Kamil Ahmad – Lessons from the Seerah – 84 – The Battle of Tabuk #4
AI: Summary ©
The National Security Council warns that the army is not supposed to be present and anyone preparing for the battle will be punished, while the importance of staying behind in a battle and standing up for one's Muslim brothers is emphasized. The loss of honor and the loss of Islam leaders are also discussed, with a promise to continue discussion on the next week. The conversation touches on the negative consequences of lying to someone and the need for support from people.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen
Wasalatu wasalamu al-atammal al-akmalani ala khayri
khalqi allahi ajma'een Wa ala alihi wa
sahbihi wa man ihtada bi hadih wa istanna
bi sunnatihi ila yawmi al-deen Allahumma a
'allimna ma yanfa'una wa anfa'na bima
a'allamtana wa zidna a'ilma Wa arina
al-haqqa haqqan warzuqna ittiba'a wa arina
al-baatila baatilan warzuqna ijtinaabah Wa ja'alna
mimman yastami'una al-qawla fa yattabi'una
ihsana Wa ba'd Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Last
week we went through the remaining of the
story of the battle of Tabuk We looked
at some of the miracles that took place
on the way there, as well as while
the Prophet ﷺ was there at Tabuk We
also mentioned an assassination attempt that was planned
by some of the munafiqun And then we
spoke about Masjid al-Dhiraar That masjid that
was built by some of the hypocrites We
looked at why it was built and what
the Prophet ﷺ did with it Then we
mentioned that when the Prophet ﷺ returned to
Medina He met with those who had remained
behind, who did not join the army Those
who did not have any valid excuse And
so we mentioned that among those who stayed
behind in this battle There were those who
had valid excuses They were ill, they were
not physically able to, they were not financially
able to make it They did not find
a ride Allah excused these people But then
there were those who did not really have
an excuse And so we mentioned that the
first of these were the munafiqun, the hypocrites
And so they presented their excuses and they
took oaths by Allah They swore by Allah's
name that they were truthful But then Allah
ﷻ exposed them to the Prophet ﷺ And
then we mentioned however there was another group
And they were some of the companions Who
also did not have a valid excuse to
stay behind And so today what we're gonna
do is we're gonna have a look at
their story And this is the last thing
that remains to be discussed concerning this battle,
the battle of Tabuk Once we finish this
we will be done and we'll move on
to another, the next major events in the
seerah Now we look at the story of
these companions And they were three We look
at their story from a first-hand account
And that is the companion Ka'ab ibn
Malik r.a And so the story that
he narrates to us is an amazing story
It's a very inspiring story That is loaded
with benefits and lessons for every single Muslim
until the Day of Judgment It represents a
bad moment, a moment of weakness in the
life of an otherwise exemplary man A companion
of the Prophet ﷺ But then how he
was able to overcome that situation and get
out of it successfully All because of his
Iman and his Tarbiyah and his good deeds
and his sincere Tawbah His sincere repentance And
that's why Surah At-Tawbah was named Surah
At-Tawbah Even though it is talking about
the entire battle of Tabuk And mentioning many
many ayat exposing the hypocrites But in the
end Allah ﷻ, He accepted the repentance of
these three companions And that's why the Surah
is named after that The story of Ka
'ab ibn Malik r.a is found in
Sahih al-Bukhari and other books of Hadith
and the books of Sirah And so we're
going to go through the story as found
in Sahih al-Bukhari The one narrating the
story to us is the grandson of Ka
'ab ibn Malik And he's hearing it from
his father who was the son of Ka
'ab ibn Malik And he became his guide
when Ka'ab r.a became very old
and he became blind So now the son
of Ka'ab, his name was Abdullah He
narrates the story to his son, so the
grandson of Ka'ab ibn Malik He says,
so this is the son, he says I
heard my father Ka'ab ibn Malik narrating
the story of the battle of Tabuk in
which he failed to take part And then
he starts narrating from the words of Ka
'ab ibn Malik Ka'ab ibn Malik r
.a says, I did not remain behind Allah's
messenger in any battle that he fought except
for the battle of Tabuk And I also
failed to take part in the battle of
Badr However, Allah did not criticize anyone who
did not participate in the battle of Badr
Because the Prophet s.a.w. had gone
out in search of the caravan of Quraish
Until Allah made the Muslims to meet their
enemy without any prior appointment And we discussed
this when we went through the battle of
Badr That the Prophet s.a.w. left
Medina heading for, he was trying to intercept
the caravan of Abu Sufyan He had no
intentions of fighting a full scaled war, but
that's what ended up happening So, Allah did
not censor, Allah did not criticize anyone who
failed to go out in that battle Then
he says, however, I witnessed, I was there
in the night of al-'Aqaba With the messenger
of Allah when we pledged for Islam Now,
what's he talking about here?
The people of Medina, while the Prophet s
.a.w. was living in Mecca Some of
the people of Medina came and met with
him And these were some of the Ansar
And they met him and they gave him
bay'ah And this was known as bay
'ah al-'Aqaba And we covered this They basically
pledged that we will support you, we will
defend you, we will fight for you And
that was the beginning of, that was going
to pave the way for the hijrah to
Medina So, Ka'b s.a.w. is
saying, that I was there that night And
he says, and I would not exchange it
for the battle of Badr Even though the
battle of Badr is more popular among the
people than the night of al-'Aqaba What he's
saying is, most people talk about the battle
of Badr and those who participated in it
That, you know, that was more, that was
greater, that was the greatest event, right?
