Mikaeel Smith – In His Footsteps #25
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
People are able to come and go and
move around.
And subhanallah, one of the immediate impacts of
this treaty is that people who were in
Mecca, because a lot of people in Mecca
were relatives of the Muslims in Medina.
We forget they were all really close to
one another.
So now that there's peace, oh, let's take
a trip to Medina real quick.
We can go see Qazil.
You know, Qazil, I mean, OK.
I'm chilling too much.
My wife, I was on my way, my
wife was like, just have fun.
I was like, all right, chill.
Have fun.
All right.
Like, people are coming to visit Medina, and
it's not a big deal.
And we see so many examples.
Today, we saw a hadith where Asmaa bint
Abi Bakr, right?
Asmaa, the daughter of Abu Bakr, she comes
to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and this
is right after Hudaybiyyah.
She says, ya Rasulullah, my mother has come
to visit.
Hiya raghima.
She doesn't want to become Muslim.
Hiya raghima, raghiba.
But she wants to be close to me.
And Asmaa's like, can I kick it with
her?
Can I be good to her?
And the Prophet was like, sali ommik.
Be good to your mother.
Like, this is how da'wah happens.
Be good to your mother.
Be good to your mother.
So those opportunities for cross-pollinization weren't happening
prior to the treaty.
But there was something even bigger, y'all.
See, by then, up until now, we weren't
worthy of sitting down at a table with.
Up until this point, we weren't able to
be talked to.
We weren't able to be considered.
We were a ragtag group of a problem
in the side of the world.
But now that they sat down at a
table with us and they signed, they recognized
us.
They recognized who we were.
They recognized that by even agreeing to these
slanted terms, you've signed and shown that we're
someone.
You've recognized who we are.
And that's profound.
Because in the Muslim community right now, globally,
what we want is recognition.
We want to recognize who the people of
Palestine are.
Recognize those things.
This was a big moment.
And so this treaty was amazing.
It allowed for there to be peace.
And I told you at the end that
Umar ibn al-Khattab, he was flustered.
He did not know how to handle this.
Because we're Muslims.
We don't take the short end of the
stick.
And so he spoke really courageously, you could
say.
Almost, we could say, boldly to the prophet,
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in that moment.
And later he said, that moment was so
cringe for me that I gave sadaqa for
the rest of my life to make up
for that moment.
Every time I would flash back.
So now here we are, right after leaving
and coming back from the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah.
What would be on the prophet's mind?
Like, we have peace with the Quraysh.
We still have a few problems of a
few other tribes.
But what's on his mind?
From day one, the prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, asked Quraysh one thing.
He said, can you just get out of
the way so I can give this message
to humanity?
This is a message for everyone.
So you know what he did the moment
he came back?
He said, all right, I want to start
sending letters to all of the empires around
the world.
All of the empires.
Now, this is crazy.
Because the pragmatic side of us is like,
you know, Shaykh, we haven't conquered Mecca yet.
We haven't accomplished the goal in Mecca yet.
But the prophet is like, the goal of
Islam is not political.
It's changing hearts.
And now I have an opportunity to take
this message to the four corners.
So the prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he
goes, all right, I want to send letters
to the major empires around.
The major empires around.
They say to the prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, the companions, they say, ya Rasulullah, these
kings have protocol.
They don't take letters unless there's like an
official seal on them.
The prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is like,
okay, cool.
They made him a ring, a silver ring.
And on the ring, it said, Allah Rasul
Muhammad.
It said, Allah Messenger Muhammad.
And it's actually backwards if you read it.
But because of his adab with God, he
didn't want to put his name on top.
So he put Allah Messenger Muhammad.
And the letters began to be written.
The first letter that was written.
I felt like with this letter, he wanted
to start off with a W.
You know, like when you want to get
momentum going, sometimes it's best to start with
like the easier win.
Wallahu alam.
So the first letter he sends is to
Africa.
Is to Africa.
Allahu akbar.
I would go deeper, but I think you
guys will accuse me of being too whatever.
I go too hard on Africa, mashallah.
So the first letter he sends is to
Abyssinia.
To the King Najashi.
To the King Najashi.
And it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful letter.
And it's a beautiful kind of dialogue of
what happened.
So Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he calls a
person.
Now he always chose a person that had
traveled to that part of the world because
they know their culture a bit.
