Mirza Yawar Baig – Sahaba – The Gold Standard – Session 1
AI: Summary ©
The success of Islam's ridden reputation as the golden standard is highlighted, along with the importance of finding one's own success to be included with others. The importance of learning and sharing is emphasized, as it is crucial for everyone to have a "will" to live in a "will" position. The se Celis movement between the Persian and the Arab was a movement between the Persian and the Arab to build a society based on compassion, human rights, and human culture. The movement was a movement between the Persian and the Arab to build a society based on compassion, human rights, and human culture. The movement was a movement between the Persian and the Arab to build a society based on compassion, human rights, and human culture. The success of Islam is highlighted, along with the importance of finding one's own success to be included with others.
AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu wa salamu ala
ashrafi l-anbiyai wa l-mursaleen.
Muhammadun Rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa
sahbihi wa sallam tasliman kathiran kathiran.
Wa min ba'du.
Qala Ta'ala inna Allaha wa malaikatahu yusalluna
ala nabi ya ayyuhal ladhina amanu sallu alayhi
wa sallimu taslima.
Allahumma salli ala Muhammad wa ala aali Muhammad
kama sallita ala Ibrahima wa ala aali Ibrahima
innaka hamidun majid.
Allahumma barik ala Muhammad wa ala aali Muhammad
kama barakta ala Ibrahima wa ala aali Ibrahima
innaka hamidun majid.
My dear brothers and sisters, we begin today
a new series of lectures on those who
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala called the gold
standard.
Who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put before
us as the gold standard.
Who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala declared that
He is pleased with them and that they
are pleased with Allah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said that the muhajireen
and the ansari, those who won the race,
sabiqoon, who went ahead of others from the
muhajireen, the people of Mecca who migrated to
Madinah, wa l-ansar, the people of Madinah
who gave them support and who helped them,
Allah is pleased with them and they are
pleased with Allah.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala left the
door open for all of us where He
said, and those who follow them in ihsan,
who follow them in excellence, they will also
be included with those who Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is pleased with and who are
pleased with Allah.
And that is why this series of lectures
inshaAllah, where I am going to try and
cover the stories, short biographies.
Of all those who Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala mentioned in this beautiful ayatul kareemah, who
are meant, not mentioned them individually by name,
but to whom this refers, whom are meant
in this ayah, where Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala said that He is pleased with them
and they are pleased with Him.
My brothers and sisters, remember, there is only
one thing which matters, only one single thing
that matters when we stand before Allah jalla
jalaluhu and there is no doubt about this
standing, and that is, was Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala pleased with us or not?
If Allah jalla jalaluhu was pleased with us
and how we live this life, then inshaAllah
walhamdulillah we are safe.
And if, may Allah protect us from that,
if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was not
pleased with us, then on that day when
we stand before Him, there is nobody on
the face of the earth, and there will
be no earth on that day, who can
help us and who can save us.
What is the way to ensure that we
are among those people?
Who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala declared that
He is pleased with them?
That way is to be like them, is
to learn about them and to try to
be like them.
This is what they used to say, the
Sahaba used to say to anyone who asked
them how they could have a life as
full of tranquility and contentment like the Sahaba
had.
They did not have lives which were full
of comfort and full of wealth and full
of material beauty.
They did not have lives which had fancy
foods to eat and beautiful clothes to wear
and fancy houses to live in and fancy
means of transport.
And all of those things which today we
consider to be necessities for life, they did
not have them, they did not have them.
Instead, they had tranquility, they had peace and
harmony inside the house and they had contentment.
They were pleased with what Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala gave them, whether it was more
or whether it was less, they had no
complaints.
Their hearts were at rest.
They were not full of istirab, they were
not full of yearning and wanting this and
wanting that.
They were not full of all kinds of
problematic situations, all of them without exception self
-created that we have made for ourselves in
this life.
Brothers and sisters, I remind myself and you
that we are the architects of our fate.
We are the people who have created this
world in which we live.
A world of hypocrisy, a world of turmoil,
right?
A world of turmoil, a world which has
no value for truth.
What kind of world is that?
And we make this world and we live
in this world and then we complain.
It's very strange to anyone who can think
logically that why do we complain about something
that we have created which means also that
we have the power to change it if
we want.
Alhamdulillah, if somebody says, well, how should we
change it?
We have a plan.
We have the record of the pilot project.
When there was a world, not the entire
universe of the time, not the entire world,
earth of the time, but this part of
the earth which was inhabited by and ruled
by and in which lived the Sahaba of
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the companions of
the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon
him.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's purpose and Allah
knows his purpose of sending the Nabi sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam as a means of guidance
for all of humankind.