But he's saying that for me, the greater
event was the pledge of al-'Aqaba I would
not exchange that for the battle of Badr
He says, as for my situation in the
battle of Tabuk I had never been stronger
nor wealthier than I was when I remained
behind the Prophet s.a.w. in that
battle By Allah, never had I two she
-camels before, but I had it at the
time of this battle He's saying, he starts
talking now about the battle of Tabuk And
he's mentioning how he was physically and financially
capable of joining this army And so he's
telling us that he had no excuse He's
saying, I had two camels at that time
that I never had before Meaning, I could
have jumped on one of these and, you
know, joined the army And then he goes
on to say, whenever the Messenger of Allah
intended to go to battle He's to hide
his intention by making it appear as if
he was heading somewhere else Until it was
a time for the battle of Tabuk in
which the Messenger of Allah fought And went
out in severe heat, facing a long journey
in the desert And the great numbers of
the enemy So the Prophet s.a.w.
announced to the Muslims clearly their destination So
that they might get prepared for this battle
He informed them clearly of his destination that
he was going to And so here, Ka
'b r.a is telling us the circumstances
behind this battle It was unlike any previous
battle Previously, when the Prophet s.a.w.
wanted to go out He would head out
secretly so that the enemy doesn't find out
But this time, the circumstances did not allow
that Because he needed everyone to come out
He needed a huge army And also because
the journey was very long It's not just
nearby, we can go and quickly come back
We don't have to prepare that much, no
This battle required a lot of preparation So
that's why he made his destination clear to
everyone And then Ka'b r.a says
The Messenger of Allah was accompanied by a
large number of Muslims Who could not be
listed in a book, a diwan So here
he's telling us that the huge numbers of
this battle They were so many, and we
mentioned previously That the books of Seerah mention
that this army was 30,000 men strong
30,000, surpassing any battle before it And
so he's telling us that It's impossible for
us to make a register, a roll call
To see who's made it and who hasn't
made it He goes on to say Any
man who intended to be absent Would think
that he would be able to do so
And it would remain hidden Unless Allah revealed
it through revelation So because of the huge
numbers If someone wanted to stay behind It
wouldn't be possible for the Prophet s.a
.w. to know Because there's no way of
tracking who is present and who is not
Then he says So the Messenger of Allah
fought that battle At the time when the
fruits had ripened And the shade looked pleasant
The shade was tempting And so here Ka
'ab r.a is being honest and telling
us The true reasons why anyone would want
to stay behind And not join the army
And we spoke about this previously We mentioned
in the very beginning of our discussion on
the Battle of Tabuk That it was at
a time when it was harvest season When
the dates are ready to come off the
trees And remember that the people of Medina
were people of agriculture And they were farmers
and they used to trade in dates And
so it was practically the worst time to
be going out And the shade, because it's
very hot Then he says The Messenger of
Allah and his companions prepared for the battle
They started to make their preparations to go
out He says But I returned without doing
anything And I would say to myself That's
not a big deal, I could easily do
that Meaning, by the end of the day
he hadn't prepared anything And he's saying, I'm
young, I could easily pack my bags And
jump on my animal and make it He
says And
I still had not done any preparations for
my departure And I said, I'll prepare myself
in one or two days after And then
I will join them He says By
now the army has left He says I
returned home without getting anything done Then again
the next morning, I went out to get
ready To prepare myself, but returned without doing
anything He says, such was the case with
me Until they left And they made it
to Tabuk And I missed the battle He
says, even then I intended to prepare and
depart to catch up with them And he
says I wish I had But it was
not destined for me to do so And
so, when you miss out Then you fall
into regret And that is what Ka'b,
may Allah be pleased with him That's what
he's telling us here That is what he
is telling us here He says So after
the departure of Rasool Allah Whenever I would
go out And walk among the people It
would distress me It would grieve me That
I would see no one around In Medina
Except a person who is either Accused of
hypocrisy Or one of the weak people whom
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala excused And so
that's it These are the only two groups
of men Who remain behind And wherever he
would go That's all he would see And
so Ka'b, may Allah be pleased with
him He did not fit in either As
we know He was not a munafiq Nor
was he excused He's young and he's able
to have joined the army So now he's
falling into depression And regret He says Rasool
Allah When he was at Tabuk He did
not remember me Until he camped out there
Until he reached there So while he was
sitting among the people at Tabuk He asked
What did Ka'b do?
So a man from Banu Salama Which is
a tribe of Ka'b ibn Malik He
said Oh messenger of Allah He has been
stopped He has been left behind Because of
his two burdas His two cloaks And he's
looking at his clothes with pride And so
what a degrading statement to make It's an
insult It's like saying that Ka'b is
like a woman Whose only concern is her
clothes And just looking at her clothes And
how impressive they are But he said this,
why?
Because here the men are out on the
battlefield And the women are back home So
then Ka'b says Then Mu'adh ibn
Jabal Who is also from the same tribe
He said to that man What a bad
thing you have said By Allah Oh messenger
of Allah We know nothing about him except
good He says The messenger of Allah remained
silent And so whenever the Prophet صلى الله
عليه وسلم remained silent It is a sign
that He has approved of whatever was said
or whatever was done Otherwise he would respond
And he would clarify That no what you're
saying is wrong But here the Prophet صلى
الله عليه وسلم remained silent Why?
