Kamil Ahmad – Lessons from the Seerah #71 Sending Letters to Kings
AI: Summary ©
The transcript discusses the history of the Sira during the AD capital, including Heraclius' actions during court cases, including l lies about the Prophet's lineage and promises. Heraclius' actions during a trial and actions of worshipping Allah alone and not respecting promises were also discussed. The speaker provides insight into Heraclius' actions and answers questions about faith and history, including the lack of evidence of his actions and promises. The discussion also touches on Heraclius' actions and the spread of Islam in Yemen, including his actions to obtain the throne and hold a common word for peace. The importance of writing letters to leaders of different parts of the world and the history behind them is emphasized.AI: Transcript ©
Last week we covered
the Battle of
Muqtah.
We spoke about what led to this battle,
The uniqueness of it,
how it was the very first time the
Muslims were encountering this particular enemy,
the Romans
and the Christians
and how Rasulullah, his salallahu alayhi wasalam prepared
the army
appointing
3
leaders, 2 backup leaders
and the difficult circumstances
of this particular battle
of how the numbers of the enemy were
extremely
high.
There was no comparison.
And then we spoke about how the battle
ensued
with
1 leader of the Muslims
falling one after the other,
the 3 leaders that the prophet shalallahu alaihi
wa sallam had appointed. And then how
in the end Khaled ibn Walid
radiAllahu alaihi
took over
and skillfully
ended
this battle with victory.
And then we
mentioned
one other military campaign, one other seriyyah expedition
that took place during this time
and that was
Sariyat
Dat
Salasil
and that was under the leadership of
Qa'amr ibn al Hus
radiAllahu 'al.
We now move on to another important part
of the Sira
during this period of time
And that is
reaching out
to the kings
of the world
and
expanding
the reach
of the Dawah
by sending
letters with
envoys,
with emissaries,
with
messengers.
Now
there is a difference of opinion among the
scholars and the writers of Sirah
as to when exactly
this took place.
And so some say that it happened as
soon as the prophet returned
from Hudaybiyah.
So as soon as he returned from Hudaybiyah
we mentioned
that
he went to Khaybar
and that was the Battle of Khaybar.
So many say it was during this period
of time
and that would be
in the beginning of 7th year
of the Hijra because Hudaybiyyah was at the
end of the 6th year.
Others say
that these letters were sent out
a year after. So after Umratul Qabal.
And so that would put it in
somewhere in the 8th year
of the Hijra. And we mentioned that the
Battle of Mutah that we spoke about last
week was
in the middle of 8th year
of the Hijra.
Other writers, they don't really mention
a particular time frame.
They just mentioned that these letters
were sent out
sometime between
Al Hudaybiyah and the death of the Prophet
Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam.
Now one day,
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam got onto the member
And after praising Allah,
he said,
I want to send some of you
as messengers
to foreign kings.
And then he said,
do not dispute among yourselves concerning me
like Bani Israel
did concerning
Aisa
ibn Maryam.
So the Muhajirun,
they said, You Rasulullah,
we would never dispute
concerning You over anything.
Command us to go forth.
Now why would
the Prophet
say this
when he was planning on sending some of
them off to foreign kings.
This was now a new chapter in the
seerah and
it was a new stage in the stages
of the dawah.
Islam was now being brought
onto the international scene
and it was going to challenge
the international politics
and the sovereignty of nations.
And so Rasulullah hissalallahu alaihi wasallam was now
going to send
letters to leaders and kings of the world
telling them
what?
That you have to follow me.
Telling them to hand over the rule
of Allah from created beings
to the creator of the creation.
And so we can see how significant this
event was.
As such, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wanted
to warn the Muslims
not to do what Bani Israel did before
him,
disputing
and debating
about
'Isa Salaam.
You see, many Israel
in the time of 'Isa,
they were living under kings.
They were not living
a semi
autonomous and independent life
that the Arabs were accustomed to.
Right? The Arabs,
they were never
living under
a tyrant or a king.
They had freedom.
Whereas Bani Israel,
they were living under tyrants
and strict rule of kings.
And
the true message of A'isai alaihis salam was
changed
because of kings
and they tried to kill him because
of Kings.
And the disputes that arose among Bani Israel
and the different sects
that came afterwards,
the different sects of Christianity
was all because of the interference
and the involvement of kings.
Even the Trinity,
right?
The Trinity became
enshrined in
Christian ahuqeedah
many centuries later
as a result of a king.
The council of Nicaea where
the Roman Emperor, he got all the priests
together
and he said, we have to decide something
and so
he put this into law.
And anyone who disagreed,
they were persecuted
and there were some priests and some Christians
who disagreed.
They said no.
Alyssa
is not God.
Right? The point here is
that
the Kings had a lot to do with
how the message of Isa Alaihi Wasallam and
the religion that he left behind
was altered and was changed. And so now
Rasulullah hissalallahu alaihi wa sallam
would be writing to these kings
who were not very different
than the kings of yesterday.
And most of them as we're gonna see,
they were Christians.
So Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam wanted to give
the companions
a warning
before sending them off to deliver
these letters.
