Kamil Ahmad – Lessons from the Seerah – 83 – The Battle of Tabuk Part 3
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AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen
As-salatu was-salamu ala tamman al-akmalani
ala khayri khalqi allahi ajma'een wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi wa man ihtada bi hadih
mustanna bi sunnatihi ila yawm al-deen Allahumma
a'allimna ma yanfa'una wa anfa'na
bima a'allamtana wa zidna a'ilma wa
alina al-haqqa haqqan warzuqna attiba'a wa
alina al-baatila baatilan warzuqna ijtinaaba wa ja
'alna mimman yastami'oona al-qawla fa yattabi
'oona ahsana Amma ba'd, as-salamu alaikum wa
rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Last week we went through
the story of the Battle of Tabuk from
the time that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam left
Medina for this journey and we went through
the tough journey that the Muslim army took
until they reached their destination and so we
looked at some of the scenes that took
place along the way like some of the
companions who were lagging behind and people were
asking about them and how they caught up
to the army like Abu Dharr radiallahu anhu
as well as Abu Khaythamah and also how
the munafiqoon they made fun of some of
the companions and how Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala revealed ayat concerning them and then how
the Muslims on their way to Tabuk they
passed by the ruins of Thamud and how
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam warned them not
to enter those dwellings and not to drink
from those wells and then finally how the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Muslim army
arrived in Tabuk to not find any threat
and so the Romans they did not show
up and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam made
use of his presence there to make peace
treaties with some of the local Arab tribes
in those areas and so we mentioned how
overall the battle of Tabuk was a success
even though the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did
not fight even though there was no fighting
that occurred still it was a success and
we mentioned how now the northern frontier of
the Muslim state was now protected and how
there is now a buffer zone between the
Muslims and the Romans now before the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam reached Tabuk and while he
was there there were several miracles that occurred
several miracles that occurred so let's look at
some of these miracles on the way to
Tabuk after the Muslim army passed by the
ruins of Thamud they ran out of water
and so they came to the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam complaining about the situation so the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam made dua to Allah
for rain and so soon enough a huge
cloud came by and it continued to rain
until every member of the army had quenched
their thirst to the point where they were
even able to fill their jugs and their
containers for the rest of the journey so
this was an obvious miracle, right?
this was an obvious miracle but for who?
for the believers, for the Muslims they recognized
that this is a miracle on the other
hand, we have to understand that among the
Muslims were the Munafiqun the hypocrites and so
they couldn't see how this was a miracle
because they didn't have Iman so some of
the Muslims, they had a conversation with one
of these hypocrites and they said to him
woe upon you is there any other proof
that you can ask for?
and so what did this man say?
he said, it was only a passing cloud
it was only a passing cloud and so
look at how they just waved that off
saying that it was nothing the second miracle
at some time during the journey to Tabuk
when the Muslims stopped to take some rest
the camel of the Prophet ﷺ strayed away
and became lost meanwhile the Prophet ﷺ was
with one of the companions one of the
Ansar, Umar Ibn Hazm and not too far
off was a group and among them were
some hypocrites so one of the hypocrites he
said, doesn't Muhammad claim to be a Prophet?
doesn't he bring you news from the heavens?