Like look at the leadership of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
He's choosing people that, okay, who's been there
before?
Because you know how they walk, you know
how they talk, you know what they do,
you know their customs.
So the first person he calls is Amr
ibn Umayyah.
He says, all right, I need you to
go take a letter to Najashi.
This was the first one that he sent.
And there were two things.
There were two like letters that he actually
sent.
The first letter that he sent with him,
he said, I want you to send all
of the people who migrated like 10 years
ago, tell them to all come back to
Medina now.
Like guys, you know what this means?
This means the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's cousin
Jafar, who he hasn't seen in over eight
years, maybe nine years, send all of them
back.
Why?
There's peace now, they can all come back.
And then the other part of the letter,
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sent this message.
This is a letter from Muhammad ibn Najashi,
the King of Abyssinia.
Salaam, peace be upon the one who follows
guidance.
Peace be upon the one who follows guidance
and the one who believes in Allah and
his Prophet.
And the one who bears witness that there's
only one Allah with no partners.
And he doesn't have any wife or any
children.
And the one who bears witness that Muhammad
is his servant and messenger.
I call you with the call of God.
Fa inni ana rasool Allah.
That's it, clear.
Aslim taslim.
Accept Islam, you'll be good.
You'll be safe.
You'll be in peace.
And then Quran.
Oh, people of the book, come to a
word that is shared between us.
Come to a word that is shared between
us, that we won't worship except Allah.
We only worship Allah.
Wala nushrik bihi shay'ah.
And that we won't make each other gods.
Mindoon illa.
And then he says at the end, fa
inna bayt.
If you refuse, the sin of your people
is on you.
What happened?
Some say, he also, there's more to the
letter.
He says, wa ashhadu anna isa.
He says, and I bear witness that Jesus,
the son of Mary, is the spirit of
God and the word of God.
That he placed in the virgin Mary, the
chaste Batool, Maryam.
Fa hamalat shibi, conceived Isa.
Fa khalaqahullah.
Allah created him from his spirit, like he
created Adam with his hand.
I call you to Islam.
What happened?
The reason we study these letters is we
show how simple the dawah of the prophet
was.
It wasn't very complex.
It was simple.
Sometimes we get too deep, y'all.
We get too deep.
Like, just give the simplicity of, the beauty
of Islam is its simplicity.
And then we make it complex.
Well, there's like four madhhabs, but you don't
gotta choose one of those.
Chill.
La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah.
That's it.
That's it.
What happens?
The letter is given, is read to Najashi.
He takes it.
And he takes the letter and he places
it on his eyes.
He takes the letter and he places it
on his eyes.
Wannazala ansareerihi.
He got off of his throne and sat
on the ground.
Like, I'm not a king right now.
This doesn't befit me to be sitting up
here, reading this prophet's letter.
He sits on the ground.
Nazala ansareerihi.
Jalasa alal alq, tawaduan.
He sat on the floor out of humility.
Thumma aslama.
Becomes Muslim.
He takes his shahada.
And then he says, if I could, I
would go to him right now.
And he wrote a letter back.
And this is the letter that he wrote
back.
It's so beautiful.
He says, bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
He's already using the Muslim lingo.
Inshallah.
The new Muslim, you call them up and
they're like, salamu alaykum.
You're like, yes, yes.
And then they hit the, mashallah, it's over.
I got you.
Alhamdulillah.
He says, ila muhammad rasulillah.
To Muhammad, the prophet of Allah.
Min najashi asham.
Salamun alayka, ya nabiya Allah.
Peace be upon you, oh prophet of God.
Wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Got the whole thing.
Min Allah, la ilaha illa hu.
There is no God except Allah.
Allathee hadani ilal Islam.
The one who guided me to Islam.
Amma ba'd.
He says, I got your letter, ya rasulullah.
And I saw everything you said about Jesus.
And he says, by Allah, the Lord of
the heavens and earth, Jesus is not more
than what you've said.
He's not more than, you know when you
eat a date and there's that little piece
of the date seed, that little skin on
the date seed.
He said, he's not this much more than
what you said.
Meaning he's exactly what you said.
I believe in it.
Inna ma kama qult.
As you said, we've recognized your truth.
Wa ashhadu.
And he says, and I bear witness that
you are the prophet of Allah.
And he sent you with truth.
And I pledge my allegiance to you.
And I submit to the Lord of the
universe.
