Maryam Amir – Allah Heard Her
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AI: Transcript ©
Studies.
When the Allah, the companion of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa
sallam, who was from Medina, from the Dina, the woman of Medina,
were known to have very assertive personalities, very dynamic
personalities, so much so that Ahmad Ali lahaine, who said that
when the woman from Mecca migrated to Medina, they started to take
the habits of the woman from Medina and of being really like
intense in marriage, and how that odiloha and had one day, there's
different narrations of exactly what took place, but she had an
argument with her husband, oh, slowly, and he said to her, he
said, You are like my mom's back to me, that kind of sounds
strange, but what the intention of that time meant You're like my
mom. So I no longer basically there. He no longer wants to be
married to her, and when he said this to her, he then left the
home, and he came back later. When he came back later, he tried to
initiate contact in a very G rated way. I'm going to say that because
they put me just through. And when that happened, she said no, and
she physically pushed him, and then went to the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Now she's with the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, and she's trying to understand whether or not she
is still married to this man, because this is before the verses
surrounding Islamic law and divorce came down, and the the
explanation in the Sunnah. And so at this time, this is how divorce
was initiated. But she did not want that, and she went to the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and she explained what
happened. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
because he didn't have revelation yet about what to do, he basically
said it's as it was. And she was upset. She was very upset by this.
She said that her husband is the most beloved man to her. Her
husband was the most beloved man to her. And so she started to make
dua. Her dua was very intense. She kept praying to Allah. She turns
towards the libla, and she started to make dua for Allah. Then she's
complaining. She brings her sadness. She brings her depth of
pain to Allah, Subhanahu wa hoping for some guidance from the Prophet
sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam.
And when you look at the way that she makes this statement,
that she asks Allah, she goes to Allah,
it's very similar to Pamela, that conversation with Allah. It's very
similar to the way that I heard a shaykh making dua, where I saw
that dua is different when you go to it with so much pain. There's a
difference between Oh Allah, give me good in this life, give me good
in the hereafter. Oh Allah, make me successful. Oh Allah, help me
use my test and Oh Allah, if you do not answer me, who is going to
answer me? Oh Allah, if you turn me away, where am I going to go?
Oh Allah, if you do not do something, who's going to do
something? Help me. Oh Allah, help me. That Paul from the depth of
her heart, when you have a loved one that you're worried about,
when you have a child that you're torn apart over and you go to
Allah with that emotion and your heart breaking apart. This is how
she went to Allah.
And in this intensity of emotion, sitting with the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Allah revealed Quran
revealed is Milan many walking
Asmaa, one
now
Allah has heard the one that comes to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam arguing with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam, and
mention he Allah that she's complaining she's hurt. She's
coming to Allah with this pain. He is Allah has heard their
conversation,
and indeed, Allah is the one who hears and he sees Sabi ang will
see you.
Hears and sees
was that a dahlia Ayu, she's with her PhD of women in the Quran. She
said there are 26 women in the Quran, and in every single case of
women mentioned, Allah acknowledges their emotional
reality.
Now Allah's penalties recognized, he heard and he saw. Why is Tamir
and basil so important in the circumstance when you're having a
conversation in the depth of your home, it can very easily turn to
he said this, and she said this, and he said this and she said
this. And sometimes you just want someone to acknowledge what
happened. You just want someone to acknowledge your pain. You're just
seeking a safe space, a refuge where you know that you are heard.
Allah didn't just hear he also saw.
He's not just validating what he heard of their conversation, but
also what he saw of her pain. And this is very similar to when the
mother of Manya just so beautifully spoke about when she
makes Noah. To Allah, she had wanted to have a baby after all of
these years of struggling and infertility, which is a very real,
real, real struggle, and for so many woman, and she went through
this, and she's so excited to become a mother, and all of a
sudden, her husband passes away,
and she goes from the joy of having her first child to the fear
of suddenly becoming a widow and not knowing how she's going to
raise a child by herself.
And what does she do? She calls out to to Allah,
and she says,
Miro.
Me
Samir again, the one who hears, but instead of Bos, panel
uses his name Aileen, the one who knows, in the circumstance of the
mother of many am
she doesn't know how she's going to become a single mom. She
doesn't know the future of this child who she was waiting for so
many years for. She doesn't know what to do. So who assures her,
who reassures her, who comforts her, and im the one who hears her
dua to him, the one she's calling out to in pain, and the one who
knows her circumstance.
