Mirza Yawar Baig – Lessons From The Anbiya #71 I Love The Messenger
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AI: Transcript ©
My brothers and sisters,
we'll look at some very interesting and
very famous incidents in the sierra
of, the leaders of,
several big tribes that came to Rasool alaihi
salam,
and asked questions about Islam, and then they
accepted Islam. And because of their acceptance, the
whole tribe also accepted Islam. Now one of
them was a man called
Dhamam bin Thalabath,
and he came from Banusad
bin Bakr.
It's narrated by
Abdul Ad Niyabas,
and,
it is mentioned by Imam Ahmed,
in his, Musnad.
Duman bin Talaba was sent by his tribe,
Banu Saad bin Bakr,
as their representative.
He tied his camel and walked to into
the Masjid where Rasool Allah, Sallallahu Alaihi Salam
was sitting with his Sahaba.
They said he appeared to be strong and
had his hair in 2 braids.
He came to Rasool Allah, sallam, and asked,
who among you is the son of Abdul
Muttalib?
Rasool Allah, sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, Anna. He
said, me.
He said, are you Muhammad? Rasool
said, yes. I am Muhammad.
Sallallahu alaihi said.
He said, I'm going to ask you some
questions and I will be strict,
so don't be offended and angry with me
for that. Rasool
said, ask whatever you want. I will not
be offended and angry.
Now
before I go further,
I as as you know, we this is
our class, so we use everything in a
in the context of, teaching and learning.
This is a beautiful story also
to help us understand,
the importance of responding,
to people and not reacting. There's a there's
a difference between responding and reacting.
When you are being reactionary, when you want
when you are reacting to people,
then you
the the the power control is in the
hand of the person. That person can make
you do whatever he or she wants
either consciously or unconsciously
by their own behavior. So they behave in
a certain way and you react because you
are in a reactionary mode. So if they
want to get you angry, they can say
something which is provocative. If they want to
make you smile and happy, they can say
something which is
funny or, in that sense. So the control
is in their hands. When you are responding,
they are doing exactly the same thing. There's
no difference in how they are behaving, but
you choose how to
respond
to that
stimulus
from them. So you're not in a reaction
anymore. You are responding.
Now there's a big difference between reacting and
responding.
And I remind myself,
and you that we should be always try
to be I know we are human. We
make mistakes, but we we learn. So we
must always try to be in a state
where we respond,
where we do not react. The best way
to,
break out of the reactionary cycle remember reaction
to be to react is very, very normal
and very human.
It's a it's a straightforward
safety response.
The human being or even animals,
they respond to anything that they they react
to anything which they consider to be a
threat, and reactions basically come out of fear.
From fear, you go into anger, and the
anger produces the reaction. Right?
So,
if you if you if you provoke an
animal,
it it reacts in in a certain way,
which is meant to
keep that animal safe. The animal is perceiving
risk, and therefore, it is reacting.
And,
because of that risk, and so, therefore, the,
whatever happens, happens.
On the other hand, when you respond, it
comes with a pre thought. You are consciously
choosing to respond in a particular way which
you consider to be the best way to
respond.
You are not the con the power the
control switch is in your hand, and you
choose to respond.
How do you break out of this? By
sealing your mouth.
Never ever immediately
say anything
to whoever is being or you see them
as being provocative.
Right? Never immediately say just keep quiet.
Listen to what they have to say. No
matter how
unpleasant it might be,
say nothing.
Then consciously
choose
what
you want to say or do.
I don't care what it is, but it
must be done as a conscious choice,
not as a reaction. Right? This is very
important.
So,
in this story, which we are in the
process of, in the process of telling you,
here is a man who comes.
He obviously does not know
the norm, the way of behaving
in the presence of Rasulullah.
He does not understand other and so on
and so forth.
He is a,
man from a tough,
rough environment
of the of the of the desert.
He's a tribal leader.
In the course of his,
role as a tribal leader, he
has to be in many cases, he has
to be hard. He has to be harsh.
So that is his way. Right? So he's,
if he talks in a certain way, this
is because that's who he is. Now,
he has the intelligence
and the the wisdom to
state this upfront.
Now most people don't. So you have somebody
who comes in. You don't know who that
person is. You don't know what background they
come from.
You don't know what went into molding that
person to make them,
whatever they have become. So when they come
and they talk to
you, you might feel that, you know, oh,
this person is attacking me, this person is
insulting me,
and so on, but that may not be
the case. That may not be the case
at all. That's how that person normally talks.