Then he says, and this is important because
we're going to see how others respond to
it.
He says, wa inshitta ana atika.
He goes, if you want, haadir, I'll come
to Medina right now.
So he sent his son and he sent
60 other courtiers to go.
And he sent them with gifts and everything
with this letter.
Ibn Ishaq, they say that, subhanAllah, life happens
while the son and the other courtiers were
in the ship.
They were crossing the sea and they drowned.
A storm came, they drowned on their way
to go see the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam.
Shaheed, shuhada inshallah ta'ala.
The key here though, the key here, what
one quality we have to notice with the
people of Abyssinia and one quality that we
have to notice from Bilal and Najashi and
the people of Abyssinia is humility.
Humble, humble.
The humble heart is the one that gets
hidayah.
But the moment you get that arrogance inside,
there's hadith that said, knowledge doesn't come to
the arrogant heart.
It doesn't come.
You have to humble yourself.
And what did he do?
He literally got off his seat and he
sat on the floor.
And that's where the hidayah came from.
Two years later, Najashi passes away.
Two years after shuhada.
Two years later, he passes away.
The prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, he gathers the
sahaba on the day he died.
And he said, mata alyawm rajulun salih.
A pious man died today.
Let's gather together, we'll pray.
There are so many people that died in
his absence.
This is the one time in his life
he prayed salatul janazah gha'ib.
Meaning he said, we're in Medina, but we're
praying for his janazah.
Let's pray his janazah.
The only one in the seerah where the
prophet prayed salatul janazah, the prayer for janazah
when someone passes away, but he prayed it
in his absence, far away, miles and miles
away.
Only one was this African king who accepted
the message.
Radiyallahu an.
If you're from those places, if you come
at all through that lineage, how much do
you owe to this man?
How much do you owe to this man?
And his ability to not let power blind
him from accepting the truth.
That's huge.
Why?
What happens next?
The next is a long one, but it's
beautiful.
The prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam sends a
letter to the king of the Byzantium empire,
Hiraqal.
This is a very interesting one.
He sends Dihya al-Kalabi.
Dihya al-Kalabi was a very handsome man.
Extremely handsome.
Like he used to cover up.
I'm not even joking.
He's like, if I go out and not
cover, I'm fitna.
He was so handsome, subhanallah, Jibra'il used
to come in his form.
Jibra'il used to come in the form
of Dihya al-Kalabi.
All y'all like, yeah, I kind of
look like him too.
You know what I mean?
That's how we are, subhanallah.
Chill out, relax.
The prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam sent Dihya
al-Kalabi.
The prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam wrote the
letter.
He had it sealed.
He gave it to Dihya al-Kalabi and
he told him, I want you to take
this to the leader of Busra because Hiraqal
was the leader of the Byzantium empire, Rome,
you can't walk to him.
You can't just knock at the White House
door and ask whoever to talk to you.
You have to go through procedure.
So he sent him first to the leader
of Busra and that leader of Busra was
going to take the letter up higher if
he saw fit.
Now, ironically, this is amazing.
Nothing in life is by coincidence.
Everything by the taqdeer of Allah.
At this, when the Byzantium empire defeated the
Persians, Hiraqal had said, I take an oath
by God.
He was a very religious man, extremely religious,
tapped into Christianity, like tapped in.
So he made an oath that if we
beat the Persian empire, I'm going to walk
to Bayt al-Maqdis and do pilgrimage.
I'm going to walk, I won't ride, I'm
going to walk as a gratitude to God.
And we know the seerah tells us they
beat the Persians.
And so he happens to be in Bayt
al-Maqdis.
He happens to be in Iliya'a, in
Bayt al-Maqdis.
He's in Bayt al-Maqdis and he wakes
up one night after having this terrible dream,
actually a great dream, but for him it
was terrible.
And in this dream, he saw that this
new king had risen and taken his empire
away.
He wakes up the next morning and all
of his courtiers, they're like, something's wrong with
you.
What's wrong?
And he was into astrology a lot, retrograde,
all that stuff.
He was into astrology a lot.
So he said, I saw a dream and
I've been looking into the stars and that
final prophet is supposed to come.
Everyone's like, what are you talking about?
He's like, I think he's gonna come from
the Jews.
He sends out this order that I want
all of the Jews that are in our
kingdom, I want them killed.