And so let's go through
some of these letters that were sent by
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
to some of
the kings of the world at that time.
We start with
his letter to Qaysar
'Avi' Marum, the Caesar of Rome.
His name was
or
Heraklius.
And he was
the
Emperor of
the Eastern Roman Empire
which is also known
as Byzantine.
He started off as a military commander
but he moved up he moved himself up
to eventually become
the supreme military commander and
the emperor
of the Roman Empire
and this was
in 610
during the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
And this happened at a time when the
Roman Empire was going through a very difficult
time.
A time when their rivals
Who were their rivals?
The Persians.
The Persian Empire was pounding them
and they were suffering
defeat after defeat,
losing
territory after territory to the Persians.
And so in
6/13,
Damascus fell, the Mishkh.
A year later,
Jerusalem fell
and the Persians even confiscated
what is known as
the true cross.
This is the cross that they claim
that 'Isaiah alaihi wasalam was crucified
on.
And it's supposed to be the most holiest
relic of the Christians.
So the Persians took it.
Now
Heraclius was
a skilled military commander
and he now became the emperor.
And in 6/21,
he led a campaign to fight back
and regain all this lost territory from the
Persians.
He was so successful
that he not only
took back one city after the other
from
their own territory,
but he also entered Persia
and started conquering
parts of their land.
Now both
of these
incidents,
the defeat of the Romans
by the Persians
and
the subsequent
victory of the Romans over the Persians.
Both of these were mentioned by Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
in the Quran
because both of these took place
while the Qur'an was being revealed.
What does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say?
The Romans have been defeated by who? By
the Persians.
This is when the Persians were
just rolling
into Roman territory.
But then after that, Allah says, fi adin
al arudi.
What does Allah say after that? In
the nearest land, and this refers to a
sham.
Allah says, But they after their defeat, the
Romans after their defeat,
they will overcome. They will be victorious.
How long will it take?
Within a few years.
Means 3 to 9 years.
And so here Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala told
his Messenger
about
the Persian victory over the Romans,
but he also promised that the Romans
would come back within
a span of 10 years.
And that is exactly what ended up happening.
That is exactly what ended up happening.
And so in 6:30,
Heraclius reached the peak of his power
and he was victorious
and he regained all the lost territory
from the Persians,
and then now he made a vow or
before that he made a vow.
He had made a vow that if he
was victorious,
he would walk barefoot
to Jerusalem
as a pious Christian,
so it was a pilgrimage.
And now it was time to fulfill
that vow.
And so he arrived in Jerusalem
and he was given a grand reception
with people laying all carpets and throwing flowers
on him.
And then he returned the true cross.
He got it back from the Persians and
he returned it to his to his place.
And guess what?
While he was in Jerusalem, this
is when
he receives the letter
from the Prophet
The Prophet
had appointed
the companion Dihyah
al Kalbi,
radiAllahu an, to carry his letter to Heraclius.
And
this
was now going to be the beginning
of the end
of not only Heraclius
but also
the Roman Empire
at the hands of the Muslims.
After the death of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
Heraclius
would suffer defeat after defeat
at the hands of the Muslims
under the leadership of the Khilafa' rashidun, Abu
Bakr, then Umar radiAllahu anhu.
Until he loses all of Asham,
all of Egypt,
eventually eventually
the entire Roman Empire would fall
to the Muslims centuries later.
The closing chapter was
the fall
of Constantinople
to Muhammad Al Fatiha.
Anyways, when Heraclius
received the letter from Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and read it,
He told one of his deputies,
I want you to go and turn Syria
upside down
until you bring me a man
from his people.
He wanted someone from Quraysh.
So his forces,
they went out in search of anyone from
Mecca
who happened to be
visiting Hashem.
So guess who they find?
They find
Abu Sufyan
with some of his men
who had come
with a trade caravan
to Assam. They were actually found in Gaza.
And
they were brought
to Jerusalem
to meet the Roman emperor.
So they were summoned
before Heraclius
and a very, very interesting
conversation
ensued.
The story of this conversation is actually narrated
by Abu Sufyan.
He narrated it
to 'Abdullah ibn Abbas
radiAllahu alaihi.
This was many many years later.
And the entire
conversation, the entire story is found in Sahih
al Bukhari and other books of hadith.
Ibn Abbas, he says,
Abu Sufyan,
he informed me
that Heraclius
had sent a messenger to him while he
had been
accompanying a caravan from Quraysh.
They were merchants doing business in a sham.
And this was at the time when Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had a truce
with Abu Sufyan and the Kuffar of Quraysh.
What was this truth?
The truth of Hudaybiyah.
So it was during this period of time.
So Abu Sufyan and his companions went to
Heraclius
and met him at Ilia which is
the other name for Jerusalem.
Heraclius called them in the court
and he had all the senior Roman dignitaries
around him.
He called for his translator
and
he asked them to translate
for him.
He said,
Who among you is the most closest
to the man who claims to be a
prophet?
So Abu Sufyan replied,
I am the closest to him, in terms
of blood relations.
Heraclius said,
bring him close to me
and make his companions to stand
behind him.