yet he does not know where his camel
has become lost so Allah ﷻ informed the
Prophet ﷺ of what this munafiq had said
so the Prophet ﷺ was with this companion
Umar Ibn Hazm, he said to him a
man has just said, here is Muhammad informing
you that he is a Prophet and claiming
that he brings you news from the heavens
yet he does not know where his camel
is and then the Prophet ﷺ said to
his companion by Allah, I only know what
Allah teaches me and Allah has indeed guided
me to my lost camel it is in
this valley, in such and such a narrow
pass and it was held back because its
reins got stuck in the branches of a
tree so go to it and bring it
back to me so they went and they
found the camel exactly where the Prophet ﷺ
had told them where it was and they
brought it back to him so this is
how Allah ﷻ exposed this hypocrite but obviously
Allah ﷻ, he does that when he wills
and how he wills and what it shows
us is that in the end of the
day the Prophet ﷺ is a human being
and the unseen is not seen to him,
is not known to him as Allah ﷻ
told the Prophet ﷺ to say قُلْ لَا
أَقُولُ لَكُمْ إِنِّي the Prophet ﷺ says that
if he had known the ghayb if he
had known the unseen قُلْ لَوْ كُنتُ أَعْلَمُ
الْغَيْبَ لَسْتَكْتَرْتُ مِنَ الْخَيْرِ if I had known
the unseen I would have done a lot
of good وَمَا مَسَّنِي السُّوء and no harm
would have touched me and this is an
example if the Prophet ﷺ knew where his
camel was if he had that knowledge of
the unseen then he wouldn't have had a
problem in the end of the day Allah
ﷻ is the one who told him where
it was the third miracle while the Prophet
ﷺ and the army reached Tabuk and while
they were camped there the Prophet ﷺ told
his companions of a severe windstorm that was
approaching so he told everyone to prepare for
it by taking cover, remaining low and tying
up their animals and their belongings sure enough
a storm came and it was so strong
that it threw things far away in Sahih
al-Bukhari Abu Humaid al-Sa'idi r
.a narrates that he took part in the
battle of Tabuk he says when we reached
Tabuk the Prophet ﷺ said there will be
a strong wind tonight so no one should
stand and whoever has a camel should fasten
it he says so we fastened our camels
and a strong wind blew at night and
a man, he did not listen to the
orders of the Prophet ﷺ, he stood up
the Prophet ﷺ told everyone to remain low
this man he stood up the companion he
says and he was taken by the wind
the entire man he was taken by the
wind and he was thrown off to a
faraway mountain called At-Taiq so again this
is one of the miracles the Prophet ﷺ
informed he informed the companions about this severe
windstorm that was approaching and it came as
he had informed them of the next miracle
in Sahih Muslim Mu'adh ibn Jabal r
.a he narrates that on the way to
Tabuk the Prophet ﷺ said insha'Allah tomorrow
you will reach Ain Tabuk, the spring or
the fountain of Tabuk none of you should
approach it until the morning, until Fajr and
whoever among you happens to go there should
not touch its water until I arrive so
we came to the spring Mu'adh ibn
Jabal he says we came to the spring
to find two people having already reached there
before us meaning from the army he says
it was a thin flow of water the
spring, it didn't have much water he says
it was a thin flow of water like
a shoelace so then the Prophet ﷺ came
and he asked them whether they had touched
the water or not so the two men
said yes they had so the Prophet ﷺ
scolded them and he said a number of
things to them then the people they started
taking the water with their hands and they
gathered it all in one place then the
Prophet ﷺ he washed his hands and his
face with this water and he allowed the
water to the water that touched his hands
and face he allowed it to drop back
into into the pool of water that they
had gathered so this now all of a
sudden caused the water to gashaw and it
started to flow with a lot of water
Mu'adh ibn Jabal says until all of
the people drank to their full then the
Prophet ﷺ said to me O Mu'adh
it is likely that if you live long
enough you will see what is here in
this place filled with gardens and vegetation the
area surrounding Tabuk and this valley where the
spring was it was a dry barren area
just like the rest of the desert of
Arabia there wasn't enough water for trees and
for vegetation but through the blessing of the
Prophet ﷺ what the Prophet ﷺ told Mu
'adh actually ended up happening and so that
whole area was now filled with gardens and
vegetation we're talking about after the death of
the Prophet ﷺ and until this very day
Tabuk is known for its greenery and its
trees and its farms and so this miracle
not only served to help quench the thirst
of the Muslim army but it also was
meant to bless the people the people who
would live there for generations until this very
day and this was all through the blessings
of Rasool Allah ﷺ finally the last miracle
we'll mention also in Sahih Muslim Abu Sa
'eed Al-Khudri radiAllahu anhu narrates he says,
on the day of the battle of Tabuk
the Muslims were hard pressed by hunger and
they asked the Prophet ﷺ O Messenger of
Allah grant us permission to slaughter our camels
to eat and use their fat so the
Prophet ﷺ gave permission but then Umar ibn
Khattab radiAllahu anhu came and he said, O
Messenger of Allah if we do that then
what's gonna happen is we're gonna run out
of animals to ride on as you know
this was a very long journey and they
need these animals and here the Prophet ﷺ
is telling them to slaughter their animals so
we can eat them because that's what they