While that's happening, lo and behold, someone shows
up from Busra, letting him know, hey, there's
this thing happening down in the Arabian Peninsula.
We just got a letter of someone that
wants to talk to you claiming he's a
prophet of God.
His mind is blown.
What's going on?
Everything's happening at the same time.
He sends word back to a priest in
Rome that this is what's happening.
Tell me what you think.
He's waiting to hear back.
In that time, in that time, Dihya al
-Kalabi is brought forward.
Dihya al-Kalabi is brought forward, the handsome
man, right?
And he finds out that these people, he
says, is there anyone from this man, this
man who's claiming prophethood, is there anyone from
his people in this area?
Qadrullah mashaa.
Guess who was in the same area, y
'all?
Abu Sufyan.
Abu Sufyan was the arch enemy of the
prophet his whole life.
His life has been dedicated to going against
the prophet.
He's up in Jerusalem, Bayt al-Maqdis doing
business.
He said, I was in a group at
a table selling something.
All of a sudden, Byzantium soldiers surround me
and they say, come on, you have to
go to the Hiraqal.
Hiraqal?
Well, I'm nothing.
He's brought forward.
He's brought forward.
In the meantime, the letter comes.
The letter comes.
Dihya brings the letter.
The letter is presented to Hiraqal.
What does the letter say?
Listen to the words of the prophet that
he wrote.
He said, Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.
And obviously they had translators.
Min Muhammad Abdullah wa Rasulihi ila Hiraqal Azeem
al-Rum.
He said from Muhammad, the prophet of Allah,
to the great king of the Byzantium empire.
You know what scholars say?
Look how he respected his position.
Look how he said Azeem al-Rum.
He didn't say like, he respected him.
He didn't say, Anzil al-Nas.
Because the prophet's sunnah is treat people according
to their level.
Understand people.
Treat them according to their level.
Salamun ala man ittaba al-huda.
May peace be upon the one who follows
righteousness.
Amma ba'd.
I call you, same words.
I call you with the call of Islam.
Accept Islam, you will be in peace.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will
give you your reward double.
But if you turn away, then you have
the sin of all your people.
He reads the letter.
He reads the letter and he's struck.
He saw the dream.
He's been looking at his stars.
He has priests and courtiers that he's communicating
with.
This last prophet is supposed to be coming.
And here the letter is in front of
me.
But I need you to understand something.
He's at what point, what moment in his
life is he at y'all?
He literally just defeated the Persian empire.
He's at his high point of his career.
He just got promoted to, you know, executive
board.
I don't know.
He's at that point where it's like, I
finally made it to this spot.
I'm at the top of the world.
And this letter comes to this religious man
who's been, knows this knowledge of prophecy.
So he calls the Abu Sufyan to come.
Abu Sufyan comes forward.
But Abu Sufyan, there's a group.
He didn't come by himself.
There's five or six other people from Mecca.
It happens every halakha, right?
My bad, y'all.
There's five or six people from Mecca that
are with him.
He brings them forward.
And when he brings them forward, he's sitting
on his throne in Baitul Maqdis.
May Allah free it.
So he's speaking through translators.
The Hadith tells us he's speaking through translators.
And what does he say?
He's looking at this group of 10 people
from Mecca.
They're sitting in front of the superpower of
the world.
What are they gonna talk to us about?
What is he gonna say?
He says, which one of you is closest
to this guy who claims he's a prophet?
Abu Sufyan's like, oh my God, that's what
this is about?
We thought this guy was like nothing.
And here I am in front of Hiraqal
and he's bringing this up.
He says, which one of you is closest
to this man?
Abu Sufyan says, I am, I am, I
am.
I have the closest lineage to him.
Hiraqal says, bring him close and bring those
other people up a little bit too.
He says, I want you, Abu Sufyan, to
stand in front of them.
And I want them to stand behind you.
Everyone looking at me though.
And he says, I'm gonna ask this man
some questions.
And if he lies at all, I want
y'all behind me to tell me.
I want y'all behind me to let
me know if he lies.
So he starts to ask some questions.
Abu Sufyan, he goes, well, look, Allah, I
would have lied.
I would have lied about everything he said.
But I didn't wanna be known as a
liar amongst my people.
That shows you how the Arabs were.
Why did Allah choose these people for where
the prophet would come from?
Even though they were on kufr, they had
the most beautiful qualities.
