Mustafa Umar – Islamic History 101 Lecture#13 Life of the Prophet
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AI: Transcript ©
So now that we've
reached
the 6th week
no. 7th week. Right? Is this labeled is
this labeled incorrectly? It's the 7th week. Right?
Yeah. Yeah. So just it's it's no. It's
just labeled week 6. It should be week
7, actually.
The file name is correct, but the display
is is incorrect. It's actually week 7.
So now that we've reached the stage of
Madinah
and how the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and
the Muslims are arriving in Madinah,
what we find is that there's gonna be
a lot more information
preserved
historically
about Madinah.
And the reason is quite obvious. It's because
there were more Muslims
in Madinah.
And that means that there were more people
who survived afterwards who narrated and documented the
facts of what happened in Madinah
than what happened in Mecca.
So that's one of the reasons why
I'm gonna
be reading this is a very condensed, text.
So I'm gonna be reading parts of the
text and then I'm gonna be explaining a
little bit in detail because there's a lot
of of stuff to cover and there's a
lot of lessons to be learned within this
text as well. How many of you read
the text by the way before coming?
Numbers are dwindling.
Let's,
let's focus on the
the destination
and not focus on the obstacles that we
face, inshallah. So we're gonna be talking about
how the Muslims arrived in Medina,
how they built the mosque,
how they established a pact of true brotherhood,
How a cold war took place,
between the Quraysh and the Muslims?
How they were on the brink of war?
What led them to war?
And the battle
of Badr? And what happened after the battle
of Badr? What was the post war conduct
that took place? So let's
begin. So arrival in Madinah. Remember that the
prophet
had already allowed
people to migrate to Madinah
before he himself migrated.
And then he was one of the last
people to migrate and he migrated with Abu
Bakr. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased
with him. So what ended up happening was
the people of Madina
already got the news
that the prophet salaam and Abu Bakr were
on their way to Madina. So they were
waiting. They were already waiting in Madinah and
imagine the scene. Right? The prophet salaam is
traveling through the desert with Abu Bakr, they've
evaded the bounty hunters and they're traveling through
the desert, they're on their way. And everyone
in Madinah is eagerly awaiting. They don't know
exactly
what happened to the prophet.
Did he make it? Did he not make
it? Did somebody find him? There's no news.
Did he get lost in the desert? Did
something happen to him? Nobody knows what's going
on. So everyone was waiting
in anticipation,
hoping
and happy that the prophet is finally coming
to their city, but at the same time
worried whether or not he made it or
not because it's a very difficult journey that
they're undergoing.
So they were probably worried. So the dangerous
is very, the the desert is a very
dangerous place. It's a very long journey. It's
a very hot journey. There's many, enemies, you
know,
on the way, to that area.
So basically, the people of Madinah used to
go out
every single day out in the city where
they knew that the prophet would actually be
arriving from. And they would all go out
there, leave everything, and they would be waiting
and watching, saying maybe he's coming today. And
they're waiting waiting waiting, no one's coming. They
go out the next day, maybe he's coming
today. They're waiting, they're waiting, they're waiting, he
didn't come.
Then they go out one day and they're
waiting, they're waiting,
he doesn't come.
They all start going back because when it
got really, really hot in the noontime, they
decided now it's time, let's go back. When
they were going back around one of these
times,
one of the Jews living in Madinah
actually was working up very high in one
of the trees.
And from a tree, he spotted the 2
people, and he said, that's the guy you're
looking for. That this is the man, this
is the man, these are the people you're
waiting for. Oh, you know, all an you
know, all people of Medina, go out and
greet your your man. So he was the
first person to,
spot even though he was not a Muslim
himself. So they went outside,
and they went out to the outskirts of
the city, and they began a welcoming ceremony.
Right? So they took their arms,
They took their weapons.
They, you know, they set up, you know,
their instruments.
You know, they had tambourines, and they had
different instruments that they were using, and they
began singing songs.
So they began singing songs, and they were
welcoming
If you look at it from a purely
pessimistic
political perspective,
you think these people are welcoming someone
who's who's sought after by one of the
most powerful tribes in Arabia. By you welcoming
him into your city, what are you getting?
You're getting now you've just made an enemy
with a a major power within Arabia.
