Mirza Yawar Baig – Sahaba The Gold Standard #05
AI: Summary ©
The transcript describes the history and legacy of the culture of the Arabs, including the struggles of people migrating to Islam and the importance of respecting their boundaries of race and tribe. The transcript also touches on the origin of Islam and its link to religion, as well as the importance of history and actions in shaping behavior and behavior. The transcript provides context for further discussion.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen,
wa Salatu wa Salamu ala Ashrafil Anbiya wal
Mursaleen Muhammadur Rasulullahi Sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi wa sallam, tasliman kathirun kathiruhum wa
man ba'du My brothers and sisters, we continue
with our series of classes on the lives
of the Sahaba, Ridwanullahi alayhi wa sallam which
I call them the gold standard because they
are the standard against which may Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala save us from ourselves against
which we will be measured when we meet
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on the Day
of Judgement.
The culture of the Arabs was a tribal
culture of loyalty to the tribe which was
the basis of belonging.
And to this day, this is how it
works.
And this is not unique to the Arabs,
this is the predominant culture and the predominant
basis of culture in multiple countries all across
Africa, in South Asia, India, Pakistan and interestingly
also if you look at it in a
different context, also in Europe and America and
America I mean Americas, North and South and
of course Australia and so on because people
tend to be drawn towards people of their
own kind.
So you will find that there is a
within quotes a cultural difference between New Yorkers
and people from San Francisco and New Yorkers
and people from Chicago.
So it is very clear and very obvious.
Now, that's why they even call them urban
tribes.
So just because we are in cities doesn't
mean that the mindset has changed and the
reason I'm mentioning this is because this is
such a critical and such an overwhelming example
of the power of Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam who created this Ummah as one
body and this is something really for us
to think about to say how did he
overcome this tribalism and this racism?
The within quotes good thing about these kinds
of cultures is that there is a very
strong sense of cohesion, belonging of being one
with people of the tribe but obviously it
comes with a corollary that is that it
creates a very we versus them and insider
outsider culture which is very racist and that's
exactly how Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam found
his people at that time.
Now there was a saying among the Arabs
which illustrates the culture which is support your
brother whether he is the oppressor or the
oppressed.
Support your brother meaning somebody from your tribe
whether he is the oppressor or the oppressed.
Now Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in his
inimitable style used this very quote this very
proverb of the tribes to teach the lesson
of justice where he quoted this to the
Sahaba, he said to the Sahaba, to his
companions support your brother whether he is the
oppressor or the oppressed.
Now they being used to his own sense
of justice to his usual sense of justice
they were surprised to hear this from him
and they said Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
we understand the need to support our brother
if he is oppressed but how can we
support him if he is the oppressor?
Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam replied support him
by stopping his oppression support him by holding
his hand, don't let him oppress so that
you save him from the punishment of Allah
because if you don't support him by stopping
him then he will be punished by Allah
SWT so stopping him is the way of
supporting him and we are doing that because
he is your brother.
Now when justice and brotherhood are replaced with
chauvinism the result is fragmentation, disunity and universal
suffering which is what we are facing in
the world today and we have been facing
for the last thousand years this seems to
be a lesson that may Allah have mercy
on us we simply don't seem to understand
the value of this lesson.