Because here he was going by the apparent
Which was how he would treat all similar
situations and individuals He would always go by
what is apparent And he doesn't know what
is happening behind the scenes Unless Allah tells
him So on the apparent The only ones
who remained behind without an excuse were the
munafiqun So that's why he did not say
anything Ka'b رضي الله عنه goes on
to say Then when I heard that the
Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was on his
way back to Medina I became anxious and
concerned And began to think of making up
a story False excuses Saying to myself How
can I avoid his anger tomorrow?
And I took the advice of wise members
of my family And they advised me to
do the same thing Then when it was
said that the Messenger of Allah had come
near Meaning to Medina All of a sudden
all those evil false excuses They disappeared They
left my mind And I knew very well
That I can never come out of this
problem By forging a false statement And making
up a story So I decided to only
speak the truth He says So the Messenger
of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم arrived in
the morning And whenever he returned from a
journey He used to visit the masjid first
And pray two rakahs And then he would
sit for the people He would sit to
meet the people So when he had done
all of that Those who had stayed behind
They now came forward And they sat with
him And they started giving their excuses And
taking their oaths Swearing by Allah that they
were truthful And he says they were something
over 80 men So there were some 80
men From among the munafiqun Who remained behind
in Medina And he's telling us that they
came forward And they basically gave all of
their excuses to the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم For why they remained behind He says
The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم
Accepted the excuses that they had given And
he took their bay'ah The pledge of
allegiance And he asked for Allah's forgiveness for
them He did istighfar for them And then
he left the secrets of their hearts He
left them for Allah to judge Ka'ab
رضي الله عنه says Then I came to
him So it was my turn now And
when I said salam to him He smiled
But it was the smile of an angry
person And then he said to me come
here So I came walking until I sat
before him And he asked me What stopped
you from joining us?
Did you not have an animal to carry
you?
Did you not purchase an animal to carry
you and join the army?
So I answered yes O Messenger of Allah
However by Allah If I was sitting before
any other person From the people of the
world Other than you I would have avoided
his anger With an excuse He says by
Allah I have been given The power of
speaking fluently And eloquently He says I am
able to speak in a way That can
convince anyone Of my point of view He
says but by Allah I knew very well
That if I tell you a lie today
To seek your pleasure Allah would surely make
you angry with me in the near future
But if I tell you the truth Although
you will get angry because of it I
hope for the forgiveness of Allah And then
Ka'ab radiAllahu anhu He acknowledged His mistake
he said O Messenger of Allah By Allah
I have no excuse By Allah I had
not been more stronger Nor wealthier Then at
that time When I remained behind you Then
the Prophet said As for this man He
has surely spoken the truth So get up
Until Allah decides in your case So I
got up And some of the men From
Banu Salama Followed me So some of the
men from his tribe They followed me And
they said to me By Allah We have
never witnessed you doing Or committing any sin
before this Why didn't you present an excuse
To the Messenger of Allah As the others
did who stayed behind The dua of the
Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam For Allah to forgive
you Would have been sufficient for you Because
that is what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam
did with The rest He asked Allah to
forgive them So you have also made a
mistake Right Even though you are being honest
It would have been better If you had
just given excuses And lied just like they
did Ka'ab says By Allah They continued
To blame me so much That I actually
thought of going back To the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wasalam And Accusing myself of having lied
But I said to them Is there anybody
Is there anyone else Who met the same
fate as me Is there anyone else Who
was honest like me And so they replied
yes There are two men Who said the
same thing that you have said And both
of them Were given the same orders as
you To go Until Allah has decided In
your case So I asked who are they
They said Ka'ab
says They mentioned to me two righteous Pious
men Who attended the battle of Badr And
in these two men Was an example for
me So I did not change my mind
When they mentioned these two men To me
Then he goes on to say Out of
all of those Who had remained behind in
that battle As we mentioned They were more
than 80 The Messenger of Allah Forbade all
the Muslims From talking to us Three individuals
Out of all of the men who stayed
behind Without an excuse At the end when
the Prophet Listened to everyone He told the
companions And all the Muslims To boycott These
three individuals Ka'ab ibn Malik R.A
And Murara ibn Rabee' And Hilal Ibn Umayyah
Ka'ab says So we kept away From
the people And the people ignored us And
they changed their attitude Towards us Until the
very land where we lived Appeared strange to
me As if I did not Recognize it
So it was so bad The treatment of
the Muslims Was so bad That Ka'ab
is saying he felt like a foreigner Like
a stranger In his own land And among
his own people Why?
Because this boycott Was serious and it was
Effective So he goes on to say We
remained in that condition For 50 nights He
says As for my two companions They remained
in their homes And just kept on weeping
Crying But I was the youngest of them
And the toughest of them So I used
to go out And Pray in the masjid
with the Muslims In the jamaa And I
would roam about In the markets But no
one would talk to me So The other
two They couldn't handle the treatment Of the
people And the shame So they just stayed
home Crying out of devastation As for Ka
'ab He was also in pain Right?