Right? Some people would look back and say,
oh, no. We shouldn't be doing this, you
know. Let's stay on the down low. What
if we get in trouble? Whatever. These people
are the happiest people on earth. They're the
happiest people in the world because they realize
what they're getting. They realize what's actually coming
to them. For them, their faith was so
strong that the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
coming to them was the greatest thing that
could ever happen to them. And they were
hoping that everything is just gonna work out
just fine because they know that good things
are gonna come now that the prophet
is here in Madinah. So they went out
and,
there was
some details about,
how the Muslims would actually come. So when
the prophet came, the first place he stopped
was at a little village
called Khuba.
K. Khuba is a place where people still
go and visit today. It still exists in
the city of Madinah, and there's a masjid
there. At that time, this was a little
elevated settlement which existed on the outskirts of
Makkah about 3 miles away. K. About 3
miles from the center of Madinah.
Now most of the Muslims who were migrating
from Makkah, they also used to stop in
the place known as, Khuba,
because this was, you know, on the journey
from Makkah to Madinah, this was a place
in between where they would stop and they
would stay for a little while. So everyone
else used to stop, so the prophet he
also stopped. He stayed there,
for about 2 weeks.
He stayed there for about 2 weeks and
he stayed in some people's houses. They were,
you know, can you imagine they were very
tired, they were very exhausted for the from
their journey that they had undertaken.
So the prophet as
soon as he stopped in the city,
the first thing he decided to do was,
we're going to build a mosque in this
city.
Now I want you to think about this,
he's not planning on staying in Khuba,
he's just here for a temporary period. The
goal is to reach the main city of
Madinah. This was 3 miles away from Medina,
but what did he do anyways?
He said, we are going to make a
mosque right here in this spot, and they
established a place of prayer right there in
that place, which shows you what? It shows
you he's not even at his full destination
yet. He hasn't even arrived. He hasn't even
relaxed yet. He hasn't even calmed down and,
you know, gotten, you know, recovered from the
journey. And what is he doing? One of
the first things he's doing, he's building a
mosque. He's building a mosque. So then he
he travels. Right? Then he goes into Medina.
Okay? And actually, you know, once he goes
into Medina, he gets another welcome. So he
got welcome first when he arrived in Aqaba,
now he's going into Medina, everyone is welcoming
him again because this is the main part
of the city. So,
when when he he was given a warm
welcome so as soon as he got to
the main city of, Medina, what did he
do?
He decided that,
the first thing he did was then the
crowds came to meet him. Okay? So when
he arrived in the main city of Medina,
imagine all the people of Medina are coming
outside and they're coming to greet him. They're
coming to, you know, you know,
show show off how happy they are. So
how did they show off how happy they
were? Well, the women were on the tops
of the roofs. They were young girls who
were singing. They were standing on the tops
of the roofs and they were singing. They
were singing. And the song that many people
are familiar with, that
that's a song that they were singing.
Some scholars
like, Ibn Khayyim,
they
said that this actual,
this song is actually not from the time
of Madinah.
This song is not actually from the time
of Madinah and it's incorrect to be attributed
to Madinah. However, other scholars like Zarqani came
later and they explained that, Ibn Qayyim was
mistaken. So there's a difference of opinion. Either
either way,
it's it's likely that they were singing that
song.
So this was the custom in Arabia. This
was the custom in Madinah. The men came
out with their armor and they came out
with their swords. Now, why do you think
they were doing that?
Just in case
Could be just in case. There's there's another
reason.
Show of power. Show of power. That's how
tribal people welcome people. If you go to
a very tribal area, they'll come out today
with, like, their AK 40 sevens and so
and they'll welcome you in. That's that's their
that's their tribal custom. That's what they'll do.
They'll show that, look, we're here. We're here.
You know, we're so happy that you're here.
We're here to protect you as well at
the same time. That's their way of welcoming,
people. Right? So it's like modern armies. Like,
when they come, when some politician comes, they
have like all these tanks and they have
a procession of, like, you know, people with
their swords and their guns and all of
that. So very similar. K? So he's welcome.
Now this is the happiest day that Madinah
had ever witnessed.