So how was it that despite the racist
and tribal roots of the culture the Sahaba
formed a brotherhood of faith that transcended all
boundaries of race and nationality and tribe and
lineage the answer is once again in their
obedience to Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam if
they told him to do something they did
it they changed their way of thinking, their
approach and their way of life they changed
their habits, they changed their likes and dislikes
they changed whatever he told them to change,
they changed and the result was phenomenal success
in the dunya wal akhirah now history is
witness to the resultant era of peace and
harmony and justice and compassion which they enjoyed
and left as a benchmark for future generations
to emulate it didn't last too long because
again the old feelings of tribalism and so
on surfaced and we have been suffering, they
suffered and we have been suffering the effects
of not following the sunnah of Rasool Allah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sadly we are a nation
of talkers so we talk about these good
old days with great passion but in our
own lives and our societies we have again
reverted to nationalism and racism and are suffering
the consequences and as I said before this
is nothing new this has been happening for
the last thousand years and more when the
Muhajirun, the migrant refugees came to Madinah think
about this now, we of course refer to
them with respect which is absolutely due because
they did not become refugees for any reason
other than their unwillingness to compromise Islam and
to compromise Islamic principles so they had to
suffer and therefore we respect that, we honour
that and we call them the Muhajireen, the
people who migrated but remember they didn't migrate
for worldly gain they didn't migrate because they
said oh you see maybe there are better
career options in Madinah so they didn't do
that, they migrated for the pleasure of Allah
they migrated to be able to practice Islam
more strongly and better and more freely than
in the environment of threat that they were
living in, in Makkah they migrated to be
close to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to be
with him, to be in his Majlis, to
learn from him this was the Niyyah and
the Hadith of is very clear about this,
where Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that the
one who migrates for Allah and his Rasul,
his migration is for Allah and his Rasul
and the one who is migrating to marry
a woman or for business or any other
reason then his migration is for that reason
and not for Allah and his Rasul Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam so we honor the Sahaba who
migrated, the Muhajirun because of their Niyyah, the
reason why they migrated now think about this,
however they were refugees they were not coming
with pots of gold to invest in Madinah
or anything like that they were destitute, many
of them literally they just came with clothes
on their bodies they had nothing at all
they were people who had material wealth in
Makkah many of them were considerably wealthy but
they were forced to leave it all behind
they were thrown out of their homes, their
property was confiscated and so on now think
about this, that when they came to Madinah
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not say to
the people of Madinah here are your brothers
from Makkah, so let us set aside some
houses or let us set aside a piece
of land and let them put their tents
there and all of you must help them
and send some food to them every day
and so on and we set up the
first refugee camp in the history of Islam
in Madinah let us do that, be good
to the refugees, he didn't say this, right?
neither did he say here are some orphans,
so set up a yatim khana set up
an orphanage because we should take care of
the orphans he didn't do any of that,
instead of that he paired one of them
one of the muhajirun with one of the
residents of Madinah who he called an Ansari,
he called him the helper so the muhajir
is the one who migrated and the Ansari
is the one who gave him help and
who took him into his home, so muhajirun
is the plural of muhajir and Ansar is
the plural of Ansari so this is what
Nabi Salaam did and he said to them
that they were brothers to one another and
the basis of brotherhood in this case was
not tribe was not lineage, was not family,
was not color, was not nationality it was
one which is faith Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala also revealed Quran on this where Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said this ummah of
yours, this brotherhood of yours and he said
I am your Rabb, I am your Lord,
I am your deity other than whom there
is no one worthy of worship I am
your sustainer, your creator, your maintainer, your protector
and therefore worship me and in the other
ayat, in the other surah Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala said so meaning obey me and
have taqwa of me now this shows us
one is the basis of the brotherhood which
is Islam and two therefore what must we
do is to follow Islam is to worship
no one other than Allah and to seek
help from no one other than Allah this
is the proof and the evidence that we
are Muslims that we worship only Allah and
we seek help only from Allah now Rasulullah
s.a.w. in this forming of brotherhood
he didn't look for people with similarities he
actually formed the brotherhood and he chose people
who had nothing in common but the sahaba
once they were paired they lived like brothers
all their lives now though they came from
widely different backgrounds, social levels, tribal hierarchies somebody
was a slave, the other person was not
just free but he was among the nobility
of his tribe but they bridged all these
differences and they lived together in many cases
literally in the same house as brothers slaves
became the brothers of tribal chiefs an Arab,
Abu Darda al-Ansari became the brother of
a Persian slave which was Salman al-Farsi
r.a. and Huma both of them may
Allah be pleased with them and another Arab
from a powerful tribe, Abu Royha r.a.
became the brother of an African slave Bilal
bin Rabah r.a. and Huma in both
these cases the two ex-slaves Bilal bin
Rabah and Salman al-Farsi were actually higher
in status with regard to Islam than their
host brothers because Rasulullah s.a.w. included
both of them in his household in his
household, Rasulullah s.a.w. said they are
from my Ahlul Bayt from my household the
sahaba understood this hierarchy of faith very well
it is stated that one day during the
Khilafah of Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a.