I'll tell you on a side note, I'll
tell you an incident
that happened with me.
I was teaching a course in GE,
in India,
and
what I usually do when I'm teaching courses,
which is a standard practice of all all
trainers and facilitators,
is, the first slide you put up is,
or rather you you introduce yourself. You say,
I'm so and so, and this is my
background and whatnot. Now what I do,
to save time is I have all of
that on one slide,
salient points of who I am,
and I put that up
right at the beginning,
of the course. As soon as I have
greeted the people, I put it up and
I said, this is some information about me,
and if you have any questions, please ask
me. Now that slide is up there for
a couple of minutes. People take a look
at it. If they have any questions, they
ask me, and then we move on. Now
that day,
there was one guy,
who came late, so he missed this.
Now by then, I had already launched into
the program. I was teaching.
This man suddenly puts up his hand. So
I said, yes, please.
He said, what's your qualification?
Just like that. What's your qualification?
Now that comes across as a like a
slap in the face. You know, it's almost
like saying,
I don't think you are qualified to take
this course. I mean, it it's the the
implication seems to be that. Right?
So, obviously, that struck me also. I said
this is a very rude man, whoever the
* he is, and, you know, what's your
qualification? What the * do you think? I
mean, you think I'm here unqualified.
Go ask your boss what's what's my qualification?
I mean, all of this was in my
mind. Right? I didn't say it. I just
kept quiet.
I didn't say anything.
I went back to my laptop.
I went back to that slide. I put
the slide up.
He read the whole thing. He said, thank
you.
That's it.
I said nothing at all.
The same guy who said, what's your qualification?
Ended up saying, thank you. And then later
on in the course, in the tea break
and so on and so forth, I, you
know, had I chatted with him. He was
the last champ.
It's just that that was the way he
spoke. Obviously, not the best way, but, you
know, it's not my,
role to teach everyone how to speak. So
the point is that here was this man
who came from that background,
from a rough, difficult background,
and he has the intelligence and the wisdom
to say it upfront and say, look, you
may not like the way I'm speaking, but
I don't mean any harm. I'm not trying
to insult you. I'm not trying to be
disrespectful,
so please don't be angry with me. Then
he says,
in the name of Allah,
your God and the God of those who
came before you and the god of those
who will come after you. Did he send
you as a messenger?
Rasulullah said,
Allahu madam.
In the name of Allah, yes.
Then he says, and see see it's the
way he's asking. 2nd question, he says, in
the name of Allah, your God and the
God of those who came before you and
the God of those
ah who will come after you. Did Allah
ask you
to tell us
to worship nobody except him and leave these
gods that we worship?
And then he says,
in the name of Allah, your God and
the God of those who came before you
and the God of those who will come
after you, did Allah
ask you to enjoy this 5
times prayer daily on us?
Rasool Allah said,
Allahumma
nam.
He said, yes. In the name of Allah,
yes.
Then the man says, in the name of
Allah, your God and the God of those
who came before you and the God of
those who will come after you, did Allah
ask you
to enjoy that
we should fast in Ramadan?
Rasoolullah
said, Allah.
He
said,
in the name of Allah.
Yes.
The man then asked
the same way
about Zakat al Hajj, all the 5 pillars
of Islam. So now think about it. This
man already knows all this stuff. Right? So
he's coming to verify. So he said this
and then he said, I testify
that there is nobody worthy of worship except
Allah and that Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi salaam
is his messenger.
I'm going to fulfill what you have ordered.
I will leave what you have prohibited.
See what he's saying. He says,
and I will leave whatever you have prohibited.
I will not add anything to this and
I will not subtract anything from this.
That's it. So he's saying that you told
me 5 prayers, I will pray 5 times.
Right? Will not pray more, I will not
pray less. Now that's
the meaning of what he's saying. He said
I will not do more, I will not
do less, but I will do what you
have said to him, and then he left.
Now the Saba were perturbed. Here's this man.
Who is he and so on and so
forth.
He will enter Jannah.
I
before I go further in this, a little
bit more of the story is left.
This shows us the critical importance
of the Farahid in Islam.
Okay? Many times, for example, in in the
Masjid,
sometimes people good intention. People have a good
intention, but they say, you know, nothing happens
in our masjid.
And my question with them is, is there
5 times salah in your masjid?
Of course.
I said, that's nothing.
That is what will take you to Jannah.
That is what will take you to Jannah.
Some fancy program with some, you know, fancy
Sheikh which you have, you know, every once
in a while,
there's no guarantee that will take you to
Jannah.
