Mohammad Badawy – Lessons from the Hijra
AI: Summary ©
The upcoming month of Q3 is the first of the Darbin calendar year, and the calendars are based on the Prophet Muhammad's birth date. The importance of learning from the beforehand, including the beforehand, and avoiding false assumptions is emphasized. Islam's deceptive act of abandoning oneself is discussed, as it is designed to make people feel like they are treated with a certain degree of terror. The speaker provides advice on achieving goals and blessings, and advises against seeking to achieve goals and doing things while obeying Allah's rules.
AI: Summary ©
Begin in the name of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. The exalted, the sublime,
the King of Kings and the Creator of
all things, and we ask him to send
his peace his finest peace, blessings, and salutations
upon our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
the leader of all nations, and upon his
wives and his family members, and his companions,
and all those who follow their footsteps until
the their judgments begging Allah
to include us amongst them.
My dear brothers and sisters
in Islam, it is a blessing and an
honor
to be back amongst this community. I ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless it immensely.
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to increase
the love for His sake between us and
to reunite us many times in this dunya
upon good and in the hereafter in His
shade, in the company of the prophets and
the righteous, allama ameen.
And I come to you today on the
day of Jum'ah,
on a blessed day blessed date,
as we come here on the day of
Friday,
at the end of the month of Dhul
Hijjah,
as we come at the cusp of a
brand new year
for the hija calendar.
And the hijri new year begins
on Sunday, it'll be the first of maharam.
And before we dive into anything, I want
you to ask yourself for this split second
to think,
what year are we finishing and what year
are we beginning?
What year is it?
And it is okay if it doesn't come
to you as quickly
and as easily as the Gregorian calendar because
you don't use that as often. But the
Gregorian calendar,
you pay your rent, you have different payments,
you have different responsibilities,
appointments,
engagements that all function
around the utility of this calendar.
But you should still know the Hijri date.
We should still be connected to the hijri
calendar,
year in, year out.
We shouldn't just know it's Ramadan or Hajj,
we should be connected to the rest of
the calendar.
Because if you read the seer of our
Prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam, his biography,
you will see that every month is littered
with significant events
and occasions
that are vital for our
sustenance,
our spiritual sustenance as Muslims.
And the year
change will be from 1443
to 1444.
1,444
years
since
what?
What does our calendar count?
In Gregorian, we know it's 2,023
years or 2,020 years, about to be 2023
since the death of Jesus, and that is
for them in their
tradition. Right? This is the Gregorian calendar, how
it functions.
And we know that he was not killed
and he was not crucified.
So what is our calendar count?
1,404
years since what? It is since the hijrah
of the prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam
to Madinah,
and
this was decided in the caliph of Umar
Radhu Anhu. The hadith tells us, Umar
start the council, the Sahar of the senior
the senior Sahaba.
He sought counsel amongst the companions, how should
our calendar function? We need a calendar. We
need to count days months years.
Some of them said with the birth of
the Prophet Muhammad
that would be day 1 of our calendar.
And some said, his
advent as a prophet when revelation began.
And so others said with his hijrah, and
others said with his death.
So he, Radi Al Anhu Umar, decided that
we'll begin with Tahira because this was the
first instance in which the Muslims had a
unified
political
single entity that everyone else had to reckon
with. Before that, they had these Muslims that
were downtrodden and oppressed, kicked from one place
to the other with no single body, with
no decision
that they can make as an entity
separate from others, other regimes, or other
authorities.
And then this was the first instance when
they moved to their own state now,
where they are taken in by the Muslims
from Medina, the Ansar. Now they have their
own authority.
Now they make their own decisions, and everyone
has to act accordingly.
Now they are able to function
separately as a separate entity, not under the
oppressive authority of the Meccans, not under the
parity of the Abyssinians, but their own state
with the prophet Muhammad
being the single
leader.
And then he sought counsel.
What month should we begin with? So we
will begin with Tahijra, that is year 1.
What about the month?
And it was his opinion, and the opinion
of Ali and Uthman
that will begin with Muharram.
Because Muharram is a holy month of the
4 holy months. It is followed it follows
the hajj, which was the final
obligation to be obligated before the death of
the Prophet
which is the greatest of the obligations
to be performed, and that the person finishes
the hajj, forgiven of their sins and with
a new beginning,
amongst other benefits.
