is in disobedience to
as the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam says
that there is no ba'
there is no obedience
to anyone
if it involves disobedience
of the creator Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so we'll continue next week. Subhanahu wa
bihamdik.
Ashhadu Allah ilaha illa and astaghfirukawatubu
rik. FasallAllahu malaalani biyanam Muhammad