He's like, I did not want to be
known as a liar.
There's no way I could go back and
these people go back to Mecca and say,
yeah, he's a good guy, but he lies.
He said, so I was forced to speak
the truth.
He says, I'm gonna ask you some questions
and I want you to be true to
me.
And then he says, what do you say
about this man?
Right away, Abu Sufyan has his chance.
He goes, he's a magician, he's a liar.
You don't wanna know anything about him.
He's horrible person.
Hiraqal is intelligent, he's read a lot.
He goes, I don't wanna hear your ad
hominem remarks.
I don't wanna hear your curse words.
I want you to answer my questions that
I ask you.
Abu Sufyan goes, okay, I'm in front of
Hiraqal, what am I gonna do?
Question number one, he says, what's his lineage?
Like what type of family does he come
from?
Abu Sufyan says, well, he has a high
lineage.
He's from a very noble people.
He says, question number two, did anyone from
y'all people ever make this claim before
that they were a prophet?
Abu Sufyan says, I said, no, no, this
was, he's the first.
Number three, he says, was his father a
king?
He goes, no, he wasn't.
He says, do the wealthy high class posh
people follow him or the weak poor people
follow him?
Abu Sufyan goes, no, it's poor people following
him.
It's weak people following him.
He said, are they increasing or decreasing?
Abu Sufyan, I can't lie.
He goes, they're increasing.
He says, does any one of them turn
away from this deen after they have truly
accepted it and spent time with him?
Do they turn away and leave the deen?
He's like, no, they never leave.
They're stuck.
You know, when I accepted Islam 20 years
ago, my mom, she came to, she went
to a friend of mine, right?
And she said to her, she said to
the friend, is this a phase Michael's going
through?
And this friend was like, nah, this ain't
no phase.
Alhamdulillah, may Allah keep us strong.
May Allah keep us strong.
May Allah keep us strong, right?
But once you taste that sweetness, I want
you to taste that sweetness of the deen.
So he says, he asked him more questions.
He says, do any of them leave?
He goes, no, none of them leave.
He said, have y'all ever accused this
man of lying before this?
Sufyan, how can I answer?
He goes, no, he was Sadiq Al-Amin.
Like nah, he never lied before.
He said, has he been treacherous to you?
He goes, no, but we're in a treaty
right now.
I don't know what he's gonna do.
Abu Sufyan says, that was the only time
I could slip something in.
Like, has he ever cheated you?
He goes, no, no, but we're in a
treaty.
I don't know what's gonna happen in the
future.
He might.
He says, have y'all fought?
He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, we fight a
lot.
Like, yeah, that's what we've been through.
What have we been doing?
He says, yes, we've been fighting quite a
bit.
He says, how often do you win and
they win?
Abu Sufyan goes, al-harb-sijal, we win
some, they lose some.
Irafah's like, oh, okay.
And then he says, what does he tell
y'all to do?
What is he ordering his people to do?
And I can't imagine Abu Sufyan, I could
see Iman slipping into him as this dialogue
is going on.
He goes, he tells them to worship Allah
alone.
And don't worship these idols.
And he tells them to pray, give charity,
be chaste, and join family ties.
Abu Sufyan kind of like, why am I
against this again?
And he actually is thinking that, we'll see
at the end.
So then, Hiraqal says, that's the questions.
Let me tell you why I asked each
one.
He's a man of scripture.
He says, I asked you if he had
a high lineage.
Because Allah always sends his prophets from good
lineage.
He says, I asked you if anyone ever
said this before, because I would say he's
just imitating what somebody else said.
But you said, no.
I asked you if his father was a
king, because then I would say, he's just
trying to get his father's kingdom back.
Now, you know what I thought about?
Let's digress for a moment.
Can you imagine if this letter went after
Fatih Mecca?
This letter went before Mecca was conquered.
There's no political, we haven't gained anything yet.
Can you imagine what Hiraqal may have thought
if this happened after Fatih Mecca?
Oh, this is a king trying to expand
his kingdom.
But by the wisdom of God, in between
Hudaybiyyah and Fatih Mecca, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, acts upon those sparks that he saw
in the trench, and he sends the letters
out.
He says, I asked you if the posh,
wealthy people are following him, or the weaker,
dhu'afa, poorer people.
And you said the poor.
He said, hum atba' al-rusul.
Those are the people that follow the Prophet.