Right? Now imagine this scenario, imagine how everyone's
happy, the prophet is coming through crowds of
people are coming to meet him, crowds of
people are coming to shake his hand.
Now imagine
the other scenario that he went through in
through in Taif.
Exact opposite. Crowds of people are coming to
stone him, to yell at him, to make
fun of him, to get him out of
the city. So if you think about that,
remember he said that Taif was the worst
day of his life.
And someone else, one of the companions later
remarked, he said, the best day that ever
happened, the happiest day in the city of
Madinah ever was the day that the prophet,
sallam, came to that city. Right. Imagine. See
how the difference you know, see that world
of difference. So it probably made up like
this day made up for all of that
and beyond and beyond. So the month that
he arrived was Arabi al Awal,
okay, which is the same month in which
he was born. This was 13 years after
the prophet
received the first revelation.
So 13 years later, now he finally is
in his own city. He's in a city
where people are welcoming him, a city where
he belongs.
Now this marked a new phase, a new
mission as we talked about before. And it's
so important
that because of the transition here, Muslims would
later on mark their calendar by this date.
So what happened during the time of Umar
radhiallahu an when they decided they were deciding
when to start the Muslim calendar. Should it
be from the birth of the prophet?
Should it be from the first revelation?
Should it be from the time of the
migration?
Or should it be from, you know, some
other, you know, maybe the battle of Badr
or maybe the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, or they
were deciding which day should we mark the
Muslim calendar the first day. And they decided
that this event
was so important
that we need to mark the Muslim calendar
from this day. That's why the Muslim calendar
is the Hijri calendar. Hijri meaning from Hijriah,
meaning the migration.
Ah stands for after Hijriah. Hijriah meaning after
migration. So that's what the the calendar actually
starts. So now before we were dating,
1 year after revelation, 2 years after revelation,
now we're gonna start dating a different calendar.
Now we're gonna say 1 year after Hijra,
2 years after Hijra, meaning the 1st year
after Hijra. So that means that, for example,
as soon as the prophet arrived here,
this is year 1, the 1st year after
Hijra. You don't have to wait an entire
year. So the 1st day that he arrives,
you're still in year 1. There's no year
0. Just so you know, in case something
like that, you know, comes on the test
or something like that. Okay?
So now what happened? So while the people
are greeting him, I want you to think
about this. While people are coming out so
happy,
happiest day of their life and happier than
going to Disneyland. Imagine this, like a child
for the first time, so happy. They had
never seen the prophet
before. They didn't even know exactly what he
looked like. So what did many of them
do? Abu Bakr kind of resembles him. So
they go to Abu Bakr and they start
greeting him, oh, messenger Ola, very nice to
meet you and we're so happy that you're
here and everything. People didn't know.
So what did Abu Bakr do? Abu Bakr,
he realized what's going on. People aren't getting
the point. So he went and he took
his cloak, and he started putting it over
the prophet to shade him from the sun.
And people realized, okay. Wait a minute. This
is the prophet. That's why he's doing it.
This is the prophet. Just to show. Otherwise,
the prophet would not allow these type of
things to happen. He would not allow somebody
else to do them these kind of services
normally. But he allowed it to happen so
that people realize this is the prophet. It's
not Abu Bakr.
But what does this tell you? This is
a very, very important lesson actually.
It tells you that for someone to have
so much faith,
so much belief, and to have so much
love for someone they've never seen before in
their life.
How can we say later on that, you
know what? Because we've never seen the prophet,
we can't have that level of love. These
people had that love. They've never seen him
before.
How did they know about him?
They learned about his characteristics. They learned about
what he's done. They learned about his message.
They listened to the verses of the Quran.
So this kind of excuse that, oh, well,
if only we had seen the prophet, our
iman would have gone up. Look at their
iman. Look at their faith, and he's they've
never even seen him. They didn't even realize
who he was.
So subhanAllah, there's really there's no excuse to
not
have love for the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. So
everyone,
obviously, you know, very hospitable society, everyone wants
to show hospitality to the prophet. So what
what what does everyone start doing? Everyone start
insisting, no. No. Prophet, you have to stay
with me. No. No. Prophet, no. You have
to come to my house. I have the
nicest house. So no. No. No. Prophet, I
have, you know, my my wife can make
the best food, you know. Come to my
house. Imagine everyone is inviting them. Now what
is he supposed to do? If he goes
and says, okay. Well, you know, I'll go
ahead and stay with you. It's gonna offend
the other people. And he says, I'm gonna
go stay with you. Everyone else is gonna
get offended. Oh, we stayed with that person.