Abu Sufyan says,
Heraclius told his translator
to tell my companions
that he wanted to ask me some questions
regarding
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And that
if I happen to tell a lie,
my companions behind me should signal to him.
Abu Sufyan says,
by Allah,
had I not been afraid of my companions
calling me a liar,
I would have I would not have spoken
the truth about
Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam. And so he
was afraid of his reputation
being tarnished.
That if he lied about the Prophet SAW
Alaihi Wasallam,
then news would go around back to Mecca
that Abu Sufyan lied.
Even though they are his enemies,
they're enemies of the Prophet
But this shows you
how
they cared about their reputation
and their honor.
They didn't want it to be tarnished.
So
the first question that he was asked, he
says,
he asked me,
what is his family status among you?
What is his lineage?'
I replied,
he belongs to a good and noble family
among us.
Heraclius said,
has anybody among you ever claimed something similar?
Meaning,
claimed to be a prophet.
I replied, No.
He said,
Was anybody
among his ancestors
a king?
I replied, No.
He said, Do the nobles
or the poor among you follow him?
I replied, 'It is the poor who follow
him.'
He said,
'Are his followers
increasing
or decreasing
day by day?'
I replied, they are only increasing.'
He then asked,
Does anybody
among those
who accept his religion
become displeased,
become dissatisfied,
and end up abandoning his religion?
Later on,
I replied, no.
Heraclius said,
Have you ever accused him of telling lies
before he claimed to be a prophet?
I replied, no.
Heraclius said,
does he break his promises?
Does he behave treacherously
where he makes a promise and then he
breaks it? I replied, No.
And I
said, We are currently in a truce with
him,
but we don't know
what he intends to do.
Abu Sufyan says when he said this, he
says, I couldn't find a chance to say
anything against him, against the Prophet
except this.
Meaning,
it was impossible for me to lie. I
wasn't gonna lie,
but this is all I could have put
in there.
He says, we're currently in a truce.
He knows the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would
never break his
his word.
He knows the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is
not gonna break the treaty between him and
Quraysh,
but he said, we don't know, meaning he
could.
He says this is all I was able
to put in.
Heraclius asks,
have you ever fought him?
Have you ever had a war with him?'
I replied, 'Yes.'
Then he said, what was the outcome of
those battles?'
I replied, Sometimes he was victorious and other
times we were victorious.
Heraclius says,
What does he command you with?
What does He
teach?
I said, He tells us to worship Allah
alone without
worshiping anyone along with Him, and to renounce
all
that our ancestors
had said.
He orders us to pray, to speak the
truth, to be chased
and to keep good relations with both our
friends and our relatives.
Then after asking all these questions,
Heraclius,
he started responding to each one of these
questions.
He starts telling Abu Sufyan
why he asked why he did.
And so he says,
'I asked you about his family
and your reply was that he belonged to
a very noble family.'
He says, in fact all the Prophets,
they come from noble families among their respective
peoples.
Then I asked you
whether anyone
else among him
claimed such a thing before him,
And your reply was in the negative.
If
the answer was yes,
I would have thought that this man is
simply imitating someone before him.
Then I asked you whether any of his
ancestors
was a king
and your reply was in the negative.
Had you said yes,
I would have thought that this man wanted
to take back
his ancestral
kingdom.
I further asked
whether he was ever accused of telling lies
before he said what he said,
and your reply was in the negative.
So I wondered
how a person who does not ever tell
a lie in his life
about others
could possibly
make up a lie
about Allah.
I then asked you whether the rich people
followed him or the poor?
And you replied that it was the poor
who followed him.
In fact,
all the prophets have been followed
by this very class of people.
Then I asked you whether his followers were
increasing or decreasing?
And you replied that they were increasing.
In fact,
this is the way of true faith, of
true iman
until it is complete
in all respects.
I further ask you whether there was anybody
who after embracing his religion became displeased
and left his religion and your reply was
in the negative.
In fact, this is a sign of true
faith.
When its delight enters the hearts
and mixes with the hearts,
it reaches that level.
Meaning,
it reaches a level where
nobody wants to give it up because
of the sweetness of iman
that the person experiences.
I then asked you
whether he had ever lied or broken his
promise
or betrayed you, and your reply was in
the negative.
Likewise,
the Prophets do not betray. They don't go
back on their word.
Then I asked you what he orders you
to do
and you replied that he orders you to
worship Allah alone without associating any partners with
him,
and that he forbade you from worshiping idols,
and that He orders you to pray, to
speak the truth, and to be chased.
He says after all these,
He says,
If
what you have said is true,
then he will soon occupy this place
underneath my feet.
And
I knew
beforehand, meaning
from his knowledge of the scriptures.
He says, I knew
that he was going to appear.
There was a Prophet that was coming. I
knew he was gonna come but I did
not know that he would be from among
you.
Meaning, he thought that he would be
from Dani Israel.
He didn't know it would be a Prophet
from the Arabs.
He says, and if I could reach him,
I would go immediately
to meet him.
And if I was with him,
I would wash his feet.
And so this shows us
how intelligent and wise
and educated
Heraclius was.
He was not some
uneducated,
ignorant fool.