Those are the people that follow the Prophet.
This is heavy, because we see that the
Prophet had an extremely tight relationship with the
weak of the community.
He always had an eye out for the
weak.
And he used to tell people, you want
to find me?
Find me with the dhu'afa.
Find me with the misakim.
The Quraysh, they one time in Mecca, they
came to the Prophet, they said, we'll sit
down to listen to you, but we can't
sit with them.
We can't sit with them.
Do you know verses came down?
Verses came down.
Wa la ta'du aynaka anhum.
Never turn away from these people.
These are your people.
You know, what's amazing about this?
There's no, there's nothing wrong in the deen
with having wealth.
But you know what's beautiful?
There's no extra fadhilah for being rich.
You don't get more barakah, but there's so
many hadith on the virtues being weak and
poor.
There's not one hadith that's like, if you're
rich, you'll get in the Jannah like that.
Sahaba had wealth.
Don't get me wrong.
You've heard those khutbas before.
You heard that.
But hiraqal is like the people who accept
this message are the people that see the
change and the positive that it could bring.
But the leaders, they don't want the change.
They don't want the change.
They don't want society to change.
Because that means I got to have a
two state, you know, I got to like.
I got to give up some of this
real estate.
I got to stop this haram business.
I got to stop this thing.
The wealthy don't want, they don't want that.
And so the Prophet SAW taught us one
of the most profound things on the Shabaab
is to spend time, spend time, spend time
with the underprivileged.
These are the followers of the Rusul.
And not to create these country clubs of
just wealth.
Reach out, y'all.
Reach out.
The Prophet SAW saw a dream and he
saw Uthman bin Affan or Abdurrahman bin Auf,
forgive me.
Abdurrahman bin Auf.
It was the day of judgment and they
were moving.
But Abdurrahman bin Auf was trying to catch
up.
They were like moving forward and he told
them the dream and Abdurrahman like, yo, this
shocked his world.
He said, why was I catching up?
He's like, because you had still to do
a lot of accounting for your budget, for
your wealth.
You just had a longer Hesab.
In that moment, he gave everything away.
But he was so blessed, they say if
he picked up a rock, he'd find gold
under it.
No, he was just Baraka.
There was just Baraka in him.
Baraka.
So the so Hiraqal goes, the followers are
the weak people because those are the followers
of prophets.
Those are the followers of prophets.
That's why our inner city Dawa has to
be on point.
That's where the underprivileged inner city, rural areas.
Dawa.
He says, I asked you, are they increasing
or decreasing?
You said they were increasing.
He says, that's how Iman grows.
I asked you if any of them leave
the religion after they have accepted.
You said, no.
He says, kazalika al-iman kheenatu khaaritu bashaatata
quloob.
That's faith when it penetrates the heart.
When when faith penetrates the heart, that's it.
It stays.
I asked you if you ever accused him
of lying ever, and you said no.
He says, because Allah never places this message
on a liar.
And he goes through all of these.
How here's the one that really hits us.
He says, I asked you if you all
fight.
You said yes.
And I asked you who wins.
You said he wins and you win sometime.
He says, this is how it is with
prophets.
They don't just keep winning every war.
They don't win every battle.
They take L's because in L's we learn
lessons.
That's what L stands for, yo.
Tweet that, yo, I like that.
I didn't plan that, but whatever.
No, seriously, we think like the prophets, I
said, had a had a camel.
He had a camel that kept winning.
They used to race camels, right?
Like it would be racing cars.
They used to race camels and the prophets.
No, no ideas, bro.
No, no.
The prophets, I said, I'm Camel kept winning,
kept winning.
And everyone's like, yes, that's the one time
it lost.
Everyone was just heartbroken in the profit.
I said this last week.
The prophets, I said to him, he said,
Allah doesn't raise anything except that he lowers
it to he lowers it to.
So I was.
So here it goes.
That's prophets.
They win.
They lose.
They win.
They lose.
But then he goes, well, I'll give it
to.
But the outcome at the end will be
their victory.
That will win, will lose, will win, will
lose, but the outcome at the end will
be with the people of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So what happens here?
I got here.
He tells Abu Sufyan to leave.
Abu Sufyan goes in that moment, I realized
that this issue with my nephew wasn't going
away.
He said, I realized this thing was serious
now.
Islam is not a joke.
This is it.
I realized that at that point.