Allah's purpose of sending was not simply to
tell, but to show and demonstrate.
Not simply to inform the people about a
way of life called Islam, but to live
it and demonstrate it in actual life.
And not just by one person that is
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, but by
that entire generation, that entire community of men
and women who lived Islam.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said about the
sending of his Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
لَقَدْ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعْسَ فِيهِمْ
رَسُولًا مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ يَتْلُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ
وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِن كَانُوا مِن قَبْلُوا لَفِي
ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ In Surah Al-A'limra, ayah
164, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, Indeed,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala conferred a great
favour on the believers when he sent among
them a messenger, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
from among themselves, he was not a stranger,
he was from them, reciting unto them his
ayat, the ayat of Allah or the Quran,
and purifying them internal and externally, and teaching
them the book, the Quran and Al-Hikmah,
the wisdom and sunnah of Rasulallah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
While before that, before the coming of the
Nabi, they had been in manifest error.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made it abundantly
clear of what is error, what is right
and what is wrong.
I remind myself and you that there is
no mystery, right?
There is no mystery.
If we want to learn, we have been
taught and we have been shown the way,
it is for us to learn.
But if you don't want to learn, then
of course, there is nothing and nobody who
can teach us or who can help us.
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
make us among those who can learn, will
learn, and who will benefit from that learning.
To understand who these people were, it is
important for us to quickly recap on the
one whose companions they were.
When you talk about the sahaba, you have
to talk about the sahib.
When you talk about the companions, you must
talk about who they were the companions of.
It was being the companions of the Prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, which gave them their
status or vice versa.
The sohbat of the Rasul alaihi salam made
them sahaba and gave them a status that
is unequalled in the history of the world.
Because the status of any of them, of
one sahabi, randomly, of one sahabi alone, the
status of one sahabi alone, is higher than
the status of the rest of the ummah
combined.
All the non-sahaba combined, of course, excluding
the anbiya alaihi wa sallam, we are not
talking about the prophets, and of course, after
the anbiya alaihi wa sallam, there are no
prophets.
So, all of humankind after Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, together, cannot equal the status of
anyone of the sahaba.
Now what gives them this glorious status and
position?
The fact that they were the companions of
Muhammad Rasulallah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So, who was Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
He was the one about whom, and I
like to quote people who are not his
friends, because the praise of the enemy is
the sincerest of praise.
The enemy has no reason to praise you.
So, if the enemy is saying something complimentary
about you, it means that the enemy is
compelled to say that.
Of course, we applaud the integrity of the
enemy in this case, and that was Alphonse
de Lamartine, the author of the book History
de la Turquie, the history of Turkey, he
is talking about the Ottomans.
He says, if the grandeur of the aim,
the smallness of the means, the immensity of
results, are the three measures of a man's
genius, who would dare humanly compare a great
man of modern history with Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam?
Let me repeat that.
He says, if the grandeur of the aim,
the smallness of the means, and the immensity
of the results, are the three measures of
a man's genius, who would dare humanly compare
a great man of modern history with Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
My brothers and sisters, we ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala at least 17 times every
single day, and that is the total number
of Fardh Rakats in the five salawats.
Two in Salatul Fajr, four in Salatul Dohar,
four in Salatul Asr, three in Salatul Maghrib,
and four in Salatul Isha, together, 17.
17 times a day, we ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, Ihdina as-salat al-mustaqeem,
as-salat al-lazeena an'amta alayhim, ghayri
al-maghdubi alayhim, wa laddu al-leena.
We ask Allah, we say, O Allah, guide
me to the straight path, to the path
of steadfastness, of justice, of honour.
The one that you, Sirat al-lazeena, the
path of those who you blessed, an'amta
alayhim.
Whose path is that?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned that specifically
in another place.
Allah said, Yasin, which is one of the
names of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He said, Yasin wal-Qur'an al-hakim,
Allah took an oath by the Qur'an.
Innaka lamina al-mursaleen, and again in the
Arabic grammar, this is reinforcing and reinforcing and
reiterating and reiterating and emphasizing and emphasizing.
Innaka lamina al-mursaleen, truly and verily and
surely, you are among the messengers, ala Sirat
al-mustaqeem.
And you are on the path of steadfastness,
on the Sirat al-mustaqeem.
So when you are saying, Ihdina Sirat al
-mustaqeem, you are asking Allah specifically to keep
you and me on the path of Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, which is called the
Sunnah.
How terrible, how paradoxical, how tragic, that as
soon as we finish Salah, we deviate from
the Sunnah.