He was a learned man
who knew history very well.
And based on the information that he was
given,
he knew that Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
was indeed a true prophet from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Heraclius then asked for the letter
addressed by the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
which was delivered
by Dihyah
Al Kalbi. He had actually delivered it to
a governor,
the governor of Busra,
who forwarded it to Heraclius
to read.
So
he had it read.
And what were the contents of the letter?
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam writes
in the name of Allah, starts with Bismillahir
Rahmanir Rahim, in the name of Allah the
Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.
This letter is from Muhammad,
the servant of Allah
and his messenger to Heraclius,
the ruler
of the Romans.
Salamun aalamaniktabaalhuda.
Salam
be upon
the one who follows right guidance.
Notice how
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did not
say, assalamu alaikum,
because he was a kafir.
Instead he said, Salam be upon the one
whoever follows the guidance.
Meaning, if you follow this guidance,
may peace be upon you. But if you
don't follow it, then there's no peace for
you.
And then he said, 'I invite you to
Islam
and if you become a Muslim,
you will be safe.
Aslimtaslim.
And
then Allah will double your reward.
But if you reject this invitation of Islam,
you would be committing a sin.
You would be held responsible
for
the sins of Al Arisiyyin.
Who are Al Arisiyyin?
Basically,
they are the farmers
and this was the title
of the Romans.
This is what they were known as because
they were an agricultural people.
Then the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
wrote the ayah from Surah Ali Imran.
Say, O people of the Book, let us
come to a common word
that we will worship Nun by Allah, associate
Nun with Him, nor take one another as
lords besides Allah.
But if they turn away, meaning if Ahlul
Kitab turn away,
then say to them, 'O Muhammad,
at least you bear witness that we have
submitted.
At least bear witness that we are Muslims.
Abu Sufyan then says,
when Heraclius
had finished
the letter,
there was
a huge uproar in the court.
The people started making noise,
The Romans, the dignitaries, the seniors.
He says,
so we were now driven out of the
court
And then I turned to my companions who
were with me
and I told them
that
the Umar
of ibn Abi Kabsha.
Who is ibn Abi Kabsha? This was
the name they used to give to the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He says the affair
of the Prophet
has become
so prominent
that even
the king of Bani al Asfar,
the king of the pale skinned, meaning the
Romans,
even he is afraid of him.
Abu Sufyan says,
Then I started to become more and more
certain
that he
salallahu alayhi wa sallam
was going to prevail
and that he was gonna be victorious
in the near future
until I eventually embraced Islam.
Abu Sufyan is saying
that
this was the turning point in his life
where he started to realize
that
that's it,
you know, it's over with.
If even
the great roman empire
is afraid of him. And that's it. Soon
we're gonna be done
and the Muslims are gonna be at the
doors of the Roman Empire,
which is exactly what ended up happening.
Now,
the sub narrator of the hadith,
he adds
that once while Heraclius was visiting Jerusalem,
he got up in the morning
in a very sad mood.
Some of his priests asked him
what was wrong.
He says that Heraclius was a fortune teller
and an astrologer.
And he said, At night, when I looked
at the stars,
I saw
that the leader of those
who practice circumcision
had gained victory.
So
Heraclius asks,
who are those who practice circumcision?
So they told him,
we don't know anyone who does that except
for the Jews.
So there's no need to be afraid of
the Jews.
It'll just give us orders to kill every
Jew who's present in the country.
He says
while they were discussing this,
a Messenger sent by the King of Rasan
to convey
the letter of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
to Heraclius was brought in.
And then having heard
the news,
Heraclius ordered
the people to go
and see whether
the messenger of
the
king of Rasan was circumcised.
So they went
and after chasing him down, they found
that he was circumcised.
Heraclius
then
asked him about the Arabs. Now he was
curious about the Arabs.
The messenger replied
that
the Arabs also circumcised.
So after hearing this,
Heraclius
said
that
the Arabs are gonna be victorious.
They're gonna prevail.
And then
he wrote a letter
to one of his friends back in Rome
who was as knowledgeable as he was of
the scripture
and then he went to the city of
Homs
in Sham.
And he stayed there until he received the
reply of his letter from his friend
who agreed with him
in his opinion about
the emergence
of the awaited Prophet.
And that he is, that Muhammad is
the Prophet that we have been waiting for.
When he got this news,
Heraclius,
he summoned
all the heads
of the Romans
who were with
him in his palace
and when they were all together.
He told the guards
to lock the doors
and then he came out and he said,
oh Romans,
if you want to be successful,
and if
you want to follow right guidance,
and if you want your empire to remain
in your hands,
then give me a pledge of allegiance
to this Prophet.
When the people heard this,
they ran to the gates
of the palace
trying to leave. In another narration, it mentions
that they all came to him with their
swords,
wanting to kill him.
And then
Heraclius, when he realized
their hatred for Islam,
and when he lost hope
of embracing Islam himself,
he told them, Come back, calm down.
And he said,
I just wanted to test you.
I just wanted to test you
to see
how strong you are on our religion.
And then he says
that I have seen it.
The narrator of the hadith, and this is
all mentioned in Sahih al Bukhari.