In that moment, Hiraqal is is is confused.
He sends Abu, he sends Dihya al-Kalabi,
the one that brought the letter.
He says, I want you to go to
this bishop in the city, Daqtar.
Go to him and tell him everything you
told me.
See what he does.
He goes out.
Hiraqal is trying to figure stuff out.
He's still waiting to get news back from
his other scholars in Rome and other places.
He goes out to Daqtar.
He gives him this news.
He's talking to this bishop.
These are people who knew the true Christianity.
The narration says he's wearing black.
He changes his clothes.
He puts on white.
He says, Ashadu anna, what you're saying, I
bear witness.
What you're saying is true.
He comes out of the church and he
says the glad tidings of the final prophet
Ahmed have come to us.
I bear witness that this man immediately is,
as he's speaking, the whole crowd just pounces
on him.
He's killed Shaheed right there.
Killed Shaheed right in that moment.
Hiraqal doesn't know what to do.
He doesn't know what to do.
He heads back to Homs, Homs in Syria,
because he has a bunch of courtiers there.
By the time he gets back, he got
a letter back from Rome.
This is the prophet we've been waiting for.
He gathers all of his courtiers in a
room.
He locks the room.
These are all the bishops, heads of state,
everyone.
And he says this speech, and I'm going
to paraphrase it so we can get through
these lessons.
He says, Oh, people of Rome.
Would you like success?
Rushd?
Guidance?
Would you like to keep your kingdom?
If so, let's follow this prophet.
Everyone goes crazy.
The whole room goes crazy.
They ran for the doors.
He had locked them.
No way to leave.
He sees their reaction.
And he makes a decision in this moment.
And this is a decision that all of
us have to make in different parts of
our life, that will we sacrifice this fleeting
world for the truth?
We don't have a kingdom that's at stake
here, but we have our own things that
are at stake.
He made a choice in this moment that
he could not give up his position.
It was too good.
I'm at the height of my career.
They'll kill me the way they killed that
bishop out there.
He calls them all back, and he says,
Listen, I was testing you.
I was testing you, and you all passed
the test.
Hold on to Christianity.
Never, ever let it go.
They leave.
He comes back to Dehia, and he writes
a letter.
He writes a letter, and he says, I
want you to tell your prophet that I,
he says to him, listen to his words.
He says, He says, I know your man
is a prophet.
He's the one we were waiting for.
I'm scared.
And I don't want to lose my kingdom.
You know, when the Dehia al-Kalabi came
back, he also said, like I believe in
him, this, and the prophet said, he said,
he's lying.
If he believed, he would have did what
Najashi did.
What I want you to notice is the
contrast between Najashi and Hiraqa.
Look at the humility.
Look at the ability to just give up
all of that for truth.
And look, and we look at Hiraqa, and
we go, man, really?
But we sell out the deen for a
lot less, y'all.
Just be real with yourself.
If I was Hiraqa, I would have.
No, please.
Please don't say that.
I would have.
Just look at what Allah is asking us
to sacrifice.
A lot less.
A lot less.
So, he sent a few more letters.
It's almost time for Maghrib.
I wanted to do one more letter that
he sent.
He sent a letter to Egypt.
Misriyeen, mashallah.
He sent a letter to Egypt.
Muqawqis, the king of Egypt, who's also Christian.
Very powerful letter.
Actually, actually, I'm gonna do a different letter
with just the remaining few minutes I have.
He sent a letter to the Persian king.
The Persian king, at this time, their whole
kingdom, they had just lost to the Byzantium
Empire, but their kingdom also covered Yemen.
And if you're from that place, listen to
this story.
It's powerful.
He sent Abdullah bin Hudhaifa to take this
letter to the Persian king, Khosrow, Kisra.
And when he got there, he brought the
letter forward and the messenger began to read
the letter.
And the moment the man said, من محمد
رسول الله إلى كسرة, Kisra stopped him.
And he said, why is his name above
my name?
He took the letter and he ripped it.
He ripped the letter right there.
I don't wanna hear anything else.
Get out of here.
Leave from this place.
He sent the messenger back.
When that messenger reaches back, the prophet says,
this is weeks later, it takes time.
The prophet says, he didn't rip my letter,
he ripped up his kingdom.
He ripped up his own kingdom.
That's what he did.
In the meantime, this emperor, this king, he
sent a letter to Baadan.