Abu Sufyan bin Harb r.a. and Suhail
bin Amr r.a. and some other prominent
Arab chiefs came to meet the Khalifa came
to meet the Khalifa Umar ibn al-Khattab
r.a. so this was during his Khilafah
now as you will recall Abu Sufyan r
.a. had been the head of the Quraishi
opposition he was the head of the Quraishi
but also the head of the Quraishi opposition
he was the one who was the reason
for the Battle of Badr he didn't participate
in it because he had gone off to
Mecca he actually brought the army with the
intention of killing Rasulullah s.a.w. in
the Battle of Uhud and he was the
one who instigated and brought the army again
in the Battle of Khandaq which eventually there
was no battle but he was the one
who did all that so he was constantly
until Fatah Mecca he was engaged in trying
to destroy Islam and trying to kill Rasulullah
s.a.w. and the Sahaba in any
way that he could do so he was
the head of this but after his death
so he was the head of that now
Suhail bin Amr r.a. on the other
hand was also another person who was one
of the big opposers of Rasulullah s.a
.w. and he was the one who was
the negotiator on behalf of the Quraish in
Saudi Arabia he was the one who objected
to the word Rasulullah s.a.w. being
written after the name of Muhammad s.a
.w. in the Treaty of Udebia so Ali
bin Abi Talib r.a who was writing
he took exception to that and he said
no I will not remove it because this
is what we have faith in this is
what we have brought faith in and I
cannot remove the title of Rasulullah s.a
.w. from this document when Rasulullah s.a
.w. told him remove this it doesn't matter
he said no I can't do it, Rasulullah
s.a.w. himself then rubbed it out
so these were the people, they were people
who were so strongly anti-Islam and anti
-Muhammad s.a.w. even though Rasulullah s
.a.w. married the daughter of Abu Sufyan
r.a later on he became Muslim so
we call him Rasulullah s.a.w. Umm
Habiba, Abu Sufyan himself came to Islam only
after Fatah Makkah and so also Suhail bin
Amr now despite all that so these people
were you know they were in opposition, they
were very disrespectful to Rasulullah s.a.w.
and so on but once they came to
Islam both of them were very strong Muslims
Abu Sufyan bin Harb r.a. became the
speaker, he became the exhorter of the Muslim
army and he would exhort the soldiers to
be brave and to be steadfast in the
face of the enemy Suhail bin Amr r
.a. was responsible for ensuring that the Quraish
of Mecca didn't rebel after in the Khilafah
of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq r.a. when
almost every tribe in the Hijaz was rebelling,
refusing to pay zakat Suhail bin Amr and
the governor of Mecca actually ran away he
hid himself because there was so much of
anger and you know danger but Suhail bin
Amr he stood and he made a speech
in the Haram next to the Kaaba where
he managed to, he was such a powerful
speaker that he ensured that the people of
Mecca did not rebel so even though there
was Irtida, there was Ridda among many of
the tribes of the Hijaz the people of
Mecca they did not rebel, they stayed fast
Suhail bin Amr r.a. was responsible for
that now on this particular day, the incident
that I'm mentioning I'm saying this to show
the hierarchies, the religious hierarchies who was, even
though we said that the Sahabi who was
a slave, ex-slave was paired with a
Sahabi who was one of the elite of
Badira but religiously their position was higher and
was acknowledged and understood as higher so on
this day when Abu Sufyan and Suhail bin
Amr r.a. came to see the Khalifa
Umar bin Al-Khattab r.a. coincidentally, Bilal
bin Rabah r.a. and Suhail bin Rumi
r.a. who was also an ex-slave
they also arrived to meet the Khalifa when
Suhail bin Amr bin Al-Khattab was told
about them, he called them first and the
chiefs of Quraish had to wait now Abu
Sufyan r.a. could not restrain himself and
turning to his companions he said it is
our fate to endure this disgrace the slaves
are admitted to the audience while we, the
nobles of Arabia, we stay at the door
hearing this, Suhail bin Amr r.a. immediately
he commented, he retorted and he said but
who is to be blamed for this?
who is to be blamed for this?