But the 5 times
will take you to Jannah.
So don't say nothing is happening. If there
is 5 times salah happening in your budget,
go attend the 5 times salah 5 times
a day
or at least as much as you can.
So here is this man and this is
a very, very important lesson for us to
learn from the seerah,
the importance of in Islam.
The farthest fart.
To deliberately
live afar considering it not to be a
fart is to live Islam entirely.
To deliberately leave a fart even though you
do not deny the fart, but you have
left it out of, you know, laziness or
whatnot or even deliberately in that sense, but
you have not denied that it's a fart.
Does not take you out of Islam, but
it is a major sin for which you
have to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgiveness,
and if Allah does not forgive, then Allah
will do whatever He wants and this is
not something that, you know, we we say
that Allah will do this or not. Do
this or
that. The fault is absolutely critical.
And the most important fault after we enter
Islam, which is shaad, most important fault is
salah. There's nothing that supersedes salah
in terms of its importance
as a fault. That is the reason why
Rasool Allah said,
He
said, which means that the ad, the covenant,
the differentiator,
the thing that separates us from them, meaning
people who are not Muslim is salah, is
the prayer, and the one who has left
the salah has left Islam, has denied.
So it's very, very important to understand this.
Now when this man
returned to,
Banu Saad bin Bakr, he said to them,
Allah and Aruza are evil.
They told him, what are you saying, Guman?
You will become insane.
You will be afflicted with leprosy if you
curse our gods. He said, Woe to you.
They can't do anything good or harmful.
Allah
has sent His Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
and He revealed to him a book which
will save you from what you used to
do. I testify
that there is nobody worthy of worship other
than Allah
and that there is nothing associated with Him,
and that Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is his
slave and his messenger, Abu Hur Rasoolu.
I'm ordering you to do what he ordered
me to do, and I'm prohibiting you from
doing what he prohibited me from.
Ibn Abbas
said, by the time the day ended,
everyone in his tribe, man and woman,
had become Muslim.
He said, we don't know. Ibn
Abbas says, we don't know of any delegation
which was more blessed for their people
than the delegation
of the man
bin Talaba.
Amazing.
So we ask Allah to,
teach us
the Seerah to enable us
to study the Seerah and to learn the
lessons from it.
The second,
delegation was,
the delegation
of,
Uday bin Hatim,
Radialan, who,
who was from
the tribe of, Manutai,
and he was a Christian. He was the
head of his tribe and the son of
Hatim Hatay,
a man who was famous for his generosity.
Now Hatemathai
and his stories of generosity are so famous.
I remember
my mother telling me the story of Hatem
she used to say Hatemathai. She didn't say
Hatemathai.
She said Hatem Thay.
Well, I must have been maybe 5, 6
years old. You know? I mean, I was
a little little child, but my mother told
me that story and I I remember it
till now. Now this is
a wonderful
story,
true story of Hathi Montai. Hathi Montai,
was,
he was a Christian that,
Baruthai, a Christian, was a Christian tribe.
He had a horse.
He had a stallion, a rabies stallion,
which was famous all over Arabia. It was
a
beautiful horse,
fantastic pedigree, and so on. So he had
this horse. Now one day, a man came.
He wanted to buy this horse. So he
came to Hadith. Hadith Matlai loved this horse.
You know, people get very close to,
to their pets and horses are are are
I mean, I I know horses,
and they they are they are very, very
different from from, any other animal. You don't
necessarily call a a horse a pet, but
they become like that. They they will get
very close to them. And people who live
with the in in the desert and lived
in the in, with horses and animals, they
know them and they get very close to
them. So this horse was very beloved to
Hadith Batai.
And,
you know, fantastic pedigree, great horse. So this
man and Hadithamathai would not sell this horse
for anything. People knew this. But this there
was this man who came and he thought,
you know, let me see. I mean, I
I I will try my best and try
and persuade him to sell me the horse.
So he came to Hadithamathai,
and
so Agamathai welcomed him, you know, into his
into his home, into his tent and so
on.
Now the tradition of the Arabs, and of
course, there's also the the Muslim tradition,
which is that when you go to meet
somebody, even for a transactional thing, you don't
go straight. I mean, this is not when
you're going to a shop, but if you're
going to meet someone
for any transaction, you don't go straight to
the point. You don't go and say, okay,
now, you know, I I can't buy your
car. How much is your car? No. You
go and
you greet the person, the person greets you,
they invite you home, you sit down, you
have some tea, you have some sweets and
this and that. You inquire about his family,
you inquire about your family and so on.