asked for Umar ibn Khattab said to the
Prophet ﷺ I suggest that what you do
is you pool together whatever remaining food that
the army has get them to bring everything
together and then make dua to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to bless this food and
so look at the understanding of Umar ibn
Khattab radiAllahu anhu something that even the Prophet
ﷺ did not think of and that's why
the Prophet ﷺ says about Umar ibn Khattab
that if there was to ever be a
Prophet after me it would be him so
anyways the Prophet ﷺ agreed and so he
called everyone to gather their whatever remaining food
they had their leftovers and he said to
place it all on this leather mat so
they did that one brought a handful of
corn another one brought a handful of dates
a third brought a piece of bread and
so now there was a pile of food
collected and the Prophet ﷺ made dua for
barakah on this food and then he said
now bring your containers and fill them up
and so everyone they brought their containers and
they filled it with food so that not
a single empty container was left in the
whole camp he says all of them ate
until their fill and there was still some
leftover food the Prophet ﷺ then said any
servant who meets Allah testifying that there is
no one worthy of worship except Allah and
that I am his messenger without having any
doubt about that he will not be prevented
from entering Jannah so again this was one
of the miracles that occurred during this battle
the battle of Tabuk the Prophet ﷺ remained
in Tabuk for approximately 20 days and as
we mentioned during these 20 days he sent
out messengers to the tribes around that area
bordering with Ash-Sham and he made peace
agreements and he even made agreements for some
of the tribes that did not accept Islam
that they would pay the Jizya and now
after having accomplished something the Prophet ﷺ started
heading back to Medina on the way back
some of the Munafiqun they attempted to assassinate
the Prophet ﷺ and so they waited for
the right time and the right place to
carry out this plan of theirs and so
when the army reached a place called Al
-Aqaba where there was a cliff these hypocrites
they found the Prophet ﷺ alone with two
of his companions they were Ammar ibn Yasir
and Hudayfa ibn al-Yaman so these two
companions were steering the camel of the Prophet
ﷺ and all of a sudden 12 to
13 men from the Munafiqun they came out
in front of them and they blocked their
way so Hudayfa r.a he pointed out
to them and he started yelling and this
scared them and so they ran away later
on the Prophet ﷺ asked Ammar and Hudayfa
if they recognized the men and they said
no they had their faces covered but we
did recognize their animals that they were riding
on so then the Prophet ﷺ said these
men will remain hypocrites until the day of
judgment do you know what they had planned
to do the two companions said no the
Prophet ﷺ said they wanted to crowd around
me at al-Aqaba and then throw me
off of its cliff and so Allah ﷻ
informed the Prophet ﷺ about their plan and
Allah ﷻ revealed an ayah regarding this incident
again this is also in surah Tawbah Allah
ﷻ says يَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ مَا قَالُوا وَلَقَدْ قَالُوا
كَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ وَكَفَرُوا بَعْدَ إِسْلَامِهِمْ وَهَمُوا بِمَا لَمْ
يَنَالُوا وَمَا نَقَمُوا إِلَّا أَنْ أَغْنَاهُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ
مِّن فَضْلِهِ Allah says they the Munafiqun swear
by Allah that they never said any blasphemous
words while they did in fact utter words
of kufr and they disbelieved after they had
accepted Islam and they plotted what they could
not carry out this is what Allah is
referring to here the attempt to assassinate the
Prophet ﷺ Allah says they plotted to do
what they could not do what they were
unable to carry out then Allah says they
could not find any excuse to do so
except that Allah and His Messenger had enriched
them of His bounty meaning it was nothing
but resentment in their hearts hatred for the
Prophet ﷺ that they wanted to do this
then Allah says فَإِن يَتُوبُوا يَكُوا خَيْرًا لَّهُمْ
وَإِن يَتَوَلَّوا يُعَذِّبْهُمُ اللَّهُ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا فِي الدُّنْيَا
وَالْآخِرَةِ وَمَا لَهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ مِنْ وَلِيًّا وَلَا
نَصِيرٍ Allah still gives them a second chance
Allah says if they repent then it would
be better for them but if they turn
away then Allah will punish them with a
painful punishment in this dunya and in the
akhira and they will have no one on
the earth to help them or to protect
them now when the Prophet ﷺ initially
left Medina for Tabuk he was invited to
pray at a masjid a newly built masjid
and this was on the outskirts of Medina
the masjid was just built it was just
constructed and the Prophet ﷺ was getting ready
to head out for Tabuk so they came
to him and they said we have just
built this masjid we have built it for
the weak and those who are sick on
rainy nights so it's easy for them to
come here instead of going all the way
to you know the Prophet's masjid or to
the other masjid masjid Quba so the Prophet
ﷺ he wanted to do it but he
was heading out for travel so he excused
himself he said I'm traveling and Inshallah when
I return I'll come and pray in your
masjid so now when the Prophet ﷺ was
on his way back to Medina and he
was reaching close to the city Allah ﷻ
informed him of the real intents of the
people who built this masjid and so the
story behind this masjid goes back to a
man known as Abu Amir Al-Fasiq who
is this man?
