Mirza Yawar Baig – Sahaba The Gold Standard #10
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the history and characteristics of Islam, including the implementation of covenant of the Banu Nadir and the ban of births for children. They stress the importance of conversion and personal and professional behavior, as well as reciting the holy holy title. The speakers also discuss the use of shaitan and the importance of avoiding alcohol and against drugs. The conversation touches on the success of the Spanish society, the use of licensed drugs and gambling, and the importance of actions in learning.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
Wa salatu wa salamu ala sharafi l-anbiyai
wa l-mursaleen.
Muhammadur Rasulullahi sallallahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa
sahbihi wa sallam.
Tasliman kathirin kathirin.
From the love of my brothers and sisters,
we continue with our series of classes on
the lives and the standard of the Sahaba,
of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, his companions.
I remind myself when you, in the last
class we talked about the Azbab-ul-Nuzul,
the circumstances of revelation of the last ayat
of Surat-ul-Baqarah, which give us a
framework of what it means to be Muslim,
which is, Sama'na wa ata'na, we
hear and we obey.
The pledge of the Sahaba is the standard
of the Muslims.
Sama'na wa ata'na, we hear and
we obey.
As I mentioned also in the last class,
there is a confusion in the minds of
people about the issue, and people without knowledge
basically who, you know, may Allah protect us
from ignorance, about the issue of compulsion in
religion.
And when they are reminded to pray or
act according to the tenets of Islamic law,
they claim that there is no compulsion in
Islam, and that Allah said so.
And they quote the ayah, لَا إِكْرَهَ فِي
الدِّينِ قَدْ تَبَيَّنَا الرُّشْدُ مِنَ الْغَيْبِ فَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ
بِالطَّاغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدْ اسْتَمْسَكَ بِالْعُرْوَةِ الْوَثْقَىٰ
لَمْ فِي صَوَامَ عَلَىٰهَا وَاللَّهُ صَعُوبٌ مِنَ الْعَلِيمِ
In Surat-ul-Baqarah, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala said, there is no compulsion in religion.
Verily, the right path has become distinct from
the wrong path.
Whoever disbelieves in At-Tahut, which is false
deities, and believes in Allah, then he has
grasped the most trustworthy handhold that will never
break.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is All
-Hearer and All-Knower.
Now, this question and argument clearly underlines for
anyone the importance of studying the Qur'an
systematically and not simply cherry-picking ayat to
support their own assumptions and prejudices.
The Azbaab an-Nuzur, the circumstances of this
ayat, are clear about who this ayat refers
to.
The Banu Nadir were a Jewish tribe that
lived in Medina, and they controlled the market,
especially the jewelry trade.
They were also considered to be the most
learned people of Medina.
That is, among the Jews, the most learned
of them.
They had a lot of rabbis among them,
and they were signatories to the covenant of
Rasulullah ﷺ.
Which is the oldest written constitution in history.
This covenant promised mutual
protection and cooperation
to fight together against any external aggression.
The Banu Nadir, however, they violated the covenant,
and though the prescribed penalty for treason, in
this case, was and is, to this day,
death, Rasulullah ﷺ did not apply that.
But instead, he banished them from Medina.
Now, there was a superstition among the Arabs,
or some of the Arabs of Medina, that
if their children were brought up by the
Jews, they would be healthy, and so they
used to leave some of their children with
the Banu Nadir to be brought up by
them.
There was infant mortality, high infant mortality among
the Arabs, so they left some of their
children to be raised by the Banu Nadir.
So, when the Banu Nadir were leaving for
Khyber, the Arabs came to Rasulullah ﷺ, and
they asked them what they should do with
their children who lived with the Banu Nadir.
Should they allow them to go with them,
or should they take their children back?
That is when this ayah was revealed.
It refers specifically to the presentation of Islam
to those who are not Muslim, and orders
that they are to be left to choose
without any compulsion.
Interestingly, there is a note on this ayah
from the Mufassireen, which says that the term
Deen denotes, when it says La Iqraha Fiddeen,
it denotes both the contents of and the
compliance with a morally binding law.
Consequently, it signifies religion in the widest sense
of this term, extending over all that pertains
to its doctrinal contents and their practical implications,
as well as to man's attitude towards the
object of his worship, thus comprising also the
concept of faith.
The rendering of Deen as a religion or
faith or Islamic law depends
on the context in which this term is
used.
