Kamil Ahmad – The Lives of the Sahabiyyat – 15 – Ruqayyah bint Muhammad RA

AI: Summary ©
The importance of Islam in helping people achieve their spiritual goals is highlighted, along with its teachings and its conflict of interest between people and religion. The Prophet's teachings are discussed, including his teachings about his wife and children, as well as his teachings about a woman named Umm Jameel and her death. The Prophet's death is also highlighted as a sad loss for her family, as she lost her love for her and was the first of her children to pass away inly�.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
All praise is due to Allah, the Most
Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As our Lord loves and is pleased with.
And peace and blessings be upon the best
of Allah's creation.
And upon his family, his companions and those
who are guided by his guidance.
And he waited by his Sunnah until the
Day of Recompense.
O Allah, teach us what will benefit us.
And benefit us with what you have taught
us.
And increase us in knowledge.
And show us the truth as the truth.
And grant us to follow it.
And show us falsehood as falsehood.
And grant us to avoid it.
And make us of those who listen to
the word and follow the best of it.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
We continue on with the lives of the
sahabiyat.
The female companions of the Prophet ﷺ.
And we were on the daughters of the
Prophet ﷺ.
And so last time we spoke about the
eldest daughter of Rasulullah ﷺ.
And that was Zaynab.
We now move on to the second daughter
of the Prophet ﷺ after Zaynab.
And she was Ruqayyah.
And so Ruqayyah just like her sister Zaynab.
She was brought up in the household of
Rasulullah ﷺ before the Prophethood.
Before the Prophethood.
And sometime before the Prophethood.
Rasulullah ﷺ married two of his daughters.
Ruqayyah and Umm Kalthum.
He married both of them to two of
his nephews.
Who were brothers.
And they were the sons of his uncle
Abu Lahab.
And so Ruqayyah she married Utbah ibn Abi
Lahab.
Utbah ibn Abi Lahab.
When Rasulullah ﷺ first received the revelation from
Allah at the age of 40.
His wife as we know Khadija ﷺ was
among the first to follow him, to believe
him.
And his daughters they followed her lead.
They also embraced Islam right from the very
beginning.
Including Ruqayyah.
Now initially the Prophet ﷺ was not giving
da'wah publicly.
He was teaching and inviting people to Islam
privately.
But eventually Allah commanded Rasulullah ﷺ to start
giving da'wah publicly.
Starting with his close family and relatives.
So he went and he stood on Mount
Safa.
And he called on the leaders of Quraysh.
Including all of his uncles.
And so everyone who heard the Prophet ﷺ
ran towards the source of the voice.
And even the ones who could not go
they sent someone, a representative who would report
back to them.
Because the way the Prophet ﷺ called out
it sounded like something very very important.
So when everyone gathered Rasulullah ﷺ asked them.
If I tell you that there is an
army behind this mountain.
That is about to ambush you.
That is about to attack you.
Would you believe me?
They said, of course.
We have never heard you ever telling a
lie.
Rasulullah ﷺ said, in that case I am
here to warn you of a severe punishment.
That will befall you if you don't believe.
And so this is how the Prophet ﷺ
started his da'wah publicly to his people.
Now when the Prophet ﷺ called everyone.
As I said they came thinking it was
something urgent and important.
And it obviously was.
But for some people when they heard that
this is why the Prophet ﷺ called them.
They were upset.
And the most notable of these people was
Abu Lahab.
The uncle of the Prophet ﷺ.
So when he heard this, when he heard
what the Prophet ﷺ had to say.
What was his response?
He said.
تَبَّن لَكَ سَائِرَ الْيَوْمِ Abu Lahab said to
the Prophet ﷺ.
May evil befall you for the rest of
your day.
Is this why you called us?
And so Abu Lahab, he was a businessman.
And he had to leave his work and
his business.
And the Prophet ﷺ is telling them about
Allah.
And about the hellfire and the punishment.
And so for him this was not important.
Like many people today.
Even many Muslims if you tell them.
Come let's attend a lecture.
Or do something beneficial for our Deen.
They say I don't have time for that.
Anyways, when Abu Lahab said this.
This is when Allah revealed Surah Al-Masad.
تَبَّتْ يَدَى أَبِي لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ May the hands
of Abu Lahab perish.
مَا أَغْنَى عَنْهُ مَالُهُ وَمَا كَسَبْ And may
he himself perish.
Neither his wealth nor his worldly gains will
benefit him.
Notice how Allah is telling him.
That his wealth that he cares so much
about.
His business is not gonna benefit him.
سَيَصْلَ نَارٌ ذَا تَلَهَبْ He will burn in
a flaming fire.
And then Allah speaks about his wife as
well, Umm Jameel.