we mentioned him previously he was a man
who belonged to the tribe of Al-Khazraj
and he was a prominent member of the
tribe and in the days of Jahiliyyah before
Islam he had converted to Christianity and he
knew the scriptures and he was very very
religious so he was initially known before in
the days of Jahiliyyah he was known as
Abu Amir Ar-Rahib the monk because of
how religiously devoted he was but now when
Islam came and when the Prophet ﷺ migrated
to Medina this same man became his worst
enemy and so look at how someone who
you would expect to be among the first
to accept Islam someone who is religious, someone
who knows the scripture you would expect that
he would be among the first to come
and accept Islam he was the furthest and
he was the most hostile and he was
one of the worst enemies of the Prophet
ﷺ so due to his evil the Prophet
ﷺ changed his name to Abu Amir Al
-Fasiq the evil one, the the corrupt one,
the one who is disobedient so anyways this
man when he realizes he can't do anything
because you know Medina is now a stronghold
of the Muslims and anyone who wants to
plot against the Muslims he has to go
undercover and that's exactly why you have these
Munafiqun these hypocrites so what he did is
he left and he went to Mecca and
he tried to rally Quraysh to fight against
the Muslims and he managed to do that
you know the various battles that brought Quraysh
out to fight against the Muslims there were
various factors behind it but among the reasons
was this individual in fact he participated in
the battle of Uhud and he was one
of the causes behind why the Prophet ﷺ
was injured in that battle but then when
he saw that Quraysh was unsuccessful in their
war against the Prophet ﷺ he left Mecca
and he went all the way to Ash
-Sham and he went to the Roman Empire
and he goes to Heraclius the Roman Emperor
and he asks him to send an army
to invade Medina so Heraclius he promised to
help him and this man he would now
write to the Munafiqun in Medina and he
would tell them he would tell them that
I'm bringing an army that is going to
come and that is going to destroy the
Muslim State and then he asked them to
set up a base in Medina where they
could meet that could act as their headquarters
and from where they can plan and coordinate
their attack and spread false news, fake news
and spread fitna and conspiracies and so on
and so forth and so that base would
end up being this Masjid that they had
just built and that they had asked the
Prophet ﷺ to come and pray in it
but why a Masjid?
why didn't they just build a house?
and secretly gather there?
because a Masjid gives them good cover so
although they made it seem as if this
was a Muslim place of worship the reality
was that it was a place to plot
and conspire against Muslims and so it was
a place to promote the agenda of the
Kuffar and the enemies of Islam so now
before arriving in Medina the Prophet ﷺ receives
the Wahi from Allah ﷻ informing him of
this plan of the Munafiqun and so these
ayat are in Surah At-Tawbah Allah ﷻ
says وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مَسْجِدًا ضِرَارًا وَكُفْرًا وَتَفْرِيقًا بَيْنَ
الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَإِرْصَادًا لِمَنْ حَارَبَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ مِنْ قَبْلٍ
وَلَا يَحْرِفُنَّ إِنْ أَرَدْنَا إِلَّا الْحُسْنَى وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ
إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ there are also those hypocrites who
set up a Masjid only to cause harm
ضِرَارًا to promote Kufr and to divide the
believers and as a base as an outpost
for those who had previously fought against Allah
and His Messenger so here Allah ﷻ tells
us the true reasons for why they built
this Masjid to harm the Muslims to promote
Kufr to divide the believers and as a
base for those who had previously fought against
Allah and His Messenger then Allah says they
will definitely swear that we only intended good
but Allah bears witness that they are surely
liars then Allah says to the Prophet ﷺ
لا تَقُمْ فِيهِ أَبَدًا لَمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَى
مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَن تَقُومَ فِيهِ فِيهِ
رِجَالٌ يُحِبُّونَ أَن يَتَطَهَرُوا وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُطَّهِرِينَ Allah
commands the Prophet ﷺ do not ever pray
in it certainly a masjid that was founded
upon taqwa from the very first day and
this is referring to masjid Quba the first
masjid built in Islam Allah says indeed a
masjid found upon taqwa from the first day
is more worthy of your salah in it
are men who love to be purified and
Allah loves those who purify themselves so here
Allah praises the Muslims who pray Quba the
believers then Allah ﷻ says أَفَمَنْ أَسَّسَ بُنْيَانَهُ
عَلَىٰ تَقْوَى مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانِ خَيْرٌ أَمَّنْ أَسَّسَ
بُنْيَانَهُ عَلَىٰ شَفَى جُرُفٍ هَارٍ فَنْهَارَ بِهِ فِي
نَارِ جَهَنَّمٍ اللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِلْ قَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ Allah
asks which is better those who laid the
foundation of their structure, of their building upon
Taqwa and pleasure from Allah or those who
did so on the edge of a crumbling
cliff that tumbled down with them into the
hellfire and Allah does not guide a wrongdoing
people so here Allah ﷻ compares the two
what is better?