But he didn't want to show it And
you know He was young And he was
daring And so he would go out And
mix with the people And walk about Even
though everyone was ignoring him He goes on
to say And I would come To the
messenger of Allah And I would give him
salam While he was sitting In his gathering
After the salah And I would wonder whether
The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam moved his
lips In return to my salam Or not
Then I would pray my salah Near him
And I would look at him I would
steal glances At the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam while I'm praying When I was busy
In my salah The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam would turn towards me Meaning he would
look at me But when I would turn
towards him I would look at him He
would turn his face away from me So
look at Look at The treatment even From
the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam Ignoring Ka
'ab ibn Malik He says When this harsh
attitude of the people Lasted long It lasted
so long I walked Until I reached The
garden of my cousin Abu Qatada I scaled
The wall of the garden And Abu Qatada
Was my cousin And he was the dearest
of people to me He was A very
close friend of mine And so I met
him I gave him salam He says by
Allah he did not Return my salam He
didn't even say Wa alaikum salam I said
oh Abu Qatada I beseech you By Allah
Do you not know that I love Allah
and his messenger He did not Say a
word I asked him again By Allah's name
Do you not know that I love Allah
and his messenger He remained silent Again A
third time I asked him by Allah do
you not know That I love Allah and
his messenger And this time Abu Qatada He
said Allah and his messenger Know best That's
all he had To say Ka'ab radiAllahu
anhu He says after this My eyes flowed
with tears And I returned And jumped back
over the wall He says Then while I
was Walking in the marketplace of Medina One
day Suddenly A Nabati The Nabatis Are
basically They're Christians From Sham So they were
From among the Christians From the Arab Christians
Who lived in Sham at that time So
He says this Nabati From the Nabatis of
Sham He came to sell his grains In
Medina And he was asking the people Who
will direct me To Ka'ab ibn Malik
So the people Started to point to me
And so He came and he handed Me
a letter From Malik al-Ghassan The king
of Ghassan And so This was also an
area That bordered with the Roman Empire And
This particular king The king of Ghassan He
used to hate the Muslims He was a
proxy Of the Romans He was an ally
of the Romans And so he asked Heraclius
The Roman Empire He asked him to help
him with an army That we go to
Medina And we just wipe out the Muslims
So The fact Heraclius, he ignored him He
didn't You know Respond to him by giving
him an army But notice here The fact
that the king of Ghassan Sent this letter
to Ka'ab RadhiAllahu An Shows that the
enemies They were gathering intelligence And they had
interest In the affairs of the Muslims in
Medina And so this king Got word that
This is what happened to Ka'ab ibn
Malik And so he sent him This letter
Ka'ab RadhiAllahu An says The letter had
the following in it Amma ba'ad To
proceed I have been informed that your companion
Meaning the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam Qad jafaak
That he has treated you harshly Allah has
not Let you to live in a place
Where you are forsaken You are ignored And
where your right has become lost So join
us And we will welcome you And we
will console you And we will treat you
well And so Look at what a test
this had become For Ka'ab Ka'ab
RadhiAllahu An was basically being Offered what we
know today As political asylum He could have
taken it He could have used it as
a tool Against the Muslims who were Treating
him like this He could have said to
the Muslims Look if you don't change your
attitude towards me Then I'm going to leave
and I'm going to join them But what
did Ka'ab RadhiAllahu An do He continues
he says When I read the letter I
said to myself And this is also A
test Then I took the letter to the
oven And I made a fire and I
burnt it He goes on to say when
40 nights Out of the 50 nights went
by The messenger Of the messenger of Allah
He came So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
Sent someone to Ka'ab And he said
Allah's messenger Orders you to keep away from
your wife I asked should I divorce her
Or what should I do He said no
Just stay away from her and do not
touch her He says The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam Gave the same message to my two
companions So I said to my wife Go
to your family Go to your parents And
remain with them until Allah judges In my
case He says the wife of Hilal Ibn
Umayyah came to the messenger Of Allah and
said oh messenger of Allah Hilal Ibn Umayyah
Is a helpless old man Who has no
servant To attend to him So do you
allow me to serve him So the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said yes However you cannot
come near him Meaning you can't have any
intimate Relations with him So She said By
Allah he has no Desire for anything Since
The day That this boycott started until now
He has only been crying So he doesn't
have any desire for anything Kaab Radhiallahu An
He says When this happened Some of my
family members came to me And said why
don't you also go And ask the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam To permit your wife to
at least serve you As he has permitted
the wife of Hilal Ibn Umayyah So I
said by Allah I will not ask the
permission Of the messenger of Allah Regarding her
Because I don't know What Allah's messenger would
say If I asked him for such a
request Because I am a young man He
says then I remained In that state For
10 more nights After that Until the period
of 50 nights Was completed Starting from the
time That the messenger of Allah Prohibited the
people From talking to us Then the following
Morning after 50 nights He says I was
praying Salatul Fajr On the roof Of one
of my houses And I was sitting there
After Salatul Fajr In the condition in which
Allah described Described us in the Quran How
did Allah describe Their situation in the Quran
We are going to come to those ayat
But he says As Allah described That my