The narrator of the hadith he says, and
this was the end of
the story
of Heraclius.'
Now in another narration,
it says that after after all of this,
Heraclius
sent a letter back with Dihyah,
the messenger of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
addressed to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He sent him a letter addressed to him
saying him that I have accepted Islam.
I have become Muslim.
He also sent with him some gold coins.
When Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam received a letter and read
it, what did he say?
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
Kadaba 'adu Allah.
He said,
The enemy of Allah has lied.
He is not a Muslim.
Rather he is still upon Christianity.
So the Prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam obviously,
he knew that from
from Jibreel.
And so
this was
the story of
Heraclius,
the Emperor
of Rome. We move on
to the next letter that the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam sent
and that was
his letter
to Kisra
of Persia.
Kisra is the title
of the King of the Persians,
just like
Caesar or Qaysr
is the title of the King of the
Romans.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sent this letter with
his companion Abdullah ibn Khudafa
Assehmi radiAllahu anhu an and it was read
to him as follows.
Bismillahir
Rahmanir Raheem,
from Muhammad,
the messenger of Allah, to Kisra,
the ruler of Persia.
Peace be upon those who follow right guidance.
Believe in Allah and His Messenger
and testify
that there is none worthy of worship besides
Allah,
the one and only true God
without partner
and testify
that Muhammad
is his servant and messenger.
He then said, I invite you with the
call of Allah
for indeed I am Allah's messenger
to all of
mankind
to warn those who are alive
and so that there is certainty,
meaning of punishment
against the disbelievers.
Accept Islam and you will be safe.
But if you
refuse,
you will shoulder the sins
of the Medians
and Majus,
which were the people of Persia.
Now, how did Kisura react?
What was his reaction? We saw the reaction
of
Heraclius,
Halbuq hisuram.
His reaction was different.
He was furious.
He was angry.
He said,
How dare he write this sort of letter
to me
when
he is my servant?
Now at that time,
the Persians
had invaded Yemen.
So Kisra,
he sent orders
to his governor
in Yemen, his name was Badan,
to send 2 strong men
to arrest Muhammad salallahu
alayhi wa sallam.
Look at the arrogance
and the pride.
And look at how they used to look
at the Arabs.
They used to consider them their slaves.
He said, how dare
he write me a letter like this when
he is my slave?'
Why?
Simply because
the Arabs were simple people
and they didn't have the kind of empire
and kingdom that he had.
So Badan,
he sent
2 of his strongest men
all by themselves.
They didn't even need,
you know, a force.
They said how proud and arrogant they were.
He sent 2 strong men
all the way
to meet the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
When they arrived
in T'af,
they asked where
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was,
and the people there,
they told him that he was in Madinah.
And now because Taif is very close to
Mecca,
news have reached
Quraysh
and this news was exciting for Quraysh.
You know, imagine they said, that's it.
You know, this is the end
of the Muslims.
You have the Persians now coming after him.
So now these 2 men, they proceed
to Madinah
and they arrive and they meet the Prophet
They
said to him,
Kisra,
the King of Kings,
has written to Badan,
his governor of Yemen,
commanding him to send us
to take you to him.
If you comply,
then Badan will write to the King of
Kings
interceding on your behalf.
This will spare you a great deal of
trouble.
But if you reject his order,
then you know how powerful he is.
He is sure to destroy you and your
people as well as your country.
How did the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam react?
He said,
you know, look at the reaction of the
Prophet
He didn't even care about what they were
saying.
Why? Because of something he saw.
He said,
Who told you
to shave your beards?
These 2 men, they were clean shaven
and they had long mustaches.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he didn't
like their appearance.
That was bothering him. He didn't even care
about what they were saying.
So they said,
Our Lord is the one who ordered us
to do so.
So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
he said, As for my Lord, then he
has commanded me to grow a beard and
trim my mustache.
Anyways,
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam then told them
to wait
until the next day. Then
when he met them the next day,
he said to them,
Last night,
my Lord
killed your Lord.
They said,
Do you realize what you're saying?
Your arrest has been ordered
for something much less trivial
than this?
Do you wish us to write all of
this down
and inform Badan of what you have just
said?
They were saying,
what you are now saying is much more
serious.
Before, we were arresting you for
something much less.
You're talking about our king in this way?
So what did the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
say? He said, Yes.
Go ahead.
Also tell him on my behalf
that my religion
and my kingdom will replace that of Kisra
and will sweep everything before
him. Also,
tell him that if he accepts Islam,
I will give him what he currently has
under his authority and I will make him
a ruler in the area that he now
governs.
So these 2 men were in shock.
They couldn't believe what they were hearing.
They went back to Badan
and informed him of what Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had told them.
Now
Badan
was different than Kisra.
He was an intelligent man.
He said,
These words are not that of a king.
These words
are the words of a prophet.
But he said, Let's wait and see what
happens.
Meaning
he wanted to wait
and so he sent a letter
back to Persia
and he wanted to wait for a reply.
So a while later,
he receives a letter
from Persia.
The letter he receives is that Kisra has
been killed
on the exact same night
that was mentioned by the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
Right then and there,
Badan,
he accepts Islam.