Rasulullah s.a.w. invited us all with
one voice but we refused his call and
we severely resisted him, we fought him, we
did all kinds of things on the other
hand, these slaves came forward and accepted his
message immediately so today it is their right
to get preference over us in this world
and the next we have no cause for
complaint now, you know, we have to think
about this and say that it is this
sense of justice of the Sahaba which was
a mark of their truthfulness and which gave
them their strength of character the wages of
obedience are preference in this world and the
next this is something to reflect on and
to think about and say and see the
lives of the Sahaba full of these wonderful
details about how they obeyed Rasulullah s.a
.w. they were steadfast in their obedience they
did not break the rules all of this
is such a it is so important to
remember this as examples for ourselves today because
we get tossed here and there but the
Sahaba they were very firm it is amazing
to see how they changed their I am
a leadership consultant, I am a mentor, a
life coach and so on and one of
the things that I know both from my
theoretical education plus almost 40 years of experience
that one of the most difficult things to
change I am deliberately not using the word
impossible because I like to tell myself that
nothing is impossible but if I were forced
to say impossible I would say impossible but
definitely one of the most difficult things to
say is the fact that one of the
most difficult things to change is beliefs, is
attitudes this is something which is people will
change behavior very easily you just have to
logically show them something is more beneficial do
it this way, that way eat this food,
don't eat this food exercise every day, blah
blah, what not, what not talk to people
like this and not in this way do
it in this way all the soft skills,
we talk about their skills so these get
changed people are willing to change them people
are willing to and they are not just
willing, this is possible for them they don't
have difficulty doing that but beliefs, conditioning from
lifelong conditioning core values and beliefs very, very,
very difficult to change there is no doubt
about that it is something that you know
it is really, absolutely something to reflect and
think and say how is it that Nabi
Salaam did this if you ask me what
is the single thing that single most important
thing and single thing that that Nabi Salaam
did it was a switch in the mind
right, switch in the mind and the switch
in the mind was that we are going
to give precedence to Allah and we are
going to give precedence to His Nabi Salaam
over everything and everyone else that was a
switch so now that applies across the board
so not only are we going to give
preference to Allah meaning that not only will
we obey Allah in the way of Muhammad
Salaam this is the the intrinsic the strong,
the powerful link between the Kitab of Allah
and the Sunnah of Muhammad Salaam the Kitab
of Allah are the Ahkam they are the
orders and the Sunnah is the way of
fulfilling the way of obeying the way of
acting upon that order right so both are
equally important and as some of the great
scholars Al-Awza'i and others have said
Imam Al-Awza'i said that the Sunnah
is more important is more needed by the
Kitab, by the book than the book is
needed by the Sunnah obviously there is no
implication of disrespect for the Quran in this
he is saying that the Quran is it
is not possible to follow the Quran without
the method of following as shown and demonstrated
by Muhammad Salaam that's the meaning of it
when he said the Quran needs the Sunnah
more it means that the Quran is there
by itself but unless we have the Sunnah
which shows us how to do something it
is not possible to actually have a result
and have action that's why the people who
are insincere, who have Nifaq in their hearts
who have hypocrisy in their hearts they try
to denigrate and devalue and discount the Sunnah
because by that they effectively finish off Islam
itself if you say the Sunnah is worthless
pointless, has no meaning has no importance and
the Hadiths are inauthentic and so forth as
some of these people may Allah have mercy
on them and protect us from them as
they keep saying if that were true then
it means that for example Allah S.W
.T said establish the prayer and I don't
know how to do that or each person
is doing it in his own way whereas
today we have one unified method for the
whole world and not just today from the
time the Prophet S.A.W. taught it
and that is why Allah S.W.T