a masjid that is built on a strong
foundation and that is a foundation of Iman
and Taqwa therefore and thereby it will last
forever because it's standing on a strong foundation
or a building that is standing on a
weak foundation and that is a foundation of
Kufr and Nifaq and hypocrisy so just like
if you want to build a building on
a strong foundation somewhere that is stable that
is far better than building it on the
edge of a cliff or along places where
there are earthquakes and other disasters, right?
you want to make sure that you build
your foundation you build your structure on a
solid and strong foundation and Allah tells us
that the strong foundation is the foundation of
Taqwa and pleasure from Allah not the foundation
of the Munafiqoon Allah says thereby their structure
falls with them into the hellfire then Allah
says لَا يَزَالُ بُنْيَانُهُمُ الَّذِي بَنَوْا رِيبَةً فِي
قُلُوبِهِمْ إِلَّا أَن تَقَطَّعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ
the building that they had erected will never
cease to fuel hypocrisy in their hearts until
their hearts are torn apart and Allah is
the All-Knowing, the All-Wise so now
after these people were exposed and Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala informed the Prophet ﷺ of
the true intents of the ones who built
this masjid what did the Prophet ﷺ do?
he ordered his companions to go and burn
that masjid to the ground and so that
is exactly what happened and so this is
how this plot against the Muslims was exposed
and brought to an end now the Prophet
ﷺ enters Medina and he was greeted by
the people of the city and the children
with the famous lines طَلَعَ الْبَدْرُ عَلَيْنَا مِن
ثَنِيَّاتِ الْوَدَاعِ وَجَبَ الشُّكْرُ عَلَيْنَا مَا دَعَى لِلَّهِ
دَاعٍ the full moon has risen over us
from the valley of Wada' it is an
obligation to show gratefulness when a caller calls
to Allah until the end of the lines
now these words are usually mentioned in reference
to another event in the seerah and that
is the hijrah when the Prophet ﷺ migrated
from Mecca and when he was entering Medina
the people of the city came out and
the children and they were singing these lines
however Ibn Al-Qayyim ﷺ he says that
this is incorrect because ثَنِيَّاتِ الْوَدَاعِ the valley
of Wada' is to the north of Medina
and when the Prophet ﷺ came from Mecca
on the hijrah he obviously came from the
south so this must have happened when the
Prophet ﷺ was coming back from Tabuk because
Tabuk is to the north of Medina and
this valley is in that direction so he
says that this was mentioned at that time
and Allah knows best now after the Prophet
ﷺ arrives in Medina he went straight to
his masjid where he prayed two rak'ahs
and this was his habit to go straight
directly to the masjid and pray before going
home and so this is a sunnah a
neglected sunnah that not too many people are
familiar with that when you return from a
journey go first to the masjid, pray two
rak'ahs and then go home so the
Prophet ﷺ went to the masjid he prayed
two rak'ahs and then he sat down
to receive those who wanted to come and
meet him from among the people of Medina
who had stayed behind and did not join
him for this battle and we spoke about
this when we started speaking about the battle
of Tabuk we mentioned how the Prophet ﷺ
mobilized the people of Medina and he said
that everyone has to has to join this
army but there were certain people who remained
behind and did not join the army we
can divide those who stayed behind into the
following groups the first, those who stayed behind
with valid excuses and we mentioned this group
early on they were some of the companions
who were either physically unable to participate or
because of old age or they had a
physical disability like being blind or because they
couldn't find a ride and we mentioned the
ayah where Allah ﷻ excused this group ليس
على الضعفاء ولا على المرضى ولا على الذين
لا يجدون ما ينفقون حرج إذا نصحوا لله
ورسوله ما على المحسنين من سبيل والله الغفور
الرحيم Allah says there is no blame on
the weak nor the sick nor those who
don't have the means they don't have a
ride as long as they are true to
Allah and His Messenger there is no blame
on the good doers indeed Allah is the
all-forgiving, the most merciful and we mentioned
how there was a group of the Muslims
who came to the Prophet ﷺ asking him
if he could find them a ride and
he turned them down he said I don't
have anything to help you with and Allah
mentions them in these ayahs how they went
back with their eyes flowing with tears because
they didn't have any way to join the
army also the Prophet ﷺ when he was
on his way back before reaching Medina he
told his companions that there are some men
who have remained behind us in Medina there
is not a single mountain path nor a
single valley that we have crossed except that
they were with us meaning that they share
with our reward they will share our reward
the Prophet ﷺ said because they were only
held back by a valid excuse and so
this is in Sahih al-Bukhari the Prophet
ﷺ is telling us here that as long
as one is sincere to Allah and he
makes his sincere intention but he is unable
to do what he had intended then Allah
will reward him Allah ﷻ will reward him
for what he had intended and so this