He knew
that no one could claim such information
except for a prophet who is getting news
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And they say this is what
started
the spread of Islam in Yemen. So he
was the governor,
he was a ruler over Yemen and this
is how Islam started to spread there.
So
what exactly happened back in Persia?
Due to the suffering defeat
against the Romans, we mentioned
that the Romans now were sweeping
the Persians
and they were
regaining
the territory that was taken away from them.
Heraclius
was
the military commander.
Due to suffering heavy losses,
there was a major uprising
against Kisra
carried out by members of his own family.
His own son
rises
to attack him and kills him,
and now he takes over
and he becomes the new Kisra.
And this murder, it occurred,
it's mentioned in the books of Sira, it
occurred in
on 10th of Jumad Al Ula in the
7th year of the hijrah.
So the
new Kisra now, the son,
he sends a letter to Badan
telling him,
I killed my father because of what he
had done to our noblemen,
and I want you
to stop taking action
against this man.
Meaning,
the Prophet
Because the previous order of the father was
to arrest him
and he said, Let's wait.
Let's just keep an eye on him, but
don't do
anything
to him.
And so this was a story of
the letter of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam sent to
Kisra,
the Emperor
of Persia.
The next letter
is a letter of the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi
wa sallam to
Al Muqawqis
of Egypt.
And so Al Muqauqis
was the governor of
the Coptic Christians
of Alexandria, specifically this area of Egypt.
And so he was under the Roman Empire
but he had his own,
his own kingdom.
And he, like Heraclius,
was educated
and he was a learned man.
Rasulullah
sent the letter with his companion, Haukud
ibn Abi Beltah and
it was presented to
Al Muqawqis
and it was read.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam began with
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
and then he said from Muhammad ibn Abdullah
to
Al Muqawkes,
the ruler of the Copts.
The same format the same format.
Peace be upon those who follow the right
guidance.
And then he says,
I wish to convey
to you the message of Islam.
Accept Islam and you will be safe.
Accept it and Allah will give you a
double reward.
Should you turn your back on it, you
will shoulder the sins
of the cops.
And then
the same ayah
until the end of the ayah,
where Allah says, oh people of the book,
let us come to common terms
that
we will worship Allah alone,
etc.'
After al Muqawqqis
heard
what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had to
say,
he said
to Haltib, the Messenger,
he said, 'I have some questions for you
and I want you to help me understand.
Haldoub said, please ask.
Mukaoka
said, tell me about your master.
Isn't he a prophet?
Haltub said, yes, of course.
So mukaqas said, If so,
then why did he not pray
to Allah
to have his people destroyed
since they drove him out of his homeland?
So Haltib radiAllahu anhu
was extremely intelligent,
he said,
well,
take the example of the Risa ibn Maria.
Do you not bear witness
that he is Allah's messenger?
Umqaukrish said, yes.
So haldib said, well what about him?
When his people took him
and wanted to crucify him,
could he not have prayed
to Allah for the destruction
of his people when Allah
took him up to the heaven?
Mukulqas
said,
You are
a wise man
who has come from a wise man.
And then he said, 'These are some gifts
I'm sending with you to Muhammad
and I am sending
a guard with you who will accompany you
to safety.
And He sent him with all kinds of
gifts.
And so his reaction was polite
but
he did not become a Muslim.
Among the things that he had sent
with Hadiq
as gifts for the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
was 2 valuable
slave girls
from among the Copts.
One of them was
Maria,
al khatbiyah.
And the prophet
took her for himself
and he kept her as a slave.
So he did not free her
and then marry her like he did with
other women
but he kept her
and in fact she gave
birth to
the son of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam Ibrahim,
who did not survive.
He passed away while he was still a
child.
The other one was given to Hassan ibn
Tabit
the poet of the Prophet
So these were
the letters that Rasulullah
wrote
to the kings and the leaders of his
time,
some have been preserved
and are present until this very day.
And so some of these letters,
they
have been found and they have been preserved
and kept, they can be found in some
of the museums of the world today.
We can also notice in each of these
letters that have been preserved and lasted,
survived until today,
we notice
the seal
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam on
each one of them.
And
it is said that he did this
when he was told that some of these
kings,
they do not accept letters unless
they are sealed with a stamp.
And so
the Prophet
when he heard that,
he made a seal
and so this was his ring,
his khatim, his ring
that he had imprinted on it,
Muhammad
Rasulullah.
Muhammad Rasulullah.
But what do we notice?
That
when you look at the the seal,
it doesn't say it like that. It doesn't
have Muhammad
at the top and then, Ursul Allah,
but rather it has the name of Allah
at the top.
So the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam did
this out of respect for Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala that his his name
should be at the top.
Now besides these letters that we have mentioned,
these are only three letters that we mentioned
because these had very interesting stories behind them.
Besides these, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
wrote many many other letters
to,
other leaders and kings of his time, both
Arab and non Arab.