On the strength of the above categorical prohibition
of coercion, which is Iqraha, Allah says La
Iqraha Fiddeen, there is no coercion, in anything
that pertains to faith or religion, all the
Islamic jurists, the Fuqaha, without exception, hold that
forcible conversion is under all circumstances null and
void, and that any attempt at coercing a
non-believer to accept the faith of Islam
is a grievous sin, a verdict which disposes
of the widespread fallacy that Islam places before
the unbelievers, the alternative of conversion or the
sword.
So, this should be clear for anyone who
has any doubts in this matter, that there
is no such thing as conversion by the
sword in Islam.
If somebody did that, you know, people attempted
it and so on and so forth, and,
you know, some people may have converted because
they feared death.
That conversion was not valid and Islam does
not permit any such way of converting people.
Now, clearly, this refers to people being given
a free choice to enter Islam or not.
For those who have chosen to enter Islam,
it tells them that they have taken a
strong handhold leading to guidance and light.
They have made a conscious choice, so, naturally,
it makes no sense to say that after
entering Islam, you will do some things and
not other things.
Selective obedience is disobedience.
So, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala specified His
law for the believers where He said, يَا
أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ادْخُرُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَةً وَلَا
تَطَّبِعُوا خُطْوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَذُبٌ مُّبِينٌ Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said, O you who
believe, enter into Islam completely and perfectly, obeying
all the rules and regulations, and do not
follow the footsteps of shaitan, verily, he is
to you a plain enemy.
There is no, you know, there is no
doubt about the fact that shaitan is an
enemy of, is our worst enemy, and therefore,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying, do
not follow shaitan and don't follow in his
footsteps.
Now, interesting thing here, if you reflect on
this, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not
say, don't follow shaitan, he said, do not
follow his footsteps.
Now, think about this, why is Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala saying, do not follow his
footsteps, right?
Because the responsibility of following footsteps falls on
the person who is following those footsteps.
When you say, don't follow the footsteps, it
means clearly that the one that you are
being told not to follow is not there.
Right?
He is not there.
If the person was there, if the individual
was there, then you would say, do not
follow him, do not follow this person.
You won't say, don't follow his footsteps.
When you are saying, don't follow his footsteps,
it means that the person who you are
following is not there, which means that you
completely and totally bear the burden of that
decision.
You can't blame it afterwards, say, well, you
know, so and so misled me, no, you
chose to follow the footsteps.
And especially when you were shown that these
were the footsteps of your worst enemy, now,
why would you follow those footsteps unless there
is a problem with yourself.
So, the position of the sahaba, the position
of the Muslims has always been, sama'na
wa ata'na, gufranaka rabbana, wa ilayka maseer,
wallah, we hear and we obey.
We hear and we obey.
We hear and without hesitation, without delay, immediately,
instantly, we obey.
No matter what we feel about whatever we
are hearing.
There may be a command, where, which may
feel difficult for us, which we may dislike,
but Allah subhana wa ta'ala knows the
khair in it, therefore, we will follow it.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala said, wa asaan
takrahu shai'a fahuwa khairu lakum, wa asaan
tuhibbu shai'a fahuwa sharru lakum, Allah subhana
wa ta'ala said, it is possible that
there is something which you dislike, but there
is benefit for you in that.
And there is something that you like and
there is harm for you in that.
And Allah knows and you do not know.
So, therefore, when we say sama'na wa
ata'na, we are saying this with complete
and total certainty that we are obeying the
command of the one who knows more than
we know.
Who knows better than we know.
And who loves us and who only and
only commands us to do something which is
beneficial for us.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala does not randomly
command us to do this or that which
may possibly be harmful for us.
Allah only and only tells us and commands
us to do something which is beneficial for
us.
Now, the confidence to make the choice to
grab a handhold that will not break comes
from the ayah which precedes this ayah.
The ayah which precedes laa ikraafid deen where
Allah subhana wa ta'ala introduced himself in
the most magnificent ayat of the Quran which
is known as ayatul kursi.
All of us know that.
All of us have memorized it and those
who have not memorized it, you must memorize
it.
This is an ayah which is called the
greatest ayah of the Quran because Allah subhana
wa ta'ala introduced himself in this ayah.
And we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala
to fill our hearts with his glory and
majesty which comes in this ayah.
And then this ayah also is protection.
Rasulullah s.a.w. said whoever recites this
after the first salah, he said the only
thing that is between that person and entering
Jannah is his death.
Meaning as soon as he dies he will
go into Jannah.
So it is recommended that we recite ayatul
kursi as the last thing we recite before
we say salam, taslim in salah.