soul Seemed constrained To me And even the
earth seemed narrow To me even though it
was spacious While I was in this condition
Of depression And Grief I heard the voice
Of a man Who ascended The mountain of
Salah Which is a mountain right Right inside
Medina Today It is you know right Outside
the Masjid area Of Masjid An-Nabawi And
he Says a man Climbed this mountain And
he was calling with his loudest Voice He
was saying Ya Ka'b Ibn Malik Abshir
Oh Ka'b Ibn Malik Rejoice Rejoice Ka
'b says I immediately Fell down into Sujood
Because I realized That the Faraj, the relief
Had come from Allah He says The Messenger
of Allah had announced The acceptance of our
Repentance by Allah After he had prayed Salatul
Fajr In the Masjid He says The people
then went out to Congratulate us Some who
were bringing us The good news went to
my two Companions As for me a horse
man Came to me racing So they were
racing To bring the news to him first
He says one jumped on his horse To
come and give me the good news And
another one He went on top of the
mountain He says the one who went on
top of the mountain His voice was quicker
Than the horse man And then When that
man had arrived He came to me And
he conveyed the good tidings to me He
says I took off my Clothes and I
gave it To him and I dressed him
with them And so This was their tradition
That if someone Comes and gives you good
news You gift him with something So he
says I just took off my clothes and
I gifted it to him But look at
what he says He says by Allah I
had no other clothes that day So then
I went And I borrowed two garments I
wore them and then I went to Rasool
Allah He says The people started receiving me
In groups in batches Congratulating me On the
acceptance of Allah's repentance Saying We congratulate you
on Allah's acceptance of your repentance He says
when I Entered the masjid I saw the
messenger of Allah Sitting with the people around
him And Talha ibn Ubaidillah He came to
me first He shook my hand He hugged
me and he congratulated me He says by
Allah None of the other muhajirun got up
For me except for him And I will
never forget this for Talha Then he says
When I came And greeted Rasool Allah I
said Salam to him He said to me
While his face was beaming With joy Rejoice
with the best Day ever since your mother
Gave birth to you And then He asked
Ka'ab asked the prophet Is this forgiveness
From you Or is it from Allah So
the prophet Said no it is from Allah
And then he said Whenever the messenger of
Allah Became happy His face would shine as
if it was a piece of moon And
we all recognized This characteristic of him When
I sat in front of the prophet I
said Oh messenger of Allah Part of my
Acceptance of my repentance Is That I will
give up All of my wealth In sadaqa
for the sake of Allah And his messenger
So the prophet said to me Keep, hold
on to some of your wealth Because that
is better for you So I said I
will keep my share from Khaybar So in
the battle of Khaybar as we mentioned There
was a lot of wealth A lot of
farmland And it was divided among the companions
He had a piece of land there So
he said I will keep that in that
case Then I said Oh messenger of Allah
Allah has only saved me For telling the
truth So it is a part Of my
repentance Not to speak Except the truth As
long as I live And so This was
the end of the story As narrated by
Khabib bin Malik But then he concludes So
now he is talking to the To the
narrator, his son So he tells his son
By Allah I do not know any of
the Muslims Whom Allah Has helped In speaking
the truth more than me Since I mentioned
That truth to the messenger of Allah Until
this day And we are talking about Khabib
right now He is an old man, he
is blind He is telling his son That
he has not lied until this day He
says I have never told a lie Since
that day And I hope that Allah will
also save me From telling lies for the
rest of my life And then he says
Allah revealed to his messenger The following verses
And so these are the ayaat Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says In Surah At-Tawbah
لَقَدْ تَابَ اللَّهُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ وَالْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنصَارِ الَّذِينَ
اتَّبَعُوهُ فِي سَاعَةِ الْعُسْرَةِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا كَادَ
يَزِيغُ قُلُوبُ فَرِيقٍ مِّنْهُمْ ثُمَّ تَابَ عَلَيْهِمْ إِنَّهُ
بِهِمْ رَؤُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ Allah has certainly forgiven The
Prophet As well as the Muhajirun and the
Ansar Who followed him In the hour of
hardship So The battle of Tabuk was referred
to As the hour of hardship Allah says
After the hearts of a group of them
Had almost faltered He then accepted their repentance
Surely he is the most Gracious and the
most Merciful to them وَعَلَى الْثَّلَاثَةِ الَّذِينَ خُلِّفُوا
حَتَّى إِذَا ضَاقَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحُبَتْ وَضَاقَتْ
عَلَيْهِمْ أَنفُسُهُمْ وَظَنُّوا أَلَّا مَلْجَأَ مِنَ اللَّهِ إِلَّا
إِلَيْهِ ثُمَّ تَابَ عَلَيْهِمْ لِيَتُوبُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ
التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ Allah says And also the three
who had remained behind Allah mentions them And
also the three who had remained behind Whose
guilt had devastated them Until the earth Despite
its vastness Seemed to close in on them
And their souls were torn in anguish So
this is the ayah that Kaab radiAllahu anhu
was talking about When he said I was
sitting there In the exact way that Allah
described us Allah says Then he forgave them
so that they might repent Surely Allah alone
is the acceptor of repentance, most merciful And
then Allah says يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا
اللَّهَ وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ O you who believe
Have the taqwa of Allah Fear Allah And
be with those who are truthful Be with
those who are truthful And so look at
how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Praised these
three companions And gave us a lesson until
the day of judgment To be with the
likes of these three individuals Those who were
honest And those who spoke the truth Then
Kaab radiAllahu anhu adds He says by Allah
Allah has never bestowed upon me After guiding
me to Islam A greater blessing Than the