And so he wrote letters
to
the leaders of
other parts of Yemen,
Himyar and
the king of Oman
and the king of Bahrain
as well as
the leader of Al Yamana
in Enejd in Central
Arabia and that was Musayla
Al Kaddad
who wrote another letter to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam
in which he said,
you know,
we have both
been given this honor of being prophets, me
and you. So me and
you. So how about we divide the land?
And anyways, there's a whole story there where
after the death of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, how Abu Bakr radiAllahu alaihi wasallam,
he led a campaign
to attack him and kill him.
Also we have the letter of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to Najashi
and here we have
conflicting reports
because one letter mentions that the Najashi
took it and he accepted Islam,
Another that mentions that he remained a kafir.
So how do we understand this?
Scholars like Ibn Hajar,
he comments and he reconciles between these various
reports.
He says that the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
he sent a letter
to a najasi
when the Muslims were in Abyssinia
and this letter
basically gave him Dawah similar to the letters
to
Heraclius
etc.
And he invited him to Islam and he
accepted Islam
and he embraced Islam.
And the proof that he embraced Islam is
that later on,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
prayed his janazah,
salatuluhayid,
when he heard news from Jibreel
that he had passed away.
And then
after he died,
the next ruler of Abyssinia,
who also had that same title of Najashi.
So we mentioned this, that
each
people had a title for their kings.
Qaysar,
Caesar is the title of the Roman emperor.
Kisran is the title of
the Persian emperor.
Likewise,
Najashi
or Nagas
is
the title for the emperor of Abyssinia. Just
like Firaun,
there wasn't only 1 Firaun.
Firaun was the title of,
the the the emperor of the Egyptians,
etc.
So after the death of the Najashi who
became a Muslim, there was another Najashi and
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam sent him
a letter and he did
not embrace Islam. And so in this way,
ibn Hajjab,
he,
reconciles between these various reports.
We move on now to the lessons that
we learned from
these letters that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam sent to the kings.
The first lesson
that we learn is
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was sent
by Allah
as a prophet and a messenger to all
of mankind.
And this is the greatest lesson
that we learn from this chapter of the
Sira.
Once rasulullah
hessallahu alaihi wa sallam had felt that he
had done his job
in spreading
the message of Islam to his own people,
starting with those closest to Him, Quraysh,
and then all the other
Arab tribes.
Now Islam was well established among the Arabs.
He didn't stop there,
proving
that
unlike
the previous prophets and messengers
who were sent
to their respective
people and nations,
Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasallam was sent
for all of mankind.
In fact, He was not sent only for
every human being, for all of mankind but
also
for another species and that is the jinn.
You know, he was sent for both
humans and the jinn.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Say to them, O Muhammad,
O mankind,
O people,
I
am Allah's Messenger to you, to all of
you,
not to one specific people.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
And we have sent you only as
a deliverer of good news and a warner
for
all people, for all human beings.
And so no one can come today and
say
that, well,
Muhammad,
he was a prophet sent for his own
people, for the Arabs.
Therefore I don't have to follow him.
You know, a Christian cannot say, I'm gonna
continue following 'Isaiah 'alaihi salam.
A Jew cannot say, I'm gonna continue following
Musa
because
these were prophets sent to us
and Muhammad was sent to the Arabs.
But rather the Prophet was sent for all
of mankind and you know,
all of this is evidence of that. The
fact that the Prophet
is now
sending these letters
to these different kings of the world, both
Arab
and non Arab.
The second lesson that we learn
is that we convey the message first.
Rasulullah
himself,
he did not fight
the empires
surrounding
the Arabs
and conquer their land.
He did not do that
but it was his companions after him who
did that.
However,
they did not do that
until
the message of Islam
had first reached
those empires
and they were invited to accept it.
And it was this
that rasulahu alaihi
wa sallam had done,
as we can
see.
And this shows us
that
the objective
of jihad in Islam
is not to simply spill blood
to cause chaos
or to conquer land,
to have power
and invade
and to increase your territory.
That's not
the purpose behind jihad
in Islam, but rather the objective
is to spread the word of Allah
and to allow
Allah's creation
to freely
have access to learning about Islam
and to accept Islam
without fear
or without anyone hindering them, stopping them.
And so it is when
these empires come in the way
and these rulers and these tyrants
and their armies come in the way.
They block the masses and the people from
hearing about Islam
and from accepting Islam,
and from practicing Islam freely,
this is when Allah legislate jihad.
Right?
And so we saw that
the Prophet
did this
by inviting the kings and the rulers to
accept Islam
and how he made it a point
to mention that if they accepted Islam,
that their kingdom
would remain under them,
right? He mentioned this in several of the
letters that we that we
covered today.
But that if they did not,
then their kingdom would be taken away from
them.
Right? So what the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam did
is that he got the ball rolling
and then the companions after him,
they completed what he had started,
right?
The point here is
that
our job is to convey the message,
irrespective
of whether
the people accept it or not.
Once the message has been conveyed,
then we move on to the next step.
And the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he needed a point to do that.
He wasn't going to leave this dunya
until he had
accomplished
his mission, which is
alibilar,
balar
of the deen
to convey the message
that Allah,
you know,
placed on his shoulders to convey.
And so he did this in his lifetime
before he passed away, and then the sahabah
after him, they
carried on what he had started.