Not too many names, but just for a
moment.
He's the one in charge of Yemen.
If you're from Yemen, listen to this story.
He sent the letter to the king of
Yemen, who's under him.
And he said, I want you to go
and bring that man to me.
Bring that man to me.
So the king of Yemen, who's under Kisra,
he goes to Medina.
He goes to Medina.
He actually passes through Mecca.
Five minutes.
He actually passes through Mecca.
And as he's passing through Mecca, these messengers
are coming, entourage, all the pompous of courtiers,
of high people.
Everyone's like, where are these heads headed to?
Right?
Oh, we're going to get Muhammad, the king
of Kisra wants him.
And the people of Quraish are like, oh,
it's over for this Islam.
It's over now.
The superpower of the world wants him.
It's over now.
They make it to Medina.
And they come to the prophet in the
masjid.
And the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, does not
have any guards.
He doesn't have any protectors.
The prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, was on another
level of tawakkar.
And these people walk in with all of
their assumed strength.
And the narration is powerful.
I want to read what it says.
They arrive.
And they come in.
And they said, our king, Shan Shah, like
king of kings.
They said, our king is summoning, summonsing you.
And he wants you to come.
And if you don't come, you know our
power, we will destroy this whole city.
Da, da, da, da, da.
You know what the narration says?
Fattabassam Rasulullah.
The prophet smiled.
He smiled.
You know, someone at work is tripping.
I'm going to cancel your contract.
And he's just like, my risk is in
the hands of Allah.
You don't stop me from eating.
He smiles.
He smiles.
And then he gives them dawah.
I want you all to become Muslim.
Like, like what?
Did you hear what we just said?
The king of this, one of the largest
empires in the world is calling you.
He's like, yeah, whatever.
We want you to accept Islam.
And he's talking to them.
They had cut their hair in an interesting
way.
And he commented on that.
And he said, I'll talk to y'all
tomorrow.
Let's talk tomorrow.
Okay.
Let's talk tomorrow.
The next day, Gabriel comes down.
This is amazing.
Gabriel comes down and he informs the prophet
that Kisra has been killed by his son.
The prophet comes out to these two leaders,
these two guards.
And he says, listen, I have been informed
by God.
Listen to this narration.
Tell your king, because they were sent by
the king of Yemen, who was sent by
the king of the thing.
He said, tell your two leaders that, My
Lord killed your Lord.
The prophet's strong.
Not holding back.
He's strong in this moment.
He said, go back.
Go back.
Your orders don't exist anymore.
And this is what happened.
On this night, at this hour, this is
what happened to him.
The two guards, we'll wrap it up now.
The two guards go back to Badan.
He's the Yemeni king.
The Yemeni king goes, this man is different.
This man isn't normal.
He goes, he asked the guards, he was
like, what was he like?
The guards were like, he didn't care.
He wasn't worried about us.
He had no guards around him.
Specifically, he says, I'm going to end with
this.
The two guards, they said, he didn't fear
anything.
May Allah give us that.
When you have that in Allah, where you're
like, I'm good.
I have Allah.
He says, no one protecting him.
So finally, within the same day, a few
days later, Badan gets word from the son
of Kisra that my father's dead.
I killed him.
And as for those orders for that man,
delay those orders.
Badan accepts shahada right there.
If you're from Yemen, you owe something to
Badan.
He accepts Islam right in that moment.
Sends word to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam saying,
I'm sorry for everything I did in the
past.
I'm your follower now.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, now you're
the king of Yemen.
Take care of it.
Be just.
And hold up Islam there.
Brothers and sisters, this was a beautiful moment
from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam's life.
Where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam proved to
us and showed us.
This wasn't about political power.
This was about spreading la ilaha illallah to
every heart that he could.
And the moment the Quraish got out of
his way, the first thing he did was
send a letter to different corners of the
world so that me and you in 2024
in the corner of Dallas, Texas, could say
la ilaha illallah Muhammad rasulallah.
That was his mission.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept.
May Allah give us that fearlessness.
May Allah give us the humility of Najashi
and protect us, protect us from the arrogance
and the heedlessness of Hiraqal.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us
to be the best custodians of this message.
Subhana rabbika rabbil izzati amma yasifoon, wa salamun
ala al mursaleen, walhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.
Alhamdulillah,
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah,
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah,
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah,
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.