So they chose this
event, hijrah, and then this month of haram
for their many benefits and blessings.
And they wanted the Muslims year in year
out to come to this time period and
remember these things.
So do we remember these things?
Do the lessons of the hijrah resonate when
this time comes around?
Or do we not only not know what
year it is, but we don't know what
even happened, or why it's significant, or why
we're turning over a new page?
We just keep going
without purpose. We have to revisit and reconnect
with these lessons and these stories. And this
isn't the time or place to go to
a lengthy story of the hija, and how
it started, and what was that is your
job to do when you go home. Make
sure you're picking up a seerah book, make
sure you are watching a seerah series, teaching
it to your family,
connecting regularly, consistently with the prophet
life,
and go through these things with great detail,
find you know, going finally through them day
in and day out to reap as much
as you can from them. But very quickly,
just a snapshot
of what this hijrah was,
and some lessons we can take from it.
The prophet as you know, preached in Mecca
for 13 years before the oppression,
and the
cruelty of Raish forced him out, until they
eventually planned to kill him, salallahu alaihi wa
sallam. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decreed that
a group of Muslims would accept Islam in
Madin, and they would call the Muslims to
go live there. This was the rule of
Allah subhanahu wa'ala. And they had to get
up and leave everything behind, because Quraysh
would not allow them to go freely and
continue
to spread Islam
and
stand against their way of life and their
ancestry and their culture.
So for that reason, many Muslims had to
leave everything behind Because if someone knew you
were making hijrah, they would actively try to
prevent you. Some people were physically tied by
their own family members.
And anyone who is a convert to Islam
knows
a piece of this. We're
stuck in our privilege, those who are Muslims.
You don't know what it means to give
up so much to be a Muslim, the
vast majority of us.
We have lived lots of security. We've enjoyed
this blessing of having Islam given to us,
and we take it for granted. But perhaps
those who have accepted Islam know a bit
of what this means, where you have to
leave everything behind to be a Muslim, and
their reward is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But they had to leave everything behind, just
to be able to remain a Muslim and
with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. You
have the famous story that you likely know
of Sahib Arrui.
A true rags riches story.
Started with slavery and then he became rich
by his own freedom and earned a
significant amount of wealth.
They they stopped him on his way outside
of Mecca and said, you were rags to
riches. You want to go to Medina, it
must be in rags.
Can't be the riches you made off of
our city
and our economy.
And he said, if this is your primary
concern, that's an easy one. Every penny I
made was buried in such and such a
place.
Go. You'll find it there. And they let
him be. And when he met the prophet
before he even could tell him anything, the
prophet told him,
You made a good trade.
That was a good find.
That was that trade was in the green,
as green as can be. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is the one you're trading with. So
every single penny
was given away
by Suhaib so that he can join the
Prophet in
adina. That is what Islam meant to them.
If you move on, you look at the
story for example of Umar. So like we
were saying, people were
prevented from making hijrah. So a lot of
the Muslims, what did they do then? They
didn't let anyone know they're making hijrah. You'd
wake up one day and they're gone. And
because that was the nature, they're doing it
in fear,
in hurry, that they were not able to
take things with them. Clothing, animals, family, wealth,
everything was left behind.
It's a huge sacrifice.
Islam
meant that much to them.
And then you come to Umar al Anhu,
he didn't have that fear or that hurry.
He had a different personality, and of course,
see Allah gave him that strength and that
courage. So he goes to make tawaf around
the Kaaba.
And when he finishes, he announces
to everyone who's there, that's the damn town
where everyone is during the day, and he
says to them, I am making hijrah to
Madinah.
So whoever wants their wife to be a
widow or their children to be an orphan,
I'll be in this valley before I leave.
Whoever wishes to meet me there, I'll wait
a little bit before I go.
And of course,
no one went, but he made his hijrah
in that fashion, a show of strength and
courage.
Because he wanted to he wanted people to
know that Islam is a deen of strength
and courage.
And for us to know generations later,
that even in time of fear and uncertainty
in the Muslims
having to take these hard decisions, there will
be some Muslims who stand up with fear
with with strength and courage, and show the
rest of of the ummah what to do.
We come to the daughter of the prophet
herself during the hija, Zainab,
who when they heard that she wanted to
go meet with her father and the rest
of the Muslims in Madia, they accosted her.