So when hola the Allah
receives this verse, this set of verses, the next few verses as
well, address her circumstance. Ibn Ashur mentions it wasn't just
for her, it was for every believing woman who's seeking
justice, that she sought to seek justice and that she fought, she
she went, she, she didn't simply say, okay, she asked. Rodilo anha,
this is the only Sura, Sura and mujahidah. This is the only surah
in which Allah's name is mentioned in every single verse of entire
Surah, not in an incredibly amazing Surah like Allahu Ahad,
which is all about Allah. So short Allah could have chosen that his
name is in every word verse, but the only verse he chose for his
name to appear, sometimes multiple times, is this surah, which was
revealed. The setup of the revelation. The reason for the
revelation was this woman's this woman's desperate cry.
Some of the scholars of tafsir mentioned
that this surah and this ayah, Allah's name is mentioned four
separate times in the very first ayah of that Surah, that it is a
tafsir of the verse in the Quran that says, Well, who am I Tom?
Coin.
He is with you wherever you are.
If he is with you in his knowledge, in His sight, in his in
his hearing, wherever you are. It means no matter what you're going
through, you are never alone.
It means that whether it's the pain or the joy or the loneliness
or the confusion of your life that Allah's panata is always with you,
that he's never doesn't leave you for this, for the blink of an eye,
he is so close to you,
per example, in the Medina.
Society is actually not that well documented. We don't have so much
information about her life, but what we have is her example as one
of many women of the companions of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam, who actively were part of interacting with were the reasons
for and who gave the narrations of the revelation of the Quran um
Amen will the Allah after the Prophet sallallahu, I said, and
passed away.
Allah said, let's go visit her. They went to go visit her.
They went to visit her. And she was crying. She started to cry.
And they said, Why are you crying? Don't you know that what is with
Allah is better for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam?
And she responded by saying, I'm not crying because I don't know
what is with Allah is better for the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa
sallam, I'm crying because the revelation has been cut off from
the heavens.
And then Abu Bakr and Allah both began to pray.
Om hisha bin Haditha. She meant She memorized Surah off by sitting
in the masjid of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and
hearing him recite Surah off when he would recite in the Quran or
give sermons when he would lead salah. She memorized this surah
from the lips of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam. By
being present in the masjid,
we have women companions who discuss different aspects of the
sunnah or different aspects of the revelation, because they were
actively interacting with the revelation, and that interaction
sometimes, as women, is one that maybe we don't completely see in
the same way, because we read the Quran for for sure, we sometimes
read the translation which we should do it. We don't understand
the Arabic. We memorize it. We review it when we teach it to our
kids. But sometimes do we look at the Quran as not just a friend or
a book, but a best friend? Do we look at the Quran as a refuge?
Because looking at the Quran as a refuge is a journey, just like you
have a best friend who's here with their best friend. Anyone raise
your hand?
Did you meet and in that exact moment where you like, We're best
friends,
are one that actually like, I really don't like her, and now
your best friends.
Sometimes it's a journey to get to the point where you feel close to
someone, including your own siblings. Your best friend could
be your own sister, but you don't necessarily love for every single
second of the
day. That journey is a process. But how did you get to that
process? You built a relationship. You got to know one another. You
learn each other's love languages, even if that wasn't an explicit
conversation, but you realize every time you get her a gift,
she's like, Thank you, and that's it. She doesn't return that, but
she always wants to hang out, because her love language is
actually quality time. So you see that friendship develop over time.
Why don't we do that with the Quran?
The Quran is the ultimate best friend. The Quran is the book that
we can hug, literally hug when we are heartbroken. It's the book
that we can take to a cafe and sit and drink our coffee and open it
my Sham shamper had told Allah what He does mashallah, his
memorization is on such an other level that he never looks at the
must haves to review. He says it confuses him to look at the most
have to review,
but he keeps it open to Suratul Al Baqarah while he's reviewing
social media, and he just looks at the pages. Why? Because he said
it's a band to teach us long the pages, long for the pages. Look at
the pages, touch the pages, hold the Quran. That example is when we
see from the woman companions why we have to recognize the space in
which the woman companions receive the revelation in pre Islamic
Arabia, women were being inherited like property. Their baby girls
were being buried alive.
So we know that women didn't pull the greatest space in society
all. Not only said, we used to think a woman is nothing. We used
to think a woman is nothing until what? Until Allah revealed? What
he revealed, and he divided. What he divided?
How do you think that's going to impact the self esteem of woman
who come from a society where women didn't matter, and now
suddenly Allah is bringing women into spaces in which woman never
were before.
