Mirza Yawar Baig – Sahaba The Gold Standard Abu Bakr #13
AI: Summary ©
The first generation of people are learning and getting inspired by their accomplishments, and the success of the caliphates is recognized. The names of the believers with the highest success are discussed as indicators of their success, and the importance of learning from its lessons is emphasized. The history and characteristics of the title of the book "ilGeneration" are also discussed, and the speakers emphasize the importance of not giving up on one's source of information and the need for people to be aware of their source of information. The success of Islam is seen as a tax-deductible expense for businesses, and the use of tobacco and alcohol is discussed as a burden that cannot be considered a burden.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, wa salatu wa salamu ala
sharafi l-anbiyai wa l-mursaleen.
Muhammadur Rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa
sahbihi wa sallam, tasliman kathiran kathira fammabadu.
My brothers and sisters, let me introduce you
to Khalifatur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi wa sallam, Abu Bakr Siddiq radiyallahu
anhu.
What we are trying to do in this
series is not merely to look at the
stories of this first generation, of the greatest
of the greatest, the first generation of people
who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala honoured and
called them as-sabiqoon al-awwaloon, He called
them the people who won the race, He
called them the people, the best of the
best, as-sabiqoon al-awwaloon, and we therefore,
we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
help us to be with them, and the
reason we say that, the confidence with which
we say that is because Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala left the door open, and Allah
said, and those who follow them bil ihsan,
wa taba'uhum bil ihsan, as-sabiqoon al
-awwaloon min al-muhajireena wal-ansari wal-ladheena
taba'uhum bil ihsan.
The first of the first, from the muhajireen
and the ansar, from those who migrated to
Medina, and those who gave them saqa, and
those who gave them sustenance, and those who
gave them help, and those who supported them
and protected them in Medina al-ansar, wa
taba'uhum bil ihsan, and those who followed
them in excellence.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala jalla shanuhu,
in his infinite mercy, left the door open,
for all those who follow Rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam, and who follow the sahaba of
Rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, about whom Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said, radiyallahu anhum wa
radu'an, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is pleased with them and they are pleased
with Allah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Therefore, the purpose of this series is for
us to learn about them, for us to
get inspired by their wonderful, inspirational, beautiful lives,
and for us to try to implement their
ways in our lives.
Now, this is the most important reason for
doing this series of classes.
Now, among the sabiqun al-abbalun, the number
one of them, about whom we say sometimes
in the Qutubatul Jumu'ah, that he is
the best after the anbiya, ba'd al-anbiya,
right?
The one who is, afzal ba'd al-anbiya
bith tahqiq, he is the best after the
anbiya, because nobody takes precedence over the messengers
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and everyone
who comes who is not a messenger is
at a level which is below that of
the messengers.
So let me introduce to you the number
one of the sabiqun al-abbalun, Abu Bakr
as-Siddiq.
He was the only one of the Khulafa
Rashida to have that title of Khalifatur Rasulillah.
He was only one of the rightly guided
Khalifas that we call Khulafa Rashideen, the four
of them, and we sometimes also include the
fifth, and that is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq,
Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, Ali
ibn Abi Talib, and Al-Hasan ibn Ali,
may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased
with all of them.
These are known as the Khulafa Rashida, the
rightly guided Khulafa.
Of these, Abu Bakr and Umar, may Allah
be pleased with them, have the highest status,
because Rasulullah used to be his constant companions,
and he used to constantly refer to them
whenever there was something, for example, the famous
hadith where a woman came to him, sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, and asked a question, and
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to her,
come tomorrow, and I will answer your question
inshallah, and the woman said, ya Rasulullah, if
you are not there, then what should I
do?
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, go to
Abu Bakr, and she said, if Abu Bakr
is not there, what must I do?
He said, go to Umar radhiallahu anhuwa.
And so therefore, we know that these two
out of the others had precedence.
We also know that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam appointed Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radhiallahu anhuwa
to lead the salah during his last week
of illness, which culminated in his departure from
this life, and he appointed Abu Bakr as
-Siddiq radhiallahu anhuwa to lead salah during that
period, and all of these are indicators that
Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radhiallahu anhuwa has special,
has a very special position among the believers,
among the mu'mineen, and those who love Abu
Bakr as-Siddiq radhiallahu anhuwa, loved the one
who Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam loved,
and loved the one who Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala jalla jalaluhu also loved.