They surrounded her,
and they confront they confronted her and did
not allow her to leave,
causing such a ruckus
and a physical confrontation
that caused the animal that she was on,
her camel, to rear over, and she fell
off.
And she suffered a miscarriage. She was pregnant
at the time,
killing the grandchild of the Prophet
And she had to go back home and
wait for months before she can make hija.
Her own husband, Abbas, was not a Muslim.
Yeah. He'd become Muslim years later.
No comfort. The prophet had already gone. No
comfort to turn back to no Muslim home
to find
to all this in.
And still she persevered until she was able
to make hijra years later, months later.
Because the loss of her child and this
physical confrontation, the trauma that she suffered was
not enough to keep her from making the
hijra. This is what Islam meant to them.
You look at
and his family,
where they didn't they were not satisfied in
days until they separated every single member, wife,
child, and father,
telling them, you want to be back together,
you stay here in Akkas Kufar. You want
to be Muslim, you want to go in
Adina,
you will not be reunited.
And they had to wait for months before
they were reunited.
So this is lessons for us. You look
at Ali who made who took the place
of the prophet
on the threat of death was his decoy,
then made hija by foot, a journey that
used to take 2 weeks by animal that
till today takes around 5 hours by car,
in the middle of the desert. Through the
desert, no inhabitants till today, barely any
cities or any type of structures,
and he went by foot in the middle
of the desert heat.
You see so many other stories.
The story of
so many companions who had to give up
everything,
suffer physically, financially, emotionally, because this is what
Islam meant to them.
Not only because this is what Islam meant
to them, but because this instance
of them showing this sacrifice, showing this devotion
and sincerity,
was actually just a continuation
of what they used to do anyway.
Sure it was more epic, it was grand,
it was a bigger sacrifice, a bigger surge
of iman to do these actions and make
the sacrifice.
But it is a continuation of what they're
doing anyway for the last 13 years. They
were sacrificing, they were giving for the sake
of Allah, they were being Muslim despite the
oppression and the cruelty.
They're looking for opportunities to serve Islam and
serve the prophet
So now when they're granted a bigger opportunity
that required a little bit more or a
lot more, it was still more of the
same category though, so they were able to
step up.
So read through the story of the hijra.
There's many more companions. They went through so
much more
because they realized
something important. It's not just about remaining Muslim
and protecting your faith.
It's also the necessary step
to make sure that that legacy of Islam
extends over the generations
and reaches Munyu today,
1,434
years ago. 4 years later, 1,434
years later. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to instill these lessons in our hearts, to
grant us the and the sincerity, and the
opportunities
to implement these lessons purely for your sake.
For people who are looking for that strength,
looking for that courage, times of uncertainty,
times where things are closing again, look at
Umar during his hijra. That story reached us
so that we could know that he was
in a time of uncertainty. He had to
take a huge decision, and he found that
courage, and he found that strength
in the faith of Islam.
For people who are going through loss, may
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for
you. Some kind of conflict, trauma that results
in a tremendous loss that you don't know
if you're overcome.
Take strength in the story of Zaynab, who
suffered a miscarriage in her journey to the
hij, and still was not able to make
it till much later. That strength that she
found was in her faith, was through the
deen of Islam. For people who had to
sacrifice,
had to give up a lot,
who experienced some sudden loss of wealth, may
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reimburse you. Until then,
take strength in the story of Zuhaybu, who
found it easy to give up every single
penny he ever earned
to join the prophet in Mecca, so that
mean you could be Muslim today. We turn
finally to the hijrah of the prophet Muhammad
salallahu alaihi wa sallam himself.
And one quick point to go through because
there's a lot that happened again,
You will look up on your own and
share with your families inshallah. But for his
hija, I wanna just take one quick snapshot,
and that is the amount of work that
he did during the hija. He's a prophet.
By definition, he could have said, Oh Allah,
teleport us to Madinah.
Make us invisible.
Make those who are chasing us, make the
desert swallow them. Some kind of miraculous help,
divine
miracle from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on our
journey.
But what he did was he left at
night, he left in secret, he left a
decoy in his bed, He
went the opposite direction of Madinah. Madinah's north,
he went south. He stayed in a cave
for 3 days until they lose his trail.