is the first group Allah ﷻ excused them
Allah ﷻ excused them and there is no
blame on them then we have those who
stayed behind in Medina without any valid excuse
without any valid excuse and those who stayed
behind without any valid excuse they were two
groups the first were those munafiqun the hypocrites
inside Medina and also from outside of Medina
from the Bedouin tribes and so we mentioned
some of the ayat that Allah revealed about
them those who did not want to participate
and they even tried to discourage some of
the Muslims from participating and when they stayed
behind they were happy فَرِحَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ بِمَقْعَدِهِمْ خِلَافَ
رَسُولِ اللَّهِ the munafiqun were happy they were
rejoicing that they stayed behind the Messenger of
Allah ﷺ that they stayed behind in Medina
and they were discouraging others from going they
were saying do not go in the heat
do not put yourself in fitna and all
kinds of things that they were saying we
mentioned all of those ayat we can add
to these ayat where Allah ﷻ exposes the
munafiqun from the Bedouin tribes Allah ﷻ says
وَجَاءَ الْمُعَذِّرُونَ مِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ لِيُؤْذَنَ لَهُمْ وَقَعَدَ الَّذِينَ
كَذَبُوا اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ سَيُصِيبُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْهُمْ عَذَابٌ
أَلِيمٌ Allah says some of the Bedouin Arabs
also brought forth excuses seeking to be excused
from joining the army and those who were
untrue to Allah and His Messenger they remained
behind without any excuse Allah says the disbelieving
among them will be afflicted with a painful
punishment then we have those who stayed behind
without any valid excuse but they were not
from the hypocrites but rather they were from
the believers and they were some of the
companions they stayed behind for whatever reason and
in the end when all was over with
they regretted their decision and they were in
a state of grief and we're gonna talk
more about them later on so now when
Rasulullah ﷺ returned from Tabuk he sat there
in the masjid to meet with these two
groups who stayed behind without any valid excuse
as for the munafiqoon they came forward one
after the other sat in front of the
Prophet ﷺ and made excuse after excuse lie
after lie hoping to please the Prophet ﷺ
and they would even take oaths they would
swear by the name of Allah and so
what did the Prophet ﷺ do?
he accepted their excuses and he sought Allah's
forgiveness for them he did istighfar for them
and he took their pledges he took their
bay'ah but then Allah ﷻ exposed them
and so Allah ﷻ says يَعْتَذِرُونَ إِلَيْكُمْ إِذَا
رَجَعَتُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ they will make excuses to you
when you return to them Allah is saying
when you believers return from the battle these
hypocrites will come to you making excuses قُلْ
لَا تَعْتَذِرُوا قَدْ نَبَّأَنَا اللَّهُ مِنْ أَخْبَارِكُمْ وَسَيَرَ
اللَّهُ عَمَلَكُمْ رَسُولُهُ ثُمَّ تُرَدُّونَ إِلَىٰ عَالِمِ الْغَيْبِ
وَالشَّهَادَةِ فَيُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ Allah says O
Muhammad say to them make no excuses for
we will not believe you Allah has already
informed us of your true state your deeds
will now be observed by Allah and his
messenger and you will be returned to Allah
the knower of the seen and the unseen
and then he will inform you of what
you used to do then Allah says سَيَحْلِفُونَ
بِاللَّهِ لَكُمْ إِذَا انقَلَبْتُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ لِتُعْرِضُوا عَنْهُمْ
فَأَعْرِضُوا عَنْهُمْ إِنَّهُمْ رِجْسٌ وَمَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ جَزَاءً بِمَا
كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ Allah says when you return they
will come and swear to you by Allah
so that you can leave them alone look
at how Allah exposes them Allah exposes what
is in their hearts Allah is telling the
Prophet ﷺ that when they come and make
their excuses and they swear by Allah that
they are truthful the only reason they are
doing that is so that you leave them
alone and then Allah says so leave them
alone فَأَعْرِضُوا عَنْهُمْ leave them alone they are
truly evil the hellfire will be their home
as a reward for what they have committed
then Allah says يَحْلِفُونَ لَكُمْ لِتَرْضَوْا عَنْهُمْ they
will swear to you in order to please
you again look at how Allah exposes them
they are taking these oaths and they are
swearing to you by Allah so that you
are pleased with them فَإِنْ تَرُضَوْا عَنْهُمْ فَإِنَّ
اللَّهَ لَا يَرْضَعْ عَنِ الْقَوْمِ الْفَاسِقِينَ Allah says
even if you are pleased with them even
if they manage to please you Allah will
never be pleased with a people who are
fasiqoon with a people who are rebellious and
so this is how Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala dealt with this group the munafiqoon who
stayed behind although the Prophet ﷺ accepted their
excuses but in the end of the day
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposed them as
for the other group the believers and the
companions they were a handful of them we're
gonna cover their story next week because there
are many lessons that can be learned from
their story it's a very very inspiring story