When we see, for example, in the Quran,
there are two daughters of the Quran mentions Shaykh here like an
elder man. Some say it's the Prophet shuaibrodilo. There's a
discussion on who he was. But these two.
And went to to get their water for the flock of sheep that they were
taking care of.
When do they show up in the Quran?
They show up after Musa alayhi, salam, Prophet Moses, peace be
upon him. Called out to Allah and makes a dua rugby man. I'm
anything you can send down your love. I need anything you can send
down
the next verse, they show up.
And what happens Pamela when we talk about the woman in the Quran,
because often our community very beautifully and very importantly,
and of course, it's such a beautiful aspect of our religion
talks about modesty and discusses the importance of modesty and the
beauty of modesty Absolutely. But sometimes that can become a little
obsessive,
and it can be sign link, and it can be a place of immense
judgment.
And so when we talk about this part of the Quran,
the Quran describes that one of the women speak to Musa and Allah
says, tamshi at a stick. Here she is basically walking on modesty.
She's so modest.
And then the Quran mentions something else about her, and this
aspect of what is mentioned is honestly never really disguised.
She goes to her father, and she says,
Oh, my father. Hire him. What do the scholars of tiff mention about
this verse? Allah did not have to include her statements of Oh,
Allah. Hire him. Why did Allah include a literal statement of her
conversation? It could have just said, Allah could have said, and
then Musa went to the family, and then he was hired, or he went
through a process, and this is why and how it happened. A lot
reported her voice. Why?
Because this is a society in which women were not actively involved
in financial transactions. Prior to the revelation, prior to Islam,
women were not actively involved in economic affairs. Yes, Adi
Jamal dillahu, ika was a businesswoman, but that wasn't the
norm for women prior to Islam.
So scholars of tatsir say that Allah brought women, quoted a
woman in financial matters to affirm women in the space of
economics and finances.
There's another verse in the Quran in which Allah talks about loans,
financial loans.
And many women ask about this verse because the verse says that
there are two men who need to be seen, to be used as witnesses. And
if two men cannot be found,
then one man and two woman. So many women have asked,
Why does it need to be two women to one man? Why not just one woman
and one man?
Let's consider again, the society in which this verse is revealed.
Women were not actively involved in financial transactions. So if
we're going to talk about only this circumstance, let's only
focus on this because the rulings for all sorts of witnessing are
different depending on the issue. But in loans, in the issue of
taking a loan, it's recommended to have it written down and to have
the debt contract witnessed, one man's testimony is not enough on
his own.
He needs another man. If another man is not present, then two
women. Why? Why two? Because Allah says, if one of them forgets, the
other one can remind her why. This is the first time they may be
exposed to this language in that society. This is the first time
they may be being exposed to this conversation. We're not talking
about women who have their PhDs in economics, nor women who actively
were involved with the stock market or credit cards or anything
like that. We're talking about a society in which women's arena was
often poetry, sometimes lineage, sometimes medicine, but not
necessarily financial transactions. So when we are
reading this verse here today in 2023 sometimes we say, well, why
wouldn't Allah say just one woman and one man? Why does it need to
be two? We're often reading that verse with our own lens, sometimes
with our own trauma, absolutely understandable, but in a society,
it was revealed in scholars mention that this is Allah
elevating women into a space that they were not before, and Allah is
the One who brings them into that space, not men, not men who.
Governance society, that Allah is the One who brings women into this
space, and that it's not about we're not having enough
intelligence because, like Doctor Amina, so beautifully spoke about
the queen of Shiva that she talks and asks advice from the advisors
as the Queen, and after she has this conversation on what to do,
from Suleiman alaihi salam as she explained, what is the next part
of that?
And that is how it is. That's what they do. That's what they do.
Scholars of tafsir of Quran say that is Allah subhanahu wa
affirming her intelligence.
So when we look at a verse like this, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn AM, they
both have a discussion that modern day scholars build on today. And
they say that if a woman has the qualification of being involved in
these transactions, one woman's testimony is enough.
But the important point is that Allah subhanahu wa knows every
society from the time of Revelation, from before the
revelation until the end. And he acknowledges that, and in that
every woman who is mentioned in the Quran has a space a different
type of personality, so that every single one of us, no matter what
we're going through, no matter what our background is, we all can
connect to the woman in the Quran when we look at close as story.