fact that I did not tell a lie
To the messenger of Allah On that day
Kaab is saying There is no greater blessing
from Allah upon me After the guidance of
Islam Than this blessing of Allah To enable
me to tell the truth on that day
If I had told a lie It would
have caused me to perish As those who
told a lie They perished Because Allah described
Those who told lies on that day With
the worst description That he has ever attributed
to anyone And we mentioned those ayats last
week Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says سَيَحْلِفُونَ
بِاللَّهِ لَكُمْ إِذَا انقَلَبْتُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ لِتُعْرِضُوا عَنْهُمْ
فَاعْرِضُوا عَنْهُمْ إِنَّهُمْ رِجْسٌ وَمَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ جَزَاءً بِمَا
كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ Allah says to the Muslims When
you return From this battle to Medina The
hypocrites will come And they will swear to
you by Allah So that you may leave
them alone Allah says so leave them alone
They are truly evil * will be their
home as a reward For what they have
done And then Allah says يَحْلِفُونَ لَكُمْ لِتَرُضَوْا
عَنْهُمْ فَإِن تَرْضَوْا عَنْهُمْ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَرْضَى
عَنِ الْقَوْمِ الْفَاسِقِينَ They will swear to you
In order to please you And even if
you are pleased with them Allah will never
be pleased with A rebellious people Then Ka
'ab says We the three people Were different
from Those whose excuses Allah's Messenger accepted When
they swore to him He took their pledge
of allegiance And he asked Allah to forgive
them But the Messenger of Allah Left our
case Pending until Allah gave His judgment about
it In regards to this Allah says وَعَلَى
الثَّلَاثَةِ الَّذِينَ خُلِّفُوا And also the three Who
remained behind So he is mentioning that this
ayah Was Allah's judgment This was Allah's verdict
In our case And then he says What
Allah said in this ayah Does not indicate
our failure To take part in the battle
But it refers to the deferral Of making
a decision By the Prophet ﷺ about our
case In contrast to the case Of those
who had taken an oath Before him and
he excused them By accepting Their Excuses And
this is the end of their narration As
found in Sahih al-Bukhari And so this
is A very very Amazing and impressing Story
One of the most amazing stories That we
will find in the seerah of the Prophet
ﷺ And so As a result There are
so many lessons And benefits That we learn
from this story And it will be impossible
for us to go through All of the
lessons but Let us try to go through
Whatever lessons That we can go through tonight
In sha Allah ta'ala The first lesson
that we learn Is Disciplining The Nafs Disciplining
the Nafs Our Nafs Inclines to things that
are easy And avoids Effort and hard work
So if you don't Discipline it Then it
will drag you down with it If you
leave Your Nafs to decide Then you are
not going to get anything done And so
When Ka'b Saw that the Muslims were
getting ready For this battle What did he
tell himself?
He told himself that he could do it
Right?
But did he?
He didn't And so this teaches us That
we need to be extremely careful with the
Nafs The Nafs Its nature is to be
lazy To be weak To be afraid To
be tempted by the Dunya So if you
don't tame it To follow the orders Of
Allah Then it will take you down a
very slippery path As we can see What
happened to Ka'b ibn Malik R.A
The second lesson that we learn Is the
danger of Procrastination Al Tasweef And so this
is one of the biggest lessons that we
learn From the story of Ka'b R
.A Procrastination And Delaying getting things done This
is a human habit But its not a
good habit Many times You procrastinate Thinking that
We can get something done later We can
quickly get it done later Oh I have
a lot of time I have many days
ahead of myself But what happens is When
you leave it for later The tasks They
pile up Until It becomes too much to
manage Right Then when you look at the
amount of work That you need to get
done And its too much You just say
to yourself You know I might as well
give up There is no point And this
is exactly what happened to Ka'b R
.A Every day he would tell himself Oh
I'll do it I'll do it In the
end The Muslims reached the book And then
he said That's it I can't make it
now Because now its going to be too
difficult To pack up and to race And
make it now That's it And so this
is the trap of Shaitaan First He tricks
you into Procrastination From doing good And then
he tricks you by making you give up
And that is His end goal His end
goal is to make sure that you Don't
end up doing Any good The third lesson
that we learn Is that we should Avoid
making ourselves a target For others And their
criticism When that man From Banu Salama Said
what he said about Ka'b R.A
Remaining behind Remember what he said That you
know He was left behind because of his
clothes He's looking at his clothes The Prophet
S.A.W Didn't say anything to him
This shows us The danger of putting ourselves
In a vulnerable situation Where people can easily
Target and attack us And speak about us
like that But it was Ka'b's own
actions That drew This attention And brought these
remarks Against him Even though Ka'b R
.A He otherwise has a clean and good
record Having attended You know The Bay'ah
of Al-Aqaba Being those Few Ansar who
met The Prophet S.A.W and gave
their pledge And then attending all of the
other battles Besides the battle of Badr So
he has a clean and good track record
But now because What he did was wrong
He got himself into this trouble And now
people were talking about him like that And
so regardless Of whether the remarks Were right
or wrong It was Ka'b R.A
Who was responsible for Getting himself into it
To start with And so we should make
sure We don't do things like that That
earn The remarks of people In that way
The fourth lesson that we learned Is the
importance Of standing up for your Muslim brothers
And so when That man said what he
said About Ka'b Ibn Malik Although the
Prophet S.A.W Did not reprimand him
For the reasons that we just mentioned However
look at Look at How Mu'adh Ibn
Jabal R.A Jumped in To his defense
In his absence And he did not remain
silent He stood up for Ka'b Ibn
Malik Due to the good That he knew
of him Right?