Who's also gonna be in the hellfire.
Why?
Because these two, Abu Lahab and his wife.
From this day onwards, they would become among
the fiercest enemies of the Prophet ﷺ.
And so one of the first steps that
Abu Lahab took, both he and his wife.
One of the first steps that they took
to harm Rasool Allah ﷺ was to have
both of his sons to divorce the daughters
of Rasool Allah ﷺ.
We mentioned that before the Prophethood, Muhammad ﷺ
married his two daughters to the two sons
of Abu Lahab.
And now there's a conflict of interest.
And here you have ayat being revealed about
Abu Lahab.
And how he's gonna be in the hellfire.
And so he goes to his sons, and
he tells them that if they don't divorce
their wives, he's never gonna speak to them
ever again.
So he went to his son Utbah, and
he told him to divorce his wife Ruqayyah.
And in exchange, he would marry him to
the daughter of one of the notables of
Quraysh, the daughter of Sa'id ibn al-'As.
So Utbah, he readily obeyed his father, and
he divorced Ruqayyah.
But guess what?
Although they thought that they would be harming
Rasool Allah ﷺ and his daughter Ruqayyah, Allah
had better plans for her.
And so soon after that, Rasool Allah ﷺ
married Ruqayyah to one of the first to
accept Islam, a nobleman from Quraysh, a rich
businessman, one of the pious, righteous men of
the Sahaba, Uthman ibn Affan ﷺ, who would
go on to become one of the four
Khulafa ar-Rashideen after Rasool Allah ﷺ.
And so look at how Allah replaces for
His righteous servants what is far better than
what they may lose in this dunya.
And that is a promise of Allah, as
the Prophet ﷺ says, مَنْ تَرَكَ شَيْءًۭا لِلَّهِ
عَوَّضَهُ خَيْرًۭا مِّنْ That whoever abandons something for
the sake of Allah, Allah will replace it
with something far better.
And we have in the story of Umm
Salama, where the Prophet ﷺ told her to
say this dua, when she lost her husband
who was very dear to her, he taught
her a dua to say, and this is
a dua we should say whenever a calamity
befalls us, whenever we lose something, to say,
Oh Allah, replace that with something far better.
Replace that which I lost with something far
better.
And so without a doubt, Uthman ibn Affan
r.a, this great noble companion, is far
better than the husband who Ruqayya had initially,
the Kafir, and the son of the enemy
of Allah and His Messenger, Utbah ibn Abi
Lahab.
And so the two of them got married,
Ruqayya got married to Uthman r.a, and
they lived for the next several years in
Mecca, as the persecution of the Kuffar of
Quraysh gradually started to increase on the Muslims.
It increased until it reached intolerable levels.
And when that happened, Rasulullah ﷺ gave orders
for some of the companions who were able
to, that they should make hijrah to the
land of Al-Habashah, to Abyssinia.
And so the Prophet ﷺ told them that
there is a very just, pious king, and
here he's referring to Al-Najashi.
The Prophet ﷺ said that there is a
very pious, just king, and no one is
ever oppressed or wronged in his land, so
go to him, go live over there.
And so among the very first migrants, among
the very first to make hijrah was Uthman
and his wife Ruqayya.
And so it wasn't easy leaving their homeland,
and in the case of Ruqayya, leaving her
father who is the messenger of Allah ﷺ,
but it was a sacrifice that they were
willing to make for the sake of Allah
and for the sake of their deen.
There in Abyssinia, Allah blessed them with a
baby boy who they named Abdullah.
So one of the first grandchildren of the
Prophet ﷺ was this son of Ruqayya, which
he named Abdullah, and that is why Ruqayya
became known by her kunya of Umm Abdullah.
However, this son of theirs, he would pass
away later on at the age of six
in Medina, and Ruqayya had no other children
after him.
So this was the only child that she
had.
Later on, Ruqayya returns to Mecca with her
husband, and this was after the tenth year
of the hijrah, or the tenth year of
the Prophethood.
She returns with her husband to Mecca to
receive the shocking news of her mother's death.
And so Khadijah passed away in the tenth
year of the Prophethood.
Then a few years later, Allah gave permission
for the Muslims to migrate once again.
In fact, this was an obligation on everyone
to migrate, to leave Mecca and migrate to
Medina.
And Uthman, he migrated, and Ruqayya joined him
later.
As such, Ruqayya radiAllahu anha, among the daughters
of the Prophet ﷺ, she had the honor
of being among those who made the two
hijras.
The first hijra to Abyssinia, and the second
hijra to Medina.
Then in Ramadan of the second year of
the hijra, Ruqayya, she fell extremely ill.
And it was at this same time that
the great battle of Badr was about to
take place, in Ramadan of the second year
of the hijra.