What's so fascinating is that her name is not mentioned. In fact,
women's names are often not mentioned. Mariam adeka sana's
name is mentioned, but this opens the door for us to be able to
connect to the woman without needing to be all of her
personality. Women who are going through issues with their husband
can understand this part of the verse. Women who are in spaces of
leadership can understand the queen of Shiva. Women who are in
different spaces can connect to different women because every
example is for us to take and to worship Allah differently, just
like Allah tells us when he says
he Yeah,
that my prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death is all for
Allah.
So what is that? It's broad. It's not only if I'm this particular
type of woman, only if I have this particular role only if I do this
or don't do this. Am I concluded, and someone that ALLAH SubhanA wa
Taala speaks to sometimes, as women, we may not understand
certain aspects because we may not see ourselves in those aspects.
And we need to take a step back and ask, is that the Quran or is
that maybe the way a particular community is set up, in the
infrastructure, the architecture and the policies. What does my
Lord say to me
and when we see that women are elevated into spaces in which
women were not before we have the example of many of Salam, but
Doctor Rania just so beautifully talked about, but Miami has Salam.
She was brought into the space of beetle Methodist as the very first
woman. And when she was brought into the space, yes, she
worshiped. She so fast and she prayed and she did all of the
aspects of ritual worship.
But when a man was in her quarters, her private quarters
which noone should have been able to access, that she didn't expect.
And the textile mentions he's a well proportioned man. He's a very
good looking man, mashaAllah. And these she sees this man, her
immediate reaction
is to make dala to him.
She doesn't scream and run out of the room. And she has every right
to do.
She called him back, and she says, If you fear, Allah, if you No, no,
she didn't say, Allah,
Who does she call upon? Who?
A Rahman? Why would you call upon a Rahman? Because
if he had a bad intention. She's reminding him, go back to the one
who will forgive you before you even do it.
Her worship prepared her
for action and calling people to Allah.
And when she responded in that way, Ibn Kathir mentions the I'm
not so scared that he immediately flipped into an angel. He flipped
back into his form,
and immediately he says, I'm just a messenger. I'm
just a messenger. Give me the glad tidings of a son.
But in this.
Face Allah brought her in beitul meltis, where a woman had never
been. In this space, he shows us our role in calling people to
Allah through the example of many alas
and when she has her baby, and she goes out holding that baby and
bringing that baby to the people Allah's panel Unto Allah didn't
order her uncle, zakiriya, a prophet Ali has salam to take that
baby. Allah didn't make Jibreel appear as a person or even an
angel and take that baby. She had had a baby, and Allah ordered her
to go out to her people. That's how important her her presence is.
That's how important her role is in calling people to Allah.
Every single one of us plays a different role. But what we see
from the time of the companions is that their interaction with the
Quran allowed for the for the stepping stones of the woman's
scholarship throughout history that we have until today.
Right now, if you go to Mecca, or if you go to Medina,
have you been to Mecca or Medina? Some of you,
have you seen a woman scholar teaching? Raise your hand if you
have
Yes, yes, two, three. So you see the chairs in the woman section.
Those chairs are there, and the woman will sit, and they will
teach courses, yes, but you can hear over the speaker that the men
are having halahas, right? You can hear the Shias, and you hear all
the men being able to ask questions, and you wonder, what if
I have a question that I want
to ask this Shia? That setup of how Mawi is is very different how
it was historically. I was speaking to a woman who grew up in
Saudi Arabia, and she said when she was six, as a six year old
girl, she could run around, mashed and Nabawi with No Barriers. She
went to every single part of mission and never we and explored
all of it.
But when we don't know how the setup of the masjid was
decades ago, and when we see today, if we don't know how the
society of the Prophet saw them was, we may think this is all of
Islam. It's a beautiful practice of Islam. It's certain opinions
that we take and we follow that might be best for our community,
or the community of Medina right now. But just as women to take a
step back and recognize that this isn't necessarily how even this
message, look throughout history and we don't know what it's going
to look like in 20 to 30 years. We may be the ones who have stories
of we could go there, or maybe we couldn't go there. And now it's
open. Recognizing that there's a difference between the
infrastructure and Revelation is so important, especially when we
look at the reality of who women scholars were, because in these
holy spaces in national Aqsa, we have uma del Radha, who was a
scholar, who used to teach in national Aqsa itself. And if you
go to the Masjid Al Aqsa, you see there that there are the Imam,
shafina, masha Allah. He's so accessible. He's there, sitting
there. You can have a woman scholar teaching with him. People
are taking classes. Everything is open. The infrastructure is
different. Does that make it better or worse? No, it's just
different, and it works for that culture or that community, but
it's the third holiest faith in Islam, and this is acceptable in
their scholarship. Then we go to Medina. In Medina, there was a
shecha. Her name was Sheikha, Fatima, fair Fatima, you know
where the Prophet
sallallahu, alayhi wasallam is buried. There's like a, kind of
like a gate. She used to sit with her back, reclining on that gate.