So there is this conversation.
There is this period, time period which is
spent
talking about everything under under the sun except
for the except the reason you came.
If you just went in and you just
asked straight away the reason, it would be
considered to be very rude. Right? People will
say you have no manners.
I'm not a shopkeeper. I'm not selling standing
here selling, some stuff and you come and
say, what is the price of this? So
this is something which is considered. So therefore,
people didn't do that. Now with the Arabs
and especially the, Arabs of the of the
desert, this was taken to a much
greater extent.
So it would be not just, you know,
a few,
a few minutes or even hours. Sometimes it
would be it would take a day or
or so,
of,
the person hosting you as a guest
without any,
ulterior motive or intention. And that was the
whole idea. The whole idea was you are
my guest, you came to my house, you're
my guest. And now whatever you came for
is immaterial, you are my guest and I
will treat you and I will be good
to you and so on and so forth
because hospitality
is a mark of my nobility. It's a
mark of my culture. So therefore, I'm not
just going to talk to you in a
transactional manner. You came for this. Here it
is. Take it. Take give the money. Goodbye.
Assalamu alaikum. No.
So this is the this is the
Muslim tradition, this is the Arab tradition as
well. So,
and this is a tradition
in in in in
many,
even non Muslim
traditional cultures. I've seen this in in in
several places, with people who are not Muslim.
This is just good manners. So anyway, this
man came and Hadith Mathai,
invited him and he, you know, they they,
sat him down and so on and so
forth and
hosted him. And,
then the time came for the meal, so
Hadith Mathai
brought, the food and, you know, they had
this,
this wonderful meal
and so on and so forth. And then
the man went to sleep.
And, again, part of the culture,
part of of hospitality, part of the culture
is not to ask how long are you
going to stay. Right? This is not something
you ask somebody. You you you it's not
a hotel. He's not come to the hotel.
Here is checkout here is check-in. When will
you check out? This is a home. So
you will come, you are you are a
guest. You stay as long as you want.
In Islam,
for a Muslim
to be given hospitality
in the house of his brother Muslim,
he has a right to be your guest
for 3 days.
It is his right. So if somebody comes
for 3 days, you ask no question.
After that, if you continue your hospitality,
this is your son on the other person.
He didn't say kick them out after the
on on day 4.
Right? So if they come to stay with
you,
they're they're there to stay. 3 days minimum.
That is their right to to stay with
you for 3 days.
And, you don't charge them money for those
3 days. You don't make them wash the
dishes.
You treat them as
a guest
for 3 days. And if Allah gives you
the and if they stay with you longer,
then this is this is their ahsan on
you. This is part of our culture.
So this man stayed. The next day,
this man said, I have come to, for
a favor from you. So Hati Buntai says,
please, anything you want.
The man says, I've come to ask you
to sell me your horse.
Adi Bhattai
had tears in his eyes.
Naman said, What happened? Why are you crying?
He said, You know, I know our culture.
I know our customs.
I know our traditions,
but for once,
I wish you had said this to me
yesterday as soon as you came.
I know you didn't say that. I know
why you didn't say that, but I wish
you had told me that the minute you
came.
The man said, why?
He said, because the meat you ate
was the meat of that horse.
The man was shocked. He said, you killed
the horses. Yes. He said, why? He said,
because we are going through a very difficult
time.
It's a period of drought. There's no food.
And my family and I, we were managing
somehow, but you are a guest,
and we can't just treat you like that.
You are entitled to the best treatment.
And therefore, the only thing we had was
the horse,
and so I slaughtered it.
Imagine this is the kind of generosity. And
then my mother told me this story when
I was 5, 6 years old. May Allah
bless her,
and may Allah grant her
and also my father.
I request you for dua for them.
So this is the story of Hadith Wutai.
Now, Uday bin Hati was the son of
Hadith Wutai.
So he was the head of the tribe
like his father.
So when the when Islam started spreading, Uday
did not like the spread of Islam.
He was a Christian, obviously, he didn't like
Islam spreading. So he went off to a
shah. He went off to,
to a shaham is today we say Syria.
It's not just Syria. It was that that
entire area,
which included
Lebanon and and and so on and so
forth. So he went to Sharpe,
to the Roman Empire. This was the Byzantine
Empire.
But what he saw there
was worse than his own situation, so he
came back.