He hired a guide who's not even a
Muslim, but to show them the
paths
besides the main path of Madinah.
He had several different people appointed doing different
jobs, helping them in their journey to Madinah.
When he could have simply said, oh Allah,
we are need to do this for you.
Grant us some supernatural aid. Send the bureaus
that back down to take me to the
from the journey, send that creature that took
him there since it travels so quickly. But
he took these human steps remaining to know
something very important, which is when you have
any type of goal in mind, religious or
otherwise, you do what you humanly
can. You exhaust all efforts.
What is known in Arabic
is
taken all the routes, taking all the precautions
and the steps to achieve such a goal.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala placed in your hands
physical ability, health, strength, wealth, time, connections, family,
different means of achieving goals. Exhaust them. Do
what you humanly can. These are from the
blessings of Allah that He gave you that
other people may not have. So make sure
you exhaust them
when you are trying to achieve a goal.
What happens at the end? The prophet
reaches the mountain,
Kharathawri stays there for 3 days after taking
all of these steps,
trying to arrive to Madinah secretly and safely,
and they end up at the very mouth
of the cave anyway.
Right? They hired their own trackers, they figured
out somehow they're at mouth of the cave.
And at this point Abu Bakr is terrified,
he says,
If one of them just looks at his
feet, he'll see us. Is not an extensive
cavern that extends to the back of the
mountain. It's a small crack in the wall
that if you just look inside, you'll see
whoever's inside, you'll see to the very end.
It's a small
structure.
It's a small
cave that has very very small,
walls and then space inside. So Abu Bakr
is telling the prophet in front of them
just looks down, we are dead. And the
prophet says,
Yeah. And what what do you think of
2, and Allah is their 3rd?
We are not alone. This is message.
The message is also we did what we
could, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will do the
rest.
We exhausted
all the means,
and they were halal, and we didn't disobey
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in trying them.
That means only
3 possible conclusions.
It will succeed. We will be okay. What
we wanted will come to fruition.
2, it won't come into fruition, but we
will be protected from it because it's actually
not good for us, and we can't tell
because we're human, and Allah knows best. Or
3,
Allah
will save it for us at a later
time, give us something better in this dunya
or in the hereafter
as a reward for trying our best and
obeying him. There's no 4th possibility.
There's no fourth possibility if we exhaust
our effort,
fulfill all the means that we can humanly
reach, and do so while obeying Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and following his guidelines which are
in actuality just protecting us from harming ourselves.
There is no way that this
situation will not be in our favor.
So he salallahu alaihi wa sallam told the
book, We are fine, we're okay. We did
our part, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala took care
of the rest. I ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala to grant us the strength from these
lessons
and the wisdom from these lessons,
to act in a manner that is pleasing
to him in our lives. The prophet Muhammad
alaihi wa sallam famously said in the hadith,
There is no hijra after Fatimaqa.
After the conquest of Mecca, no one else
can take this blessing
of making hijra.
Because there was many Muslims who became Muslim
after Fatimaqa, and said, We now want to
leave where we are, and join your Madinah.
He said, That's
over. The period of time where that was
a valid act of worship, where it was
such an epic sacrifice, where the people who
did it will be forever cemented in history,
is over.
But then he said afterwards,
But the one the immigrant, you want to
migrate,
you want to gain some of the blessing,
you can't
gain that title of muhajal. That belongs to
those Sahaba. They were special Allah handpicked them,
and they earned a status that no human
being can never reach after them.
But then he said afterwards, the one who
migrates,
the true migrant,
the true, you know, immigrant or refugee if
you will, in this sense, in this context,
is the one who leaves off at which
Allah has forbid.
It's that if you know you'd hear all
this
you'd feel like, I wish I had an
opportunity
to do stuff like that.
But that's done and it's over. So he's
telling you, No, it's not. Maybe that
exact specific occurrence, sure. But there's still a
share of it that you can gain.
Migrate, flee
from that which Allah has forbid,
and you'll gain a share of that reward.
A with a capital m, if you will,
are those who made that original hijrah with
the Prophet
from Mecca to Medina. But you want the
lowercase m, the category of hijrah, you want
share of that reward, you want to be
like them, you wanna follow that legacy,
then leave off that which Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has forbid.
Flee to that which pleases Him. And inshaAllah,
you will have a share of that award.