We reject the Sunnah, we go off the
path as far as the Sunnah is concerned.
How terrible is that?
It is critical to follow the Sunnah because
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, wa man
yutee illaaha wa rasoolahu fa-ulaika ma'allazeena
ana ma'allahu wa alaihim minan nabiyyina wa
siddiqina wa shu'adai wa salihin wa hasuna
ulaika rafiqa.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, whosoever obeys
Allah and the Messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, then they will be in the company
of those on whom Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala has bestowed His grace of the Prophets,
the Siddiqoon, the Martyrs and the Righteous.
And how excellent these companions are.
That is the choice that we have to
make for ourselves.
Do we want to be in the company
of these people?
If the answer is yes, then Alhamdulillah, Inshallah,
the answer is yes.
Then we have to live our lives according
to the way of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, which is how the Sahaba, which is
how his companions used to live their lives.
I want to end this piece by this
beautiful hadith on Musnad ibn Mahfaz, narrated by
Anas bin Malik, who reported that Rasulullah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam said, I wish I could
meet my brothers.
And everywhere when Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
says brothers, it means brothers and sisters.
He said, I wish I could meet my
brothers.
The Sahaba, his companions, they asked him, are
we not your brothers?
Ya Rasulullah, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
you are my Sahaba, you are my companions.
But my brothers and sisters, Inshallah, are those
who have faith in me, although they have
never seen me.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam called those who
have faith in him, meaning who obey him.
It's not just a faith, it's not just
a matter of singing a nasheed.
Faith means to obey the message of Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Who obey him, who have faith in me,
although they have never seen me.
The second part of it is true, we
have not seen him, but do we have
faith in him?
But if we have faith in him, then
Inshallah, we will be called the brothers and
sisters of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Simply ask yourself this question, is this good
for you?
Is this good enough for you?
Is this important for you, to be called
the brother or the sister of Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam?
If the answer is yes and Inshallah it
is yes, then it's very simple.
Follow the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Look like him, walk like him, talk like
him, deal with people like you used to
deal with people.
Our akhlaq, our mu'amilat, our mu'ashirat.
And before that, our aqidah and our ibadat.
Believe what he believed, worship Allah the way
he used to worship Allah.
Don't follow bid'at, don't follow deviations.
Do what he did.
If he did not do it, don't touch
it.
No matter who justifies it for you, no
matter who gives you some dalil or the
other, don't fall into that trap.
Do what Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did.
Just ask a simple question, did he do
that?
If the answer is no, he did not
do that, but no need for but.
He did not do that, I will not
do it.
My brothers and sisters, life is simple, keep
it simple.
My brothers and sisters, the reward for this,
the reward for obeying and imitating and emulating
the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Allah said, qul in kuntum tuhibbuna Allaha fattabiuni
yuhbibkumu Allah, wa yakfir lakum dhunubakum wa Allahu
ghafurur rahim.
Allah said, say to them, O Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, say to mankind, if you
really love Allah, then emulate me, imitate me,
be like me.
And Allah will love you and he will
forgive your sins.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is all forgiving
and most merciful.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
this.
A very quick background picture of Mecca, Muqarrama,
and the whole of Hijaz in the 7th
century.
And this is important because this is the
reason why we study the Sahaba, and why
we study the Seerah, the life and biography
of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Because of this comparison, and I'll show it
to you in a minute.
Now, Mecca, it was located in what would
be called the no man's land, which is
the land between two warring armies.
In this case, the two armies or the
two nations were the Byzantines, the Romans, which
was the Christians, the Eastern Orthodox Church, on
the one hand in the West, all the
way down until Iraq and Syria, and in
the East and South, it was the ancient
Persian Empire.
These were the two big empires of the
time, the superpowers of the time, and they
were at war, and they had been at
war for centuries.
They had a lot of wealth, a lot
of culture, hundreds of years.
In the case of Persia, over 2,000
years.
They had goods and beautiful things they made.
Their artisans and their craftsmen manufactured beautiful things.
Persian carpets, and statues, statuary, and paintings, and
all kinds of artifacts, and all kinds of
goods for consumption.
Cloth and spices, you name it, these were
the two major manufacturing bases of the world
of the time.
There was one problem, and the problem was
that they had no direct link with each
other.
They were at war with each other, so
if a Persian merchant took Persian goods into
the Roman area, into the Byzantine area, he
would be killed and his goods would be
looted.
And vice versa, if a Byzantine trader went
into Persia, he would be finished.
But for Byzantine goods, who had the money
to buy them?
The Persians.
For Persian goods, who had the money to
buy them?
The Byzantines.
The Romans.