He didn't remain silent He defended his honor
Likewise we should always Come to the defense
Of our Muslim brothers and sisters When people
Speak ill of them in that way As
long as these are people Who have a
good reputation Right?
The Prophet S.A.W says مَنْ رَدَّ
عَنْ عِرْضِ أَخِيهِ رَدَّ اللَّهُ وَجْهَهُ عَنِ النَّارِ
يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ Whoever Responds to someone Who tries
to tarnish the honor of his brother Allah
Will turn his face away From the Hellfire
on the Day of Judgment The fifth lesson
that we learned Is that Our Iman Our
Taqwa And our good deeds Are saviors They
will save us In difficult moments Ka'ab
Ibn Malik R.A. He was in serious
trouble And he fell Into a deep mistake
But because of his Iman And the Tarbiyah
That his Iman Gave him He managed to
pull himself He managed to pull himself Out
of this hole that he made for himself
And so we see this In the decision
He made To speak the truth And not
to lie Remember?
He said when the Prophet Was coming back
He thought of every lie That he could
make up And he was planning to actually
Make up a story But then But then
what happened?
He said all of those lies They faded
away from my mind This moment Where he
changed his mind And he decided Not to
lie That was due to his Iman That
was due to his Taqwa That was due
to all of his good deeds They came
and they Saved him at a moment In
which he needed to be saved He needed
to be saved And so This is how
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Saves the believers
Who are sincere and true to him From
even greater problems Than the ones That they
are facing So even if you're facing a
problem In your life or you've Committed huge
mistakes And sins If you have Iman And
Taqwa and good deeds They will help you
The next lesson That we learn Is that
we judge by what is Apparent And so
this was The general rule that the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would always apply He would
Judge people Good or bad based on What
they showed Not based on what was in
their hearts Because he would Leave that for
Allah to judge Right?
And this is an important rule For us
to follow Because it has a lot of
implications So we judge a person As being
A Mu'min, a believer If that is what
he shows Even If he is a disbeliever
inside Right?
Like the Munafiqun And if we see someone
Espousing Kufr In their words In their actions
Then we judge them accordingly Right?
If someone says words of Kufr Or does
acts of Kufr That are clear cut Then
we consider him a kafir Even if he
is a believer On the inside And then
The rules that we apply To people in
the dunya Is based on that So we
treat the believers As believers And the kuffar
as kuffar As for what is in the
hearts Then that is for Allah to deal
with On the day Of judgment The next
lesson that we learn Is that we need
to use Our knowledge And our skills Honestly
And by conveying What we know of Islam
With all Honesty Ka'ab Ibn Malik Was
one of the well known Poets of Medina
Who defended Islam And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam Using his poetry The most well known
poets of Medina were Hassan Ibn Thabit Abdullah
Ibn Rawaha And Ka'ab Ibn Malik And
so he was among the top three poets
So when he sat In front of the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam He told him That
look Ya Rasulullah I am a man Who
has been given The skill of debating I
can easily convince you That what I'm saying
is True He said he has that ability
and that skill So he said that he
could Easily make excuses and arguments That sound
convincing But then he said If I do
that It would easily be exposed Because he
is the messenger of Allah Allah will expose
him So his lie would not Go that
far So that's why He decided to speak
the truth And so in this Is a
lesson for The people of knowledge Or those
who have Debating skills That they should use
Their knowledge and their skills In conveying The
Deen of Allah in all honesty And not
hide anything And not twist anything And not
change anything Because unfortunately Nowadays you have Many
arguments that are made For excusing oneself From
Our duties to Allah And the Deen of
Allah And the most Convincing arguments They come
from people with a background in knowledge People
who are Well versed In the Qur'an
and in the Sunnah They're easily able to
pull out Ayat or a hadith To make
their points and convince the people These are
evil scholars And people Who just want to
follow their Desires But A true scholar Is
one who will say the truth No matter
what The consequences are The next lesson That
we learn Is a lesson In good And
also bad company Good Companionship And also bad
companionship On the one hand you have Those
men From the tribe of Ka'ab ibn
Malik Who gave him bad advice What did
they tell him?
Go back to the Prophet And take back
your words They came to him As if
they were sincere Advisors wanting good for him
And they were pressuring him To do this
And he was about to do it Due
to the pressure This is what we call
Peer pressure And so this is a lesson
For us not to have The wrong company
around us Who will give us such bad
advice And suggestions At the same time We
have an example Of good company And that
was when Ka'ab r.a asked them
If there had been Anyone else Who basically
Had a similar situation like me Right?
Who spoke the truth And he didn't have
any valid excuse And then they said yes
And when they mentioned the names What did
he say?
He said these two men They are an
example for me They are An example for
me And so as a result he decided
Not to go back to the Prophet Sallallahu
alayhi wasallam Simply because Of who these two
men were And so they were righteous men
Who participated in the battle of Badr So
he was Encouraged by this As they were
good examples For him And so this shows
us How good company Gives us support And
it makes us strong And so it's important
For us to surround ourselves In good company
To only have good friends Especially In rotten
environments Like the societies we live in And
so it's important For us to realize that
You cannot survive on your own And that
you need Support from like-minded Individuals The
next lesson that we learn Is The consequences
Of speaking the truth And again this is
one of the greatest Lessons that we learn
from this story The ones who spoke the
truth What happened to them?