And so those
empires,
they refused
to adhere
to comply with
the invitation of the Prophet salawu alayhi wa
sallam and so they were followed and they
were conquered.
The third lesson,
what is it that prevents most people from
accepting Islam?
It is not that
they're not convinced
that this is the truth.
And so we see from the story of
Heraclius,
how
clinging on to the dunya
and
greed for power,
and fearing
being stripped
of that power
and also fearing
criticism of the people.
These are the main reasons
behind why people refuse
to accept Islam
even after they see that this is the
truth.
Right?
In fact, in one narration,
after reading the letter,
Heraclius, he said to Dihyah al Kalbi,
the the Messenger of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, he said to him,
I know that your companion
is a Prophet who has been sent.
The one who we were waiting for and
He has been mentioned
in our scripture.
However,
I fear for myself against the Romans.
If it was not for that, I would
have followed him.
In another narration,
he found out
about the Islam of An Najashi.
And we know he was also a Christian.
And he said,
I would have done the same thing
that he did except I'm afraid.
What is he afraid of?
He's afraid of losing his power.
And the same thing can be said
about Al Muqawqas.
When news reach the prophet of
how al Muqauqous refused to accept Islam,
he sent all these gifts
back to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
but
he refused to accept Islam. The Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam said, he wants to hold
on to kingdom
but his kingdom will not last.
He wants to hold on to his power
but this power that he wants to hold
on to, it's not gonna
last. And the words of the prophet were
true
only a few years after his death,
Egypt came
in the hands of the Muslims as well
as
as well as Hashem
from the Romans
and Persia
from Kisra. And
so
the lesson here is
that such people,
they existed in those days and they exist
today.
They prefer the comfort
of this temporary life over
the everlasting
comfort of the akhirah.
They see Islam
as
an inconvenience
in their lives
and they would rather prefer the suffering of
the akhirah
over, you know, some temporary inconvenience
and uncomfort,
discomfort in this dunya.
Even
that supposed
inconvenience,
you know, it's only imaginary.
Otherwise,
you know,
one who accepts Islam,
Allah gifts him with
inner happiness.
Right?
And even if he may suffer
bodily,
outwardly,
he is the happiest person on the face
of this earth. But unfortunately,
these people they don't realize that
and they have this perception that if I
accept Islam,
I'm gonna have to suffer
and
it's gonna be an inconvenience in my life.
And this can be sort of even about
the people
today who they know the backlash that they're
going to face
from their family, from their friends,
right?
And for them,
that's inconvenience.
It's discomfort.
They would rather
enjoy their lives
in comfort
rather than giving up,
rather than giving that up
for
inconvenience and hassle.
The last lesson
that
we can mention is
that Allah
deals with you
in the same way that you deal with
Him,
and what is special to Him Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
How you deal with Allah,
His messenger,
His book,
the shahair of Islam,
How you deal with Allah
and what is special to Allah,
that is how Allah will deal with you.
And so we see this
in
all of these cases of these
of these emperors and these kings.
And so Al Najashi, for example,
he accepted Islam.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
preserved for him his kingdom.
He lived until he died as a king.
On the other hand,
you have
Kisra.
Right. How did he react?
After he led after he read the letter
of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
what did he do? He took the letter
and he tore it apart.
This is how he dealt with it.
When news reached the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam of what he did,
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
mas zakallahu alaihi wa sallam,
may Allah tear apart His kingdom.
And that
was exactly what happened.
Not only was he killed by his own
son
as we mentioned,
but shortly after the death of the Prophet
the Muslims conquered
the entire Persian
Empire.
In fact,
his son didn't last that long either.
He was also killed.
Over the span
of the next 4 years, there would be
10 different emperors of Persia
over only the span of 4 years. And
then after those 4 years,
that's it.
The Muslims,
they tore apart the Kingdom of Kiswah.
Why?
Because Kiswah tore apart the letter of the
prophet
salallahu alaihi wasallam.
How you deal with Allah is how Allah
is gonna deal with you.
As they say, come out to redeem to
them.
How you deal with others is how you
will be dealt with and
you reap what you sow.
What you do is how you're gonna be
dealt with.
And notice
how
the Persian Empire,
they came apart
in a matter of just a few years
and
there was nothing left of the Persian Empire.
That's it. The Muslims destroyed it.
An empire
that lasted for centuries.
On the other hand, the Roman Empire,
right,
because
Heracl
did not
Heraclius, he didn't do
what Kiswah did.
He respected the Prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He didn't accept Islam, however,
he did not disrespect the Prophet shalallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
Right?
So
the Roman Empire,
it continued to prosper for many centuries.
Yes, the Muslims invaded many parts of it.
They took a sham
but the Roman Empire continued
to
survive in
Constantinople
and in Greece,
it finally came crashing down.
The last chapter of it
was when Muhammad al Fatih, he conquered it.
This was centuries later. But you see
the contrast
and you see the lesson that has been
learned here
And that is how you deal with Allah.
It's how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
will deal
with you.
So the with that we come to the
end of today's session and inshallah
we'll continue
next week. Subhanahu wa ta'ala
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