He was the first, he was the only
one with this title of Khalifatu Rasulullah, because
after he passed away, there was even a
talk when Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab radhiallahu
anhuwa became a Khalifa, they said, well, what
do we call him, what do we call
you?
Khalifatu Khalifatu Rasulullah.
I mean, that's like a, you know, more
than a mouthful, almost a sentence, the Khalifa
of the Khalifa.
Of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
And while this was happening, I think, if
I'm not mistaken, it was Amr ibn al
-As radhiallahu anhuwa, or somebody else, who came
and out of the conversation, the term Amirul
Mu'mineen was coined, and they said, well, this
is a good term, and this is what
we will call all the, we will call
the Khalifas of, after this.
So, therefore, Amirul Mu'mineen was the next title,
and this title remained for as long as
the Khilafa remained.
He was the first among the believers to
accept Islam, among the men to accept Islam,
among the children, it was Sayyidina Ali ibn
Abi Talib radhiallahu anhuwa, among the women, it
was Sayyidina Khadijah al-Kubra, Khadijah ibn Khuwailid,
radhiallahu anhuwa.
And so, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq was also
considered to be the Sheikh of the Sahaba.
The Sahaba used to go to him to
answer questions, to ask questions.
We have innumerable hadiths.
For example, the hadith of Suleyh-ud-Dabiya
at that time, when Umar ibn al-Khattab
radhiallahu anhuwa, was very agitated about the fact
that Rasulullah s.a.w. was signing the
treaty, he went to Rasulullah s.a.w.,
he asked him questions, and when it got,
when Rasulullah s.a.w. replied and responded
to him, he was still not satisfied, who
did he go to?
He went to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radhiallahu
anhuwa.
So, this is the, you know, the many
many many other hadiths.
So, he was the Imam of the Sahaba
also and appointed by Rasulullah s.a.w.
Now, we talked about two qualities of the
Sahaba before this, Iman and Yaqeen and Knowledge
and Action.
So, these were, you know, things which were
combined in them.
So, Iman they had at the level of
Yaqeen.
So, it's not just an intellectual belief or
a logical belief and so on, Iman at
the level of Yaqeen.
Iman at the level of complete and total
faith and trust in La ilaha illallah Muhammadur
Rasulullah.
And then, Knowledge and Action.
Everything they learnt, they immediately applied in their
lives.
We are sadly in a situation where we
have knowledge, but we don't apply it in
our lives.
Right?
So, we have this intellectual mass.
Subhanallah, I sometimes think to myself that there
are many many many Muslims who have more
knowledge in terms of actual data in their
heads than many of the Sahaba had.
Right?
They knew, they actually know more.
But application is a different thing.
Not every Sahabi was a hafiz of Quran,
for example.
One of the easiest and simplest examples to
illustrate this point, not every Sahabi was a
hafiz of the Quran.
So, therefore, we have millions of hufadh, alhamdulillah,
and nothing wrong with that, that's wonderful.
But every single Sahabi, whatever of the Quran,
Al-Karim, that he or she knew, they
applied it in their lives.
Can we say that about our hufadh today?
We cannot.
So, therefore, with the Sahaba, these two, when
we talk about it, we are talking about
four things, but they are actually two, Iman
and Yaqeen and Knowledge and Action.
So, these two and these two were combined
as one.
Iman and Yaqeen together, Iman at the level
of Yaqeen and Knowledge with complete action in
them.
Now, at that time I did not mention
Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A., not because he
is not an example, he is obviously the
best example of excellence for that, but because
I am trying to mention as many of
the Sahaba as I can to illustrate that
they were, all of them were examples of
the gold standard, which is the Sahaba, and
Sahaba, the gold standard is the title of
this lecture series.
Now, Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A., popularly known
as Abu Bakr, is the first Khalifa after
Rasulullah S.A.W. His full name was
Abdullah Ibn Abu Quhafa Uthman Ibn Aamir Al
-Qurashi Al-Taymi.
Banu Taym was his sub-tribe from the
Quraish.
His lineage joins with that of Rasulullah S
.A.W. Six generations before himself in Murrab,
in Qa'ab, that was their common ancestor.