Then he had some camels made ready, and
he's told his servant to tell him when
he saw any flags of the Muslims. So
one day, a regiment was passing by his
tribe, and his servants saw the banners. And
he told Uday, so they mounted his camel
and ran away, fled.
Then anyone came to his tribe
and, there was some skirmish, so they took
his aunt
as a prisoner and took her to Rasool
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So among the other prisoners,
she was one.
She asked to be freed.
So Rasool Rasool Rasoolam asked who she was,
and so she told him. And immediately, Rasool
Rasool Rasoolam released her.
Ali bin Abi Talib
told her to ask Rasool Rasoolam for transportation
back to her tribe
and for money, for sustenance,
which again,
Rasool Rasool Salam gave her all that. He
was like he was very kind to her,
and he gave her all of it. So
she returned
and by then, Hadim had come back. So
she met her and everyone. She said, you
should be ashamed of yourself for running away
and leaving your family. He said, I have
come from a man who is the messenger
of Allah and he speaks the truth.
So she accepted Islam and she praised Rasool
Rasool Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So Uday bin Adhim
felt encouraged to meet Rasool Allah
SWALLAM.
So he went to meet him. Now in
one narration, it says that when he came
in,
he had a cross hanging,
you know, of our chain hanging on in
in front of him. And Rasool alaihi salam
said,
He recited the iath of Surah Tawah. He
said the Jews and the Christians,
they have taken their priests and their monks
to
be their gods.
Their is the plural of Ra.
Instead of Allah. They've taken their monks and
priests as gods instead of Allah
So Uday said, you Rasoolallah, we don't take
our priests
as gods
besides,
yeah, Allah. Rasoolallah Rasoolallah asked him. He said,
didn't they make didn't your priests
make what was halal haram,
and what was haram halal?
And Uday bin Hatem said yes. Rasool Allah
sallam said, then you have worshiped them.
Now this shows the issue of
obedience
in religion.
Right? This shows the issue of obedience in
religion.
To obey is to worship.
So when you obey, that is the reason
why in Islam, even to parents,
obedience is enjoined. Allah tells us, obey them.
Do not even say oof to them.
Don't even express any
disagreement with them or any,
you know, dislike for what they are saying
or doing except when they tell you to
do something
which goes against
the orders of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Because
to obey somebody other than
in in opposition
to the order of Allah is to worship
that person instead of worshiping Allah.
That is how important obedience is.
So when Uday was with Rasulullah,
a man came and complained about poverty and
another man came and complained about bandits. Rasulullah
saw his reaction to all this and he
said, Uday, have you seen the city of
Hera? He said, no, but I've heard of
it.
Nabi said, Uday, a time will come when
a woman will travel alone from Hera to
Makkah fearing nobody but Allah.
Uday said, I thought to myself,
where are the bandits of Tyre who have
turned the land to fire? And then he
said, and then the messenger of Islam said,
if you live long enough, you will see
the treasures of Kisra.
Hosro of,
of of Persia,
become spoils of war for us.
Who they said, Kisra, the son of Hormuz?
Rasulullah said, yes. Kisra, the son of Hormuz.
And if you live long enough, you will
see a man go forth with a handful
of gold
or silver,
trying to find someone to accept his sadaqah,
but they will not but he will not
find anyone. Meaning there is there will be
so much prosperity
that nobody will be eligible to take zakat.
Uday bin Abdul said, I have seen 2
of the 3 things that Rasool Allah sallam
said, which came true, and I believe the
third one will also happen because he said
so.
Uday bin Abdul
when became Muslim, visited Uday bin Abdul Haqqtab,
in a delegation.
And he said, Uday bin Abdul Haqqtab would
greet anyone who came to him by name.
So I asked him, Yeah. Abir Bawineen, do
you not do you know me? He said,
yes. I know you. You are the one
who became Muslim
when they were disbelievers.
You came when they left. You fulfilled
when they betrayed,
and you accepted
when they rejected. So I said, then I
don't care. Meaning, I don't care if you
call me by name or not because I
know that you know all this about me.
Beautiful,
yeah, people,
beautiful stories
about them.
We ask Allah
to help us to,
learn from this
and to
be like these people, to be the people
who
were the beloved of Rasool alaihi sallam,
who accepted his guidance
and who followed what he preached and what
he taught
without deviation.
They didn't try to change it. They didn't
try to interpret it. They didn't try to
say, well, you see, in those days, it
was like this. In these days, it is
like this, and so on and so forth.
They did what he told them to do,
and so they benefited from the barakah,
from the blessing of the message that came
to him from Allah