And men and women, scholars would sit, and she would teach them, and
then she would hand write ujaza for them.
In Mecca,
we have women who would come, who were scholars. They would come for
hedge, and they would sit in Mecca, in different circles, and
they would teach Sahib Bukhari, because they were some of the
greatest contributors to see how guhadi the greatest memory
memorizers and narrators of sakiha guhari Since aluzara in Cairo, she
was invited to come from Syria, and hundreds of men and women
filled the hall in the masjid where she would lecture to them.
These are examples we don't really see today, honestly, not
somewhere, not somewhere that we here may be used to seeing, but
it's part of our history, and it's taking place in different parts of
the world, of course, with all the proper Islamic guidelines, of
course, with all the etiquette, of course, with all of the important
things to make sure that it's appropriate to Allah. But what we
see in the time of the woman companions, until now, is that
women were teaching women. Women were learning from men, or
teaching men, or only focusing on women. But we have the narration,
so many narrations from the woman companions, because they were
present, because they were accessible, and because they
access the.
Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam. That's why I would
document. We have so much weak so much scholarship on the issue of
women scholars. It's because they were there 1000s of women
throughout history teaching our religion, and we have their
examples set from the pillars of the women companions themselves
when
the Allahu anha, when she was an older lady, an older woman and a
little the Allahu Anhu was rahalifa at the time she came to
Muhammad Ali Alaba,
and she stopped him while he was walking with a man named eljod.
She stopped him, and she said that she remembers, and he was, yeah,
this little blue
one. And now you're the Khalifa, and you used to go and used to
tend in the markets with the sheep fear Allah kind of went to Island
and El Jeru and is like, do you do?
You know who this is? You're talking to the Khalifa. Why would
you let a woman to Amala? Why would you let a woman, oh, another
woman, talk to you like if you're the Khalifa and Allah who
responded, do you know who this is, Allah from the seventh heaven.
So Allah from the from the from the Allah,
He is the one who listened to her, and he revealed revelation because
of her.
If she was going to stand all day and talk to Ahmad, Alabama, who
the only time he would have left is to praise Allah and come back.
This is amaldi to prior to Islam. What did he say? We used to think
nothing of woman. Look at how Islam impacted the way that he saw
a woman in society. Look at how the revelation was given, because
one woman went to Allah, pleading and asking for her circumstance
with her husband, Aisha, radiAllahu anha,
when her husband passed away, RadiAllahu sallallahu alayhi, wa
sallam, Prophet sallallahu sallam, he was buried in her home when Abu
Asmaa, who passed away, he was buried Next to the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Now she is thinking about her own
death. Where is she planning to be buried? Where does she hope to be
buried next to her husband, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and
her father will the one but one, Allahu AK was passing away.
He had a request. Could he be buried there? Could he be buried
with his best friends? So the Lombardi, he was in the Monroe,
the Aloha. And out of her sincerity, out of her love, out of
her sisterhood,
she allowed for almond oil on who to be buried there. And if she
wouldn't have said yes, today we would be visiting our Ummah and
Abu Bakr and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam, excuse
me, Ayesha radiAllahu anha and Abu Bakr Al IQ and the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. But instead, we have the honor of
visiting OMA and Abu Bakr and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam. And why I want to end with that note is because we live in a
time right now where sometimes when it comes to men and women,
there's a lot of confusing issues, there's a lot of tension, there
can be a lot of arguments. But go back to the women companions. Go
back to Ayesha Radi Allahu anha. She didn't do this act as a
political act. She didn't do this act because of controversy. She
did this act out of love for her brother, rodi Allah, the Quran
teaches us that as a woman, we are seen, we are heard, that Allah is
with us, that He knows what we're going through, and that when we
carry this message, we are, Inshallah, the embodiment of the
People who are a bad Rahman, a bad Rahman, a those who are the
servants of the Most Merciful calling others, like many of our
they have said, I'm dead to the most merciful, and may Allah honor
us with being all of those people who are the Most Merciful.
We have demons. Honor of having doctor came back here from today
that I'm so excited to hear talking to her right now,
subhanAllah, we have the condition when they're either committed to
what extent, when they can.