Now, it may sound strange to people today
because, may Allah have mercy on us, most
of us, we, you know, I don't know
how many people even know the names of
their great-grandfathers, forget about anything else.
Even their own great-grandfather, most of us,
we don't know their names.
Great-grandmothers, almost nobody will remember.
But with the Arabs, maintaining the records of
lineage was a science in itself.
And it was a very, very important thing
for them which they did that.
And the people who knew this science and
who knew the lineages of people were hugely
honoured.
And Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. was one
of them.
He was one of them who knew the
lineage of so many people.
I won't say all the Arabs, obviously, nobody
can know all, but, you know, much more
than anyone else.
And he was considered to be an expert
in lineage.
Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. was born in
Mecca in 573 of CE, Christian era, A
.D. Two years and some months after the
birth of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
His father was Usman Abu Quhafa.
He accepted Islam only at the time of
Fatah Mecca.
There is a story of how that happened.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was there after Fatah
Mecca and Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. brought
his father.
His father was an old man at that
time.
He was almost blind.
Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. brought his father
to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And he said, ya Rasulullah, here is my
father and he is ready to accept Islam.
And Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam accepted his Islam.
And he said to him, ya Abu Bakr,
why did you bring your father?
You should have told me, I would have
gone to him.
Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. said, no, it
is more appropriate for him to come to
you than for you to go to him.
So, this was the love and reverence of
the Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam which was in
the heart of Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A.
His mother, Salma bin Sakhar R.A., she
was also known as Ummul Khair, she embraced
Islam very early and she migrated to Madinah.
Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. spent his early
childhood like other Arab children of the time
among the Bedouins.
In his early years, as we know, this
was a practice among the Bedouin Arabs, among
the Arabs of Mecca, where they would send
their children to the Bedouin, to the tribal
Arabs in the desert.
Because, first of all, the desert air, the
fact that they would get pure food and
drink and the fact that what was good
for them rather than the crowded and congested
and polluted atmosphere of Mecca.
And also, the Arabs were very, very particular
about their language.
And they knew that the language of the
Bedouin, the language of the tribal Arabs in
the desert was much purer than the mixture
of languages in Mecca.
Now, Mecca was a trade center.
So, Mecca attracted people from all of the
Arabian Peninsula, people from other places also.
So, not only were there people who spoke
different languages, there were people who spoke different
dialects and different lahjat, different dialects of Arabic.
And all of these people were together.
And therefore, these people were, you know, the
language tended to get muddied.
And accents, people, the local Arabs, if the
children remained in Mecca, they would pick up
accents.
And the Arabs were very particular about that.
About the accent, about their speech and so
on.
And language and linguistics was a very important
part of their lives.
So, they sent their children off to the
desert to be with the desert Arabs for
a few years so that their foundation in
language would get very strong.
So, they learnt the language, they learnt the
grammar, they learnt Balaga, they learnt poetry.
They were very, very, the Arabs were famous
for poetry.
The writing poetry with the rhyme, with the
clear structures.
The three earliest civilizations were recorded to do
that were the Chinese, the Indian and the
Arabs.
There was nobody who wrote poetry like them
before that.
So, they did that.
This is why they used to send their
children.
And so, Abu Bakr Siddiq Adelano was also
one of them who was sent off.
In his early years, so, when he was
there, he used to play with the camel
calves and goats.
And he loved camels and he loved to
play with the camel calves which got him
the nickname of Abu Bakr because Bakr is
a camel calf which is very energetic and,
you know, jumps here and there and so
on.
So, he was called the father of the
calf.
This is like Abu Huraira.
Huraira is a kitten and he was called
Abu Huraira because of his love for cats
and kittens.
So, people used to give these kuniyat, give
these nicknames.
In 591 AD, at the age of 18,
Abu Bakr Adelano went into his family's business
which was in the, they were all cloth
merchants.
So, he also became a cloth merchant.
He started his business with a capital of
40,000 dirham which shows that they were
a wealthy family.
He had that much of money.
In the following years, Abu Bakr Siddiq Adelano
travelled extensively with the caravans.
And, you know, we know this, Allah Subhanu
wa ta'ala said, Rehnat-e-Shitai was
safe.
The caravans, they would choose to go in
the winter and the summer.
In winter, they would go south to Yemen.
In the summer, they would go north to
Syria.
So, he went to Syria and Yemen and
many other countries in what is called, currently
what is called the Middle East.