And the first thing after saying astaghfirullah three
times, the first thing we recite after we
say salam.
So we cover both aspects of the last
thing to be recited in salah is ayatul
kursi and we ask Allah subhana wa ta
'ala for Jannah by doing this.
Also Rasulullah s.a.w. recommended that we
recite ayatul kursi in the night before we
go to bed.
And he said that Allah subhana wa ta
'ala will then guard the person with 70
,000 angels.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala's qudrat, Allah does
not need to guard by any means, but
this is a way of showing the honour
that Allah subhana wa ta'ala bestows upon
the one who recites ayatul kursi.
So Allah subhana wa ta'ala said, Allah
la ilaha illa huwal hayyul qayyum la ta
'quduhu sinatun wa la naum lahum ma fi
samawati wa ma fil awd.
manzallathi yashfa'u indahu illa bi iznihi ya
'lamu ma bayna aydihim wa ma khalfahum wa
la yuhaytuna bi shayin min ilmihi illa bima
sha' wasi'a kursihu s-samawati wa l
-ard wa la ya'uduhu wa hifzuhu wa
huwa la liyuradheem.
Allah said, Allah la ilaha illa hu, none
has the right to be worshipped but He
jalla jalaluhu.
Al-hayyul qayyum, the ever-living, the one
who sustains and protects all that exists, the
one who will never die, the one who
is established, neither slumber nor sleep overtake him.
To him belongs whatever is in the heavens
and whatever is on earth.
Who is he that can intercede with him
except with his permission?
He jalla jalaluhu, the glorious and magnificent, knows
what happens to them, to his creatures, in
this world and what will happen to them
in the hereafter and they will never come
past, they will never know anything of his
knowledge except that which he wills.
His kursi extends over the heavens and the
earth and he feels no fatigue, he doesn't
get tired in guarding and preserving them.
And he is the most high, the most
great, he is the highest and the greatest.
After introducing himself, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gave people the choice to choose him over
the worship of creatures.
In my opinion, that is not even a
matter to think about.
Who in his right mind would choose anyone
other than Allah when he knows Allah?
And therein lies the catch.
Do you and I know Allah?
And that is the reason why it is
so important for us to spend time with
Allah.
To spend time in dhikr, to spend time
in remembering Allah, to spend time in reflecting,
in introspecting, in looking at the universe, the
creation around us.
And bring the glory and majesty of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala into our hearts.
Now once the choice is made, once we
have chosen to hold, grab the handhold that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned, when we
have chosen to choose Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala over anyone and everything else, Alhamdulillah, I
make the choice and I ask you also
to make the choice.
Once the choice is made, the consequences of
choosing one or the other, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala mentioned that also.
Allah
subhanahu
wa ta'ala said, Allah is the protector
and the guardian of those who believe, the
people of faith.
He brings them out from darkness into light.
But as for those who disbelieve, their awliya,
their supporters and helpers are the ta'hoot,
the false deities and the false leaders that
they have chosen.
They bring them out from light into darkness.
Those are the dwellers of the fire and
they will stay there forever.
My brothers and sisters, we are free to
choose, but the choice is never free.
Every choice has a price tag.
Every choice has a consequence.
So choose wisely.
Don't grab the handhold that will break and
then let go midstream.
You will be swept away and you drown.
Once you grab the handhold, hang on until
you have reached the other side which is
Jannatul Firdaus.
Is that enough reward for you and me?
Where else do you think is the destination
of the one whose wali is Allah?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that he
is the wali of the believers.
The question is, do we want Allah to
be our wali?
Now, it looks like a stupid question, but
look into your life.
Let me look into my life and tell
me and you tell yourself whether that is
really a stupid question.
What's the question?
Do I want Allah as my wali?
Is that really a stupid question?
Ask yourself.
Because if you want Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala as your wali and I want him
as my wali and he said that he
is our wali, then why do we insist
on angering him?
Why do we insist on disobeying him?
Why do we insist on being rebellious?
Now, how do you explain this?
The sahaba Ridwanullahi alaihi majma'in, may Allah
be pleased with all of them, understood this
and so, as soon as they learned something,
they acted upon it.
As soon as they learned something, they acted
upon it.
Abdullah ibn Umar, radhiyallahu anhuwa, is a fine
example of this attitude of always walking the
talk.
It is reported that he slaughtered a camel
and invited everyone to a meal when he
completed memorizing Suratul Bukhara at the end of
12 years.