So, they had the money, there was a
need, they wanted the stuff, but they couldn't
get it.
And that's where the Arabs came into the
picture.
Because they were in the, they lived in
no man's land.
They were not ruled by either the Persians
or the Romans because they were not worth
ruling.
That land was not worth conquering because there
was nothing that any empire would get out
of it apart from headache.
So, they became the trade link between Byzantium
and Persia.
They would take their, they would go to
Persia and Persian land which was Yemen at
the time.
So, they went to Yemen and they went
further south and east.
And they bought Persian stuff and they transported
it all the way north to Iraq and
Syria and sold it in the Roman Byzantine
markets.
On the way, they passed Makkah which was
like a middle sweet spot for rest between
Syria in the north and Yemen in the
south.
Makkah had a lucrative local market for the
Arab tribes.
So, they came from all over Arabia and
bought things from these people.
And then the rest of it they used
to take north and from the north what
they brought they would take south and sell.
So, they made money in both places.
Plus, in Makkah the caravans rested, it was
their land, they were able to see their
families and so forth.
On top of that the cherry on the
cake was a lucrative, the leveraging the Kaaba
and the pilgrimage for trade.
So, they had the Kaaba and over the
years, over the centuries they allowed different tribes
to bring their own personal statues of their
gods.
Their personal gods to put in the Kaaba
to attract those tribes.
So, the person wanted to worship the god,
their own personal god.
Like in Hinduism they call this Ishta Devata,
that is the god I love.
So, they brought, you could bring your god
you love and put it in the Kaaba
and the next time you come it's there.
So, you worship.
So, this attracted those tribes, they came to
Makkah in order to worship and also to
trade.
And the Khureish who were the caretakers of
the Kaaba and so on were also traders.
They were among the biggest of the traders
and bankers.
But because now they were the caretakers of
the Kaaba, they had this status of being
like the priests.
They had protection from everyone else.
No one attacked the Khureish.
The Khureishi caravans were safe from bandits because
they said no, these are the holy people,
we don't tamper with them, we look at
somebody else.
So, business was their life and religion was
a tool to grow their business.
As you listen to me, think about this.
Does it not look to you very similar
to life today?
We have a world today which is ruled
by businessmen, by the billionaires.
Business is their life, business is what they
do and in order to facilitate business, everything
else is desired.
So, the money system, the military power, the
political systems, everything is designed in order to
facilitate business.
And where there are blocks to that facilitation,
it follows the usual rule.
First you try to persuade, then you try
to bribe, then you topple the government and
put somebody who is conducive to you in
their place.
And if all else fails, then you send
in the troops to beat them into submission.
So, business can be done.
What we are seeing today in the world
is something which is not new.
Which is very very similar to what was
happening then.
So, finally therefore, the question I want to
leave with you, or the question and answer
for that matter, is that what manner of
leadership was it that took people who were
poor, oppressed and uninfluential, which was the Muslims
in Bakka, where the story begins, and converted
them in the same generation to rulers of
the known world, which was the time of
Umar ibn al-Khattab and the Rashidun Khilafah,
when they conquered Iran, Syria and Iraq, where
they conquered both the Byzantines and the Persians.
Unbelievable, unheard of, but actual physical truth.
Now, why do we study this?
Why must we study the Seerah?
Why must we study the life of Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
And with this episode which I am starting
now, we have just completed the entire Seerah
series.
I think about probably 75 lectures.
Alhamdulillah, that's almost 52 lectures per year.
So, that's about a year and a half
worth of study.
And we are starting now the lectures of
the Sahaba.
This will probably be another 70, 75 or
100.
So, another two years of study.
Why are we doing that?
Because of one reason only, that is, that
if those same problems were solved by this
method, the method of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, then our problems can also be solved
by the same method.
Same problem, same treatment, same disease, same medicine.
Makkah, in my view, was a crucible.
It was an experiment.
It was a pilot project.
To prove the concept that Islam works.
Islam works.
So that now that we know that Islam
works, and not because of blind faith and
belief and mythology or stories, but from actual,
measurable, recorded, historical data, then we can take
that same Islam, not the Islam that I
want to create, not my cultural Islam, but
the Islam of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
and apply it and bring it and apply
it in my life, at an individual level,
and all our lives at a collective level,
to therefore, inshallah, create a society which is
based on compassion, on social justice, on human
rights, on the dignity of the individual, on
protection for the weak, and on controlling of
the powerful and the wealthy.
That is why we need to study the
Seerah, and that is why we have started
now, after studying the Seerah, to whatever extent
we could have done, a series of lectures
on the lives of the companions of Muhammad
wa Rasulallah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.