told to us by one of them he
tells us exactly what happened in every detail
from the time the Prophet ﷺ made the
announcement until the time he returned and what
transpired after he and the other companions came
to the Prophet ﷺ in the masjid all
the way until the very end we're gonna
cover their story as narrated to us by
Ka'ab ibn Malik r.a and this
story is well documented it's in Sahih al
-Bukhari and it's a very very long story
so we're gonna cover it in its entirety
and we're gonna go through the lessons of
that next week bi-idhimillahi ta'ala and
with that we will conclude our discussion on
the battle of Tabuk bi-idhimillahi ta'ala
and so we move on to some of
the lessons that we learned from the return
from the battle of Tabuk the first lesson
that we learned is that those whose hearts
are blind they will never believe we learned
this story we learned this from the many
miracles that we saw during this battle Allah
ﷻ sends the Prophets and the Messengers with
miracles for the very reason of convincing the
people that these are true Prophets of Allah
so those who are open to seeking the
truth and their hearts are open then Allah
ﷻ will guide them to what they see
of these miracles this was the case in
the past and it's the case in the
present there are people out there who are
sincere and their hearts are open and they
are sincerely seeking the truth when they see
these miracles Allah ﷻ guides them but then
you have those whose hearts are sealed and
they will never be guided no matter what
they see and so this is why when
that cloud came and brought rain and those
companions went to those hypocrites and said, is
there any other proof that you can ask
for?
what more proof do you want that he
is indeed the Messenger of Allah?
and look at how he answered that hypocrite
he said, it's only a passing cloud and
this is exactly how some people are today
when you bring them proofs for the truth
of Islam and among the proofs there are
miracles they say, these have scientific explanations this
is what they say they try to prove
everything through science exactly how this hypocrite responded
and reacted he said, it was only a
passing cloud and so this is because these
people have already made up their mind they
are not open to seeking the truth and
so Allah ﷻ will never let them see
it as Allah ﷻ says سَأَصُرِفُ عَنْ آيَاتِيَا
الَّذِينَ يَتَكَبَّرُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ I will
divert away from my ayat my signs and
that includes miracles those who are arrogant on
the earth those who are proud and arrogant
without any right to do so Allah ﷻ
says He will not allow them to see
His ayat, His signs why?
because these people are proud and arrogant just
like many non-Muslims today and atheists it's
because of their pride and their arrogance that
they don't want to accept the truth and
Islam it's not because they actually believe that
what they are upon is the truth no,
some of them have seen the truth of
Islam but still because of their arrogance they
don't accept it and then Allah ﷻ says
وَإِن يَرَوْا كُلَّ آيَةٍ لَا يُؤْمِنُوا بِهَا even
if they are to see every sign, every
miracle they will not believe in it the
second lesson that we learn is the hukm
and the ruling on masjids that are built
to promote the agenda of the kuffar and
the enemies of Islam the story of that
masjid 1400 years ago which is known as
masjid al-dhiraar as Allah ﷻ referred to
it Allah ﷻ called it masjid al-dhiraar
dhiraaran wa kuffaran so the story of that
masjid that was established to promote kuffar rather
than iman it is a masjid that existed
and that was destroyed but its idea will
live on forever the idea will continue until
the last day and so any masjid that
is built even today to promote the agenda
of the kuffar is what we call masjid
dhiraar and the ruling of such places is
as Allah ﷻ said do not pray in
it we are not allowed to pray in
such places and if possible they should be
destroyed as the Prophet ﷺ did because these
places are built for the purpose of causing
harm to the Muslims whether they call it
a masjid or they call it anything else
right if they are built to promote the
agenda of the kuffar and the enemies of
Islam we shouldn't have anything to do with
these places and we should warn the Muslims
against these places Ibn Qayyim actually uses this
story as evidence that all evil places should
be dealt in the same way and so
he says that even though this was supposedly
a masjid and there may happen to be
people praying in it nonetheless the Prophet ﷺ
ordered for it to be burnt down he
says so how about places of sin places
that are built for the disobedience of Allah
like he says like places of prostitution and
bars and places where they sell alcohol etc
he says these places they should be shut
down and they should be destroyed the third
lesson that we learn is that we need
to be aware of the plots and the
schemes and the conspiracies of the enemies of
Islam and so also from the story of
Masjid Dirar we learn that the enemies of
Islam from among the kuffar and the munafiqun
they will do everything that they can to
seek legitimacy and our approval as Muslims and
so when these people built that masjid what
did they want?