So, just one surah, two and a half
juz, he took 12 years and at the
end of 12 years he finished memorization of
just the surah, not the whole Quran and
then he gave a wali ma, he gave
a dawah, he gave a party, he slaughtered
a camel and he invited all his friends.
Now, ask yourself, why it took someone whose
mother tongue was Arabic 12 years to memorize
one surah, which is 49 pages, I mean,
just under two and a half juz.
Just that long.
When our youngsters memorize the whole Quran, 600
pages, in less than 3 years.
49 pages takes 12 years, 600 pages takes
2 years.
Alhamdulillah.
So, someone asked him this question.
They said, why did it take you so
long to memorize one surah?
And he said, we, by we he means
not only himself, he means all the sahaba
of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam whoever
learnt from him, alayhi salatu wa salam, he
said, we used to take 10 ayats from
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Then we would memorize them and reflect on
them and understand them and apply them in
our lives and we would seek clarification if
necessary and only when we were satisfied would
we go to Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
for the next 10 ayats.
Now, think about this.
The first thing that strikes you is the
sincerity with which they approach the Quran.
This is the true adab of the kalam
of Allah.
Not wrapping it up in silk or satin
cloth and kissing it and touching it to
your eyes and forehead and placing it on
a high shelf.
The Quran al-Karim came to be understood
and applied in our lives.
Not simply to be memorized by rote without
understanding and then recited mechanically.
The adab of the Quran is to apply
it in our lives.
This was the hallmark of the sahaba.
This was the signature of the sahaba.
This is what made them stand out.
They were the walking, talking, reflection of the
Quran.
There was no gap between knowing and action,
knowledge and action.
Between ilm and amal.
What they knew they practiced as soon as
they learned about it.
Right?
Whatever they learned, they practiced.
Abu Huraira radiallahu anhu narrated what happened when
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam revealed the ayah
prohibiting the consumption of alcohol.
He said that Abu Huraira radiallahu anhu narrated
and also Anas bin Malik radiallahu anhu narrated
this.
And Anas bin Malik radiallahu anhu said that
he was pouring wine for some of his
guests when this surah was revealed, this ayat
was revealed.
Where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned, where
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said Ya ayyuhalladhina
amanu innama al-khamru wal-maysiru wal-ansabu
wal-azlamu rijsum min amali al-shaytani fashtanibuhu
la'allakum tuflihu.
Right?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, All you
who believe, intoxicants, all kinds of alcoholic drinks,
all kinds of drugs and whatever intoxicates, all
kinds of gambling, whether it's cards or roulette
tables or horses or greyhounds or whatever, all
forms of gambling.
All ansab and all azlam, all kinds of
fortune telling, all kinds of tarot cards and
feng shui and vastu and shastu and all
that.
And all azlam, which is arrows for seeking
to bring good luck or decision making, all
of these are an abomination of shaitan's handiwork.
It's not just bad stuff, this is the
most evil of it.
So, avoid it strictly.
Allah said, stay away from it.
That you may be successful.
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminded in
the next ayah, Allah said, innama yuridu shaitanu
ayn yuqi'a bainakumu al-adawata wal-baghdaa
fil khamri wal-maysiri wa yasuddakum an dhikri
Allah wa anis salati fahal antum muntahoon.
Allah said, shaitan wants only to create enmity
and hatred between you with intoxicants and gambling.
Remember, just think about this, how clear it
is.
You get drunk, you fight, you do gambling,
cause loss to each other.
So, Allah said, shaitan only wants to excite
enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants and
gambling and hinder you from the remembrance of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and from salah.
So, will you not then abstain?
Now, Anas bin Malik radiallahu anhu, he says,
I was pouring wine into a glass and
as soon as I heard this ayah, I
moved my hand so that the wine poured
or spilled onto the ground.
They were sitting, he said, there were people
sitting with me, with wine in their glasses,
they threw it on the ground.
Some had taken a mouthful, they spat it
out.
He said, then we brought out the wine
jars and poured all the wine out into
the drains.
The drains of Medina ran with wine and
then we smashed the jars.
All the Muslims who had wine in their
homes, in their houses, in their warehouses, he
said, they did the same.
Now, someone informed Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
about this action of the Sahaba.
He called them and asked them why they
had smashed the jars as there was no
need to do that since the jars could
have been washed and used to store other
things.
The Sahaba replied, Ya Rasulullah, we didn't want
to leave anything behind to remind us of
the time when we used to drink.