His business flourished and though his father was
around, his father was alive, Abu Bakr Adelano
came to be recognized as the chief of
his tribe because of his many qualities.
One of which was his knowledge of the
history of the Arabs.
Genealogical knowledge, expertise in lineage as I mentioned
before.
This was a very important element of leadership.
And so, Abu Bakr Siddiq Adelano came to
be known for that.
He came to be, because also he was,
he was made a judge.
So, he has, he had knowledge of law,
he had knowledge of politics, trade and business
and so on.
Also, his kindness, his compassion, his, you know,
friendliness and all of these were things which
were, which earned him a lot of popularity.
And he was known and accepted as a
leader.
Abu Bakr Siddiq Adelano was also remarkably virtuous.
Even before Islam, he had, he had, he
never used to drink alcohol.
Alcohol was a part of the society.
It was like, like, like the, like today,
in the Western world, in Western Eastern, I
think, there is hardly any difference anymore, where
people have alcohol is, alcohol is the worst
possible drug that we can imagine.
It causes more deaths.
Just to give you an idea, in the
last, in the two COVID years, in America,
and these are statistics, it's not my opinion,
in the COVID years in America, 2020, 2021,
alcohol caused more deaths than COVID.
Right?
Alcohol caused more deaths than COVID.
But you don't hear about that.
In COVID, you had all the hoo-ha,
wear masks, this, that, vaccines, what not, people
fighting and so forth.
But for alcohol, no, nothing, not a sound.
Although alcohol caused more fatalities than COVID.
And we are talking only about deaths.
We are not talking about families destroyed.
We are not talking about people maimed because
of drunk driving.
Somebody else's drunk driving slammed into this person.
This person wasn't even drunk.
They had not consumed any alcohol.
But because they were in the accident, now
they are paraplegic, they have lost, they have
got paralyzed, you know, become handicapped, arms, legs,
what not.
I mean, all of this is not included
in the fatalities because if they did not
die, they don't even get counted.
But despite that, alcohol is free.
Alcohol is a tax-deductible expense for businesses.
Alcohol is almost a normal thing in any
party.
A party is not a party unless there
is alcohol.
I mean, imagine, this is how we have
created a society where our entertainment is based
on, even, forget about the sin.
It's a sin in the eyes of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
It's a major sin in the eyes of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Leave that aside.
Just scientifically, medically, it is something which is
so horrible and terrible.
Alcohol and the use of tobacco in any
shape or form, whether it is cigarettes or
cigars or chewing tobacco or what not, because
it makes money.
Because the government taxes those companies and they
make money.
And therefore, it is permissible, permitted and it
is something which is not even looked on
as a stigma.
This is the beauty of Islamic law.
Islam goes directly to the root.
Anything which is intrinsically bad in Islam is
haram.
It is prohibited.
No matter that society may not think so,
society may not agree with you.
It doesn't matter.
We start from the premise that Allah knows
better than us.
This is the fundamental premise of Islam that
Allah knows better than us.
So, Avvakar Siddhikar Dalal never drank alcohol.
Somebody asked him, he said, have you ever
drunk alcohol?
Have you ever drunk, you know, have you
ever taken any liquor?
He said, no.
He said, I seek refuge from Allah.
I never drank alcohol.
The person said, why?
He said, because I want to maintain my
honour and dignity.
Imagine, all you have to do is look
at people who drink and who get drunk
and see what they do and you know
what it means.
He said, so that I preserve my honour
and dignity.
The other thing which Avvakar Siddhikar Dalal is
distinguished in is that he never prostrated to
idols.
He never made sajda to an idol.
He never worshipped an idol.
Now, once in a gathering of, in which
there was Rasul s.a.w. and many
of the Sahaba, Avvakar Siddhikar Dalal said, I
never ever bowed to an idol.
I never worshipped an idol.
He said, as I grew older, as I
attained puberty, my father led me to the
Kaaba, led me to a chamber of idols
and he said, there are your grand elevated
gods.
And after saying that, he said, my father
left to do something else.
He left me there.
So, I went to an idol and I
said, I am hungry, can you feed me?
And of course, he is talking to a,
you know, to a stone idol, what's going
to happen.
So, obviously, there is no answer.
Then he said, I want some nice beautiful
clothes.