They were Boycotted No one in Medina spoke
to them They suffered They were in pain
They went through 50 nights Of suffering But
the ones Who lied What happened with them?
The Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam Let them go
They went on to enjoy their lives Right?
But this was the test from Allah And
we saw How It was short-lived In
the end In the end They were victorious
In the end Their suffering came to an
end And it turned from Suffering into a
moment of joy And so this teaches us
That although Lying gives you An instant Gratification
An instant solution It's a solution that is
short-lived And eventually the lie will become
exposed If not in this life Then for
sure On the Day of Judgment Whereas speaking
the truth Although It may cause you to
suffer at times It's only short-term And
it will Benefit you in the long run
And that is how Our test in the
dunya is We are tempted to Fulfill our
desires But they are all short-term and
temporary Whereas Restricting ourselves from haram Pleasures will
eventually benefit Us in the long run Meaning
in the akhira The next lesson that we
learn Is the level of the Submission Of
the sahabah Not a single Person Went to
speak to Ka'ab ibn Malik And his
two companions The Prophet ﷺ gave them Strict
orders And they obeyed and they submitted They
were told Not to speak to these three
individuals And so Not even those Who were
close to them Like Abu Qatada, the cousin
of Ka'ab Even he did not speak
to him And this was when Ka'ab
came to him And there was no one
else around Right?
He could have said Okay, there's no one
else around You know, I might as well
Speak to him But we saw He did
not utter a single word He did not
Even give him salam And so This shows
us why that boycott Worked, why it was
so Effective Because of the submission Of the
companions And this is something that we see
throughout The lives of the sahabah They immediately
submitted To every command Of the Prophet ﷺ
Without any hesitation Without any delay The next
lesson that we learn Is that We should
be cautious Of the plots and the schemes
Of the kuffar and the enemies Of Islam
We learn this from the letter that was
sent By the king of Ghassan What we
learn from that Is that our enemies will
try To break through the Muslim ranks And
infiltrate us Whenever They sense an opportunity So
here They tried to bring out A prominent
member of the Muslim community And Invited him
to join them Not because they love him
Not because they want good for him But
because they have An agenda And so their
whole point of doing that Was to weaken
the Muslims Was to cause Disunity and division
Among the Muslims And they are doing that
today As well They are willing To fund
Any Muslim who is sympathetic To their cause
And they are willing to sit behind the
scenes And support Muslims Who are willing to
Promote a watered down Version of Islam The
version of Islam That conforms with the western
way of life If Ka'ab R.A
Had Accepted that invitation Then he would have
gone And he would have done the same
thing The next lesson that we learn Is
that we should destroy anything That can be
a source of fitna A source of temptation
Ka'ab R.A Destroyed the letter Why?
Because he was afraid That if he left
it Maybe later on He would go back
to it, he would read it And then
he would be tempted And accept the invitation
Of the king He could have said Okay
let me just keep it as a souvenir
Here you have a letter from a king
Addressed directly to me But did he?
No, what did he do?
Instead he threw it into the fire Likewise
We need to do the same With anything
that causes us Fitna and temptation Don't let
it be Around us You know, the access
points of Shaytan, close them Don't let him
have any Access point Close all of these
avenues That are going to lead you To
temptation The next lesson that we learn Is
never giving up Hope in Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala And so no matter how bad
Things get, always remain Truthful to Allah And
He will come to your aid And he
will send his relief Look at how Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala Described these three individuals
وَظَنُوا أَلَّا مَلْجَأَ مِنَ اللَّهِ إِلَّا إِلَيْهِ They
knew that There was no refuge From Allah
except in him That there is no running
away from Allah except By turning to Allah
And so this is how The true believer
is Even if you do something Wrong And
it brings you devastation As these three Had
done In the end you know Very well
that there is nowhere To run except to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And finally The
last lesson that we'll mention Is That the
repentance that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Accepts
is the one that Is honest and sincere
Not the one that is fake And so
these Three men, they repented to Allah Sincerely
They regretted their wrong Decision And a sign
that they were sincere Is The suffering that
they went through For these fifty nights And
how as we mentioned two of them They
were just crying and crying Until the end
You know this shows us How sincere they
were In their tawbah On the other hand
On the other hand you have the munafiqun
They did something wrong But They didn't care
Not only did they not join the army
But then They added one sin to another
And that was by lying And fabricating stories
In the end Did they feel any regret
for doing that?
No, as Allah says فَرِحَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ بِمَقْعَدِهِمْ خِلَافَ
رُسُولِ اللهِ The munafiqun are happy That they
stayed behind They're happy And likewise Even some
Muslims When they say that Oh I have
asked Allah To forgive me for a sin
But they carry on Their lives They don't
feel that regret in their heart That what
I did was wrong We need to be
careful Because in the end of the day
We don't know Has Allah accepted our repentance
or not Alright We'll only know that when
we meet Allah Right But a sign That
your repentance has been accepted by Allah Is
That remorse That you feel in your heart
That regret, that anguish That devastation That I've
done something extremely wrong And you cry These
are all signs Of an accepted repentance As
we have seen in the story Of Ka
'b ibn Malik And his two companions With
that we come to the end of Tonight's
session Insha'Allah we will continue Next week