they wanted the Prophet ﷺ to come and
pray in it so that it would be
proof that he approved of it right?
they wanted his approval if the Prophet ﷺ
actually went and prayed in this masjid then
that's it it would have been approval for
them now no Muslim has any excuse not
to pray in this masjid no Muslim can
spread any rumors about this masjid if the
Prophet ﷺ actually went and prayed in it
but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not
let that happen Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
protected the Prophet ﷺ from ending up in
such a trap right?
so likewise you have the kuffar today and
you have these politicians and others who come
to the Muslims promising to support us and
our communities only for approval and for our
votes but deep down inside they hate Islam
and they hate the Islamic values that we
uphold and they will never truly be happy
with us until we approve of their way
of life وَلَن تَرُضَى عَنكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلَن نَصَارَ
حَتَّى تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ the Jews and the Christians
they will never approve of you they will
never be satisfied with you until you follow
their way and so the point is that
we Muslims we should not be gullible we
should not be naive we should be smart
and we should read through the lines that
when these people come to us whether they
are open kuffar or whether they are the
munafiqun among us and they come with these
sweet words and you know they come with
their talk we need to be careful and
we need to understand that it is nothing
but a trap finally the last lesson that
we learn from what we have covered tonight
is one of the characteristics of the munafiqun
and that is that they are the worst
of liars and so we learn this from
how they came to the Prophet ﷺ when
he returned from Tabuk and they sat with
him and they gave him every excuse every
excuse that they could find they brought it
and they did not suffice with lying but
worse than that they swore by the name
of Allah as Allah tells us سَيَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ
لَكُمْ they will swear by Allah they will
take these oaths swearing by the name of
Allah and so this is why Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala tells us about these people
إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُنَافِقُونَ قَالُوا نَشْهَدُ إِنَّكَ لَرَسُولَ اللَّهِ
Allah says if the munafiqun come to you
O Muhammad they will testify that you are
indeed the Messenger of Allah do they believe
that in their hearts?
yes, no but they're saying it with their
tongues Allah says وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ إِنَّكَ لَرَسُولَ and
Allah knows that you are His Messenger we
don't need these people to tell you that
you are the Messenger of Allah Allah knows
that you are His Messenger and then what
does Allah say?
وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ لَكَاذِبُونَ and Allah bears
witness that the munafiqun are indeed liars and
so we learn two things from this number
one we have to beware of these people
and not believe them no matter what they
say no matter how convincing they may be
no matter how much they swear by Allah
to try to convince us that they are
truthful we need to beware of them as
long as they have shown their true colors
and we can see that these people are
indeed munafiqun we shouldn't believe them and number
two what we learn from this is that
we Muslims need to beware we need to
be careful that we do not have this
characteristic ourselves and so when Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala exposes the munafiqun in the Quran
and as he does in surah al-tawbah
throughout the surah Allah is exposing these people
when Allah tells us about their characteristics about
their qualities it is for one of two
reasons number one so that we are careful
and cautious of these people and number two
so that we don't have these qualities ourselves
and so we need to protect our tongues
and we need to be careful about lying
and also about using the name of Allah
unfortunately you know our children nowadays they are
used to saying wallah wallahi wallahi you know
and we need to teach them that this
is not something good this is a trait
of the munafiqun as Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala exposes them and so inshallah wa ta
'ala we will continue next week bi-idhnillah
subhanaka Allahumma bi-hamdik ashhadu an la ilaha
illa anta astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayka wa sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam ala nabiyyina muhammad wa ala
aalihi wa sahbihi ajma'in wassalamu alaykum wa
rahmatullahi wa barakatuh