said and the Prophet S.A.W. said
he said pray as you have seen me
pray he demonstrated the Salah and this was
the key of the Sahaba they asked how
they said how can we do this so
the Quran gives us the reason it gives
us the why the Sunnah gives us the
how the method without the why obviously there
is no question of doing anything because there
is no reason but once we have the
reason then we need the method if Allah
had not said then the question of Salah
Allah didn't say do it so where is
the question but once Allah said Allah said
give Zakat how much Zakat to give who
to give what is Zakat liable on Allah
did not say that in the Quran this
is not accidental just think about that it
is not accidental it is not that Allah
S.W.T Nauzubillah could not do it
or you know forgot to do it no
this is deliberate this is deliberate Allah S
.W.T wanted to and wants to establish
the importance and the criticality of His Nabi
S.A.W. in the life of the
Muslim so that the Muslim then understands how
and why he must follow the Quran so
when the Nabi S.A.W. the method
is by the Nabi the order is the
Hukam of Allah the method is by the
Nabi and both come from Allah S.W
.T Allah S.W.T did not leave
Nabi S.A.W. to invent his own
method Allah S.W.T taught him Allah
S.W.T said Allah said he does
not speak of his own religion he doesn't
say whatever he feels like saying he has
been told what to say he has been
taught what he says is from his Rabb
not from his Hawa not from his desire
not from his he felt like this no
Allah S.W.T had taught him so
when we and again think about this how
is it that the Sunnah of Rasul S
.A.W. from his smallest detail about himself
his personality the description of his face the
number of hair in his beard the number
of white hair in his beard and his
blessed head the way he cut his nails
what the soles of his feet look like
and so on and so on the colour
of his eyes right is described and preserved
in detail such detail that Imam Tirmidhi may
Allah have mercy on him and bless him
he wrote a whole book he collected all
the Ahadith about the appearance of Rasul S
.A.W. when he wrote this book called
Shamail Al-Muhammadiyah which is called Shamail Al
-Tirmidhi imagine where is all this material coming
from they didn't invent it Imam Tirmidhi didn't
simply sit and say I saw in my
dream or this is what he must have
been like no this is what was recorded
so if the whole just the appearance itself
was recorded what he liked what he disliked
what kind of food he ate how he
ate method of eating everything everything imagine do
you think the Sahaba did not record his
teachings about the Quran which is the reason
for his coming into this world it was
recorded it was preserved yes there are some
people who added things in it and they
manufactured hadith but all of those have been
identified so there is no mystery so when
you are told by people who have spent
their entire lives and dedicated their entire lives
to the study and the authentication of the
Sunnah that this is the correct version this
one is false leave the false stick to
the correct version only a completely insane person
or a person who has no faith will
trash everything and say oh see because there
is a faulty one I can't accept anything
the faulty one has been identified it's not
like coming to a buffet of you know
of many many dishes and somebody says one
of these is poisoned so then you have
every right to say that I won't touch
anything because I don't know which one is
poisoned but if somebody says this chicken is
poisoned everything else is fine and this is
the expert speaking this is the one who
maybe he is the one who put the
poison there you know anyway so the point
is that the person who knows is saying
this one is poisoned then what's the problem
with eating the lamb or eating the you
know the fish or eating the vegetarian the
salad nothing I know which one is wrong
I won't eat that chicken so please don't
fall into these traps Alhamdulillah the authentic sunnah
is the authentic sunnah we know which it
is without the sunnah you cannot practice the
deen the kitab of Allah which is the
Quran is to be practiced in the way
of the sunnah starting from the way we
read it to everything that is contained in
it the sunnah is the method so we
ask Allah therefore the importance of the seerah
of learning about the life of Rasul sallallahu
alaihi wasallam and the sahaba we ask Allah
to make this a source of khair and
barakah for us and to be pleased with
us and never to be displeased wa sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam ameen