So, give me clothes.
Nothing happened.
Then he said, I picked up a rock
and I threw it at the idol, the
idol fell down and nothing happened.
So, he said, I never went back and
I never worshipped any idol.
Because they can't do anything.
What is the use of worshipping them?
Now, even before Islam, Avvakar Siddhikar Dalal was
well known among the people in Makkah as
a leader in terms of morality and values
and so on.
So, he, and that's how he was also
appointed a judge and that's what, and he
was honoured even before he came to Islam.
Avvakar Dalal accepted Islam after a long search
for the true religion.
This was something in his mind, it was
something that he was searching for and he,
you know, he used to think about that.
He was, as I mentioned to you, he
was the first person, first man, first adult
man to respond and believe in Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam.
His immediate acceptance of Islam was a consequence
also of the deep friendship that he had
with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
He knew Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to be
a truthful and honest and noble person and
that he was, he never lied, he never
ever lied about anything to anybody.
So, the question, obvious question was, and this
is actually the question that Heraclius asked Abu
Sufyan R.A. before he became Muslim.
He said, has he ever lied?
Abu Sufyan said, no.
Heraclius said, then somebody who never lied before
is not going to start lying concerning God,
concerning Allah.
So, therefore, he should be believed.
And this is exactly what Abu Bakr Siddiq
R.A. also said that it occurred to
him that here is a man who never
lied for anything in his life.
He is not going to begin by, you
know, when he is 40 years old, he
is not going to begin lying about Allah,
about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Now, when Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. embraced
Islam, he came into Islam, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam was overjoyed.
Because obviously, he was his dearest, closest friend,
become Muslim, you know, what do you think?
And this was also a victory for Islam
because of Abu Bakr Siddiq's stature and position
among the Quraish.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exalted his
noble character.
In fact, Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. had
always doubted the, as I mentioned to you,
the validity of idolatry and had very little
enthusiasm for worshipping idols.
He never did.
So, when he accepted Islam, he did his
best to then preach it and to invite
other people and other friends.
And so, Uthman ibn Affan R.A., Abu
Dharr Rahman ibn Awf R.A., Talha ibn
Ubaydullah R.A., Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas
R.A., who was a uncle of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Az-Zubair ibn Awam R
.A., who later on became a son-in
-law of Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A., and
Abu Ubaidah ibn Al-Jarrah R.A., who
was known and Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave
him the title of Ameen ul-Ummah.
They all joined and they came into Islam
thanks to the Dawah of Abu Bakr Siddiq
R.A. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam once said,
Abu Bakr is the only person who accepted
Islam immediately without question, without suspicion.
Now, as the number of Muslims rose in
Mecca, as more people became Muslim and the
number was at that time 39, Abu Bakr
Siddiq R.A. asked the permission of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to call the people openly
to Islam.
Now, after Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam initially did
not give this permission, he said, no, keep
it silent.
But Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. was very
enthusiastic and eventually Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam agreed.
And so, they all went to Kaaba and
they started reciting Quran and preaching Islam.
Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. gave a khutbah,
which was the first khutbah ever to be
given in Islam at that time.
Now, when the Quraish heard this, they attacked
them and they beat them.
Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. was so severely
beaten that he almost died.
He fell unconscious.
They rescued him from there.
They took him home.
And as soon as he gained consciousness, the
first thing he said is, how is Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam?
Now, his mother assured him that Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam was okay, that he had not
been injured.
And only then was Abu Bakr Siddiq R
.A. satisfied.
Imagine the first thing, he is himself badly
injured, bleeding and in pain.
But as soon as he gains consciousness, the
first person he asks about is Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam.
So, it shows how much he loved Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
His love was so unbounded that he considered
himself as nothing compared to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
In conclusion, his wife Qutaila, he had two
wives.
One was Qutaila.
She did not accept Islam.
So, he divorced her.
His other wife, Umar Uman, she became Muslim.
And all his children except Abdur Rahman did
not become, all his children became Muslim except
his son, Abdur Rahman.
So, this is the story of Abu Bakr
Siddiq R.A. We will inshallah look at,
we will continue with this inshallah in our
next class.
Wa Sallallahu Ala Nabiyyil Kareem.
Wa Ala Alihi Wasallam.
Bi hurmati l-Habib, bi hurmati l-Fatiha.