And so this was the first time that
the Muslims would face off against their enemy.
And it was a very decisive battle, as
Allah calls it in the Qur'an, the
day of Al-Furqan, Yawm Al-Furqan, the
day of the great decision and the great
criterion.
Almost all the early Muslims participated in this
battle, and virtually none of them missed out.
As soon as the Prophet ﷺ announced that
we're going out, we're going out to intercept
the caravan of Abu Sufyan, he told whoever
was able to get ready quickly and come,
that he's leaving right now, and whoever is
not able to, that's it, he's going to
miss out.
And Uthman ibn Affan, he started preparing himself
for the battle.
And just like everyone else, he was getting
ready, but when Rasulullah ﷺ saw him, he
asked him not to join them, and instead
to stay with Ruqayya to take care of
her.
She was extremely ill, and there was no
one to look after her.
And that's why Rasulullah ﷺ, after the battle
of Badr, he set aside a share of
the ghanima, a share of the spoils of
the war, for Uthman, even though he did
not participate.
As we know in jihad, when the Muslims
are victorious, and they win all of these
ghanaim, the spoils of war, the booty of
war, those who are rewarded with it, they
are the fighters, not anyone who did not
participate.
But the Prophet ﷺ set aside a share
for Uthman.
Why?
Because the only reason Uthman did not have
the honor of participating in that battle, was
because of the orders of the Prophet ﷺ.
And there was not a single battle that
he missed after that, with the Prophet ﷺ.
Now, after the Muslims left Medina for Badr,
with the Prophet ﷺ, back in Medina, Ruqayya,
her illness, became more severe, and she eventually
passed away.
And so this was heartbreaking for Uthman ﷺ.
Not only did he miss out on the
battle, this very decisive battle, the most important
battle in the history of Islam, but he
also loses his wife.
And so, although it was a very difficult
day for him, he prayed her janazah and
he buried her.
And then Rasulullah ﷺ, who was victorious in
the battle of Badr, he sent Zaid ibn
Harithah to rush to Medina to deliver the
good news of the victory.
And so, this brought some joy to Uthman
ﷺ, but obviously, what overshadowed it was the
death of his beloved wife, Ruqayya.
Then when Rasulullah ﷺ arrived with the army,
he was saddened to receive this news of
the death of his daughter.
And this was his very first daughter to
pass away.
From among his four daughters, Ruqayya was the
first to pass away.
And she was his first child to pass
away in adulthood.
As we know, the Prophet ﷺ lost his
sons while they were young, and it was
only his daughters who lived until they became
adults, and Ruqayya was the first of them
to pass away in adulthood.
And so, he went to her grave and
he prayed for her.
And so, this was the life of Ruqayya
ﷺ.
And this is all we know of her
life, due to the simple fact that, as
you can see, she didn't live that long.
But as we can see, even though her
name is not mentioned as much among the
sahabiyyat, we don't know much about her, there
are not that many narrations or ahadith mentioning
her.
Whatever little we have learned from the life
of Ruqayya, we can learn themes of faith
and sacrifice and perseverance, all for the sake
of Allah and this deen.
Even from whatever little we've learned from her
life, we can see all of these lessons
from her life.
And so, every single Muslimah should learn something
from the life of Ruqayya, and how Allah
tests us, but we need to persevere patiently
through these tests, and when we do, Allah
rewards us, and He rewards us greatly.
It's all a matter of patience and taqwa.
As Allah says, وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ
مَخْرَجًا Whoever has the taqwa of Allah, Allah
will make a way out for him, meaning
out of every difficulty.
وَيَرُزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ And He will
provide for him from ways that he never
imagined.
وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ And whoever
puts their trust in Allah, then He is
sufficient for them.
And Allah says, وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ
مِنْ أَمْرِهِ يُسْرًا And whoever has the taqwa
of Allah, Allah will make his affairs easy
for him.
And so if you're going through a rough
time in your life, turn to Allah and
maintain that strong bond with Allah instead of
doing what a lot of other people do,
where they resort to other ways of relieving
them of whatever distress they're going through, instead
of turning to Allah.
Instead of turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And so this is all we have about
Ruqayya radiallahu anha.
Insha'Allah next week we'll move on to
the next daughter of Rasool Allah ﷺ, and
that is Umm Kulthum radiallahu ta'ala, عَنْهَا
وَأَرْضَهَا سُبْحَانَكَ اللَّهُمَّ وَبِحَمْدِكَ أَشْهَدُ وَلَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا
أَنتَ أَسْتَغْفِرُكَ وَأَتُوبُ إِلَيْكَ وَصَلِّ اللَّهُمَّ وَسَلِّمْ عَلَى
نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ وَالسَّلَامُ
عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