Now, just reflect on this.
Alcohol is a drug.
There are several points here to reflect on.
First of all, we have heard the story
of, you know, how the wine was poured
and it ran in the drains of Medina
like a river.
Now, think about it.
How was there so much of wine in
Medina in the first place?
And that's why I say to you that
in Medina, they had a winemaking industry.
And this is true across the world.
Any society which grew crops with a high
sugar content with fruits always had a winemaking
industry.
Whether it's apples, whether they make cider, they
make wine out of that.
Cider itself is halal.
I mean, don't get confused with that.
But if it's allowed to ferment and so
on and turn into wine, then it becomes
a problem.
Grapes go anywhere in the world.
All countries and societies which grow grapes have
a thriving wine industry.
The vineyards are raised for the purpose of
producing wine.
So, also with dates.
Very high sugar content and therefore, ideal for
making wine.
This is what the people of Medina used
to do.
They used to make wine.
And that is why there was so much
wine in the first place, it threw away.
Point here is, this ayah, at one stroke,
destroyed their livelihood.
It destroyed their entire economy.
Because this was a society which was based
on the sale of wine and it was
made haraam.
They did that.
They didn't fight that.
They didn't say, ya Rasulullah, show us an
alternative industry, show us an alternative business and
then we will give this up.
No.
Allah said, do it, they did it.
They did not hesitate.
They didn't think about how will this affect
my family, how will I feed my family
because they knew Allah.
They said, if Allah has told us to
do something, there is benefit in this and
this cannot be wrong.
Second big issue is, many of them, for
example, Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab, we came
from Mecca, but he was also in Medina.
He said about himself, and this is true
for anyone then and today who drinks alcohol
habitually daily.
He said, if it had not been for
Islam, I would have either died in a
drunken brawl in a bar or I would
have succumbed to the, to something like cirrhosis
of liver.
Obviously, he did not say cirrhosis of liver,
but meaning some disease connected with alcohol.
And this is true for everyone.
That's why alcohol is so evil.
It destroys the individual, it destroys families, destroys
relationships, creates all kinds of enmities.
Now, alcohol is a drug, which is a
horribly addictive drug.
And it's so bad that alcoholics cannot just
leave their addiction.
And many have to go into special de
-addiction clinics to break the habit.
The famous global organization Alcoholics Anonymous says that
you can never actually cure an alcohol addiction.
All you can do is keep the person
away from alcohol and make sure that they
never touch and never go near alcohol again.
Don't even be in the same room as
alcohol.
Because they say that even if you have
been, you were an alcoholic, you went into
this de-addiction program, you were, within quotes,
so-called cured, you remained cured for 20
years, then you have one drink and you
are back in the same mess.
It is as evil as that.
Alcohol consumption in the Covid years, for example,
in the United States here, 2020-2021, alcohol
caused more deaths, alcohol related deaths than Covid.
But Covid, we all fought it, the government
fought it, the whole world fought Covid as
indeed they should have fought, but alcohol is
legal.
It's a tax-deductible expense, right, in a
business setting.
It is legal.
Now, deaths were more than the deaths thanks
to Covid, but we are not even talking
about the people maimed, the people paralyzed, the
people who were injured and therefore became handicapped,
they could not recover from the injuries.
All of that is in addition to the
number of people who were killed.
Yet, alcohol is legal because big money is
involved and when money is God, then everything
else becomes permissible.
This is how senseless our society is and
that's what we need to fight.
It's extremely painful and de-addiction is very
painful and it is long, it's difficult.
Now, question here is, in this case, the
sahabas were, I mean, many of them were
alcoholic because they used to consume alcohol routinely
and habitually, but as soon as the ayat
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was revealed,
they broke that alcoholism, they broke that addiction
instantly.
How did that happen?
Right?
How did they give up something that they
had done all their lives and they were
addicted to?
That is the power of obedience to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When you want to obey Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala sincerely, he opens doors to make
that obedience easy.
The sincerity of the sahaba was such that
they even broke the jars, which they did
not need to break because they did not
want to leave behind any reminders of their
days of disobedience.
Now, what is the Umar Banas?
Now, this is the sync between knowledge and
action.
Completely, they are integrated and they are connected,
that I mentioned, which was the hallmark and
the secret of success of the sahaba.
I remind myself, you and you, that in
the end, it is only action which produces
results.
The rest is only noise.
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
help us to act on what we know
and not become collectors of information, which if
left unpracticed, will become proof and evidence against
us before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.