They're gonna feel bad. If not offended, they're
gonna feel a little bit, you know, if
only he would have stayed with us. So
what did he do in order to not
insult anyone? He decided to stay with his
distant maternal uncles. So he actually had family
in Madinah.
He actually had family in Madinah, so he
decided to stay with his maternal uncles who
were living there, and that's something that everyone
would understand. No one would complain and say,
oh, he didn't stay with me. Once you
stay with family, that's it. No one can
say you didn't stay with me. You're staying
with family? It's understood. They take priority,
they take precedence. Okay?
Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So good question. So
the question is, if they came in the
month of Rabi'ul Awal, and if the calendar
starts from,
the day that they migrated, it starts from
the year that they migrated,
not the day. So the month, the 1st
month is still fixed in the calendar. So
that remains. It's just the year. It's just
the year. Okay?
The the the camel,
being the one who decided,
you know, where he would stay. Right? Abu
Ayub Al Ansari was from was from his
maternal,
side of the family. So that's why he
stayed with them. There are, reports in some
books of Sira that he's you know, the
camel was, you know, guided and it chose
the actual location, you know, where to stay
and all of that. Those reports are of
the highest authenticity, so I just decided to
skip that part out.
It could be, but it's again, it's it's
a miraculous type of thing, and we talked
about criteria. So it could have been that
the camel also decided and then he chose
that because that his uncles were around that
area. Could be. But I just we just
we skip that because there's different narrations. Whether
it was a camel or whether it was
primarily because they were family members.
About the family members? About the camel. That's
what I'm saying. Remember the standards that we're
applying. So it's
it's
it's not the highest of authenticity.
It's not the highest of authenticity. Alright? So
if if it's a miraculous type of thing
and it's not the highest standard of authenticity,
then we kind of if you can take
it, you can take it with a grain
of salt. So it's not the highest standard.
Okay. Yes. So good question. So why are
we not discussing the Mi'raj? Right? The ascension
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? We
will discuss it in a separate hadith class.
The reason why is because scholars differ as
to when the date actually was. Some scholars
say it was very early on in the
mission. Imam Nawawi says it happened in the
5th year. Other scholars say it was 10th
year or 11th year or 12th year or
13th year. So because it's so unknown exactly
which date specifically was, we left it out
because Sira is trying to study things from
a chronological perspective. That's why we left it
on. Okay?
That's the thing. So the same thing. Scholars
are different as to exactly when that happened.
It happened, but when did it happen exactly
is difficult to to, to determine.
Because not all that see the thing is
important events sometimes,
you're people would remember them, but they wouldn't
remember the dates necessarily because they weren't thinking
about dates at that time. But sometimes they
don't remember even things in your own life.
Sometimes you remember some important incident, but if
you're not paying attention to the calendar or
something, you don't remember exactly when it took
place. Right? If you ask a lot of
people if they didn't have a degree or
something, you know, when did you when did
you go to that country? When did you
visit that country? And if you think off
the top of your head, if you don't
have any recollection, you say,
probably like 10 years ago. I I can't
even tell you which year. So it's kind
of like that. It was kind of like
that. K.
No. You don't? K. Alright.
Now continuing, building the mosque. So remember, the
first now that the prophet is in the
city of Madinah,
one of the first tasks which he performed
was to build a mosque
in Madinah. Now this one was small one
is in Khuba.
Very small one that was in Khuba and
everything. That was just kind of like the
foundations of it. Now he's they're going to
actually build a full mosque
in the city of Madinah, now that they're
there. What is the masjid supposed to do?
It's supposed to be a place where all
the believers
could assemble together and they could perform their
prayers as a group.
This is something that they could not have
in Makkah. There was not a single masjid
that was formed in Makkah. Why? Even though
sometimes they would pray in groups, they would
pray in a congregation, but they did not
have the opportunity to establish one specific place
because they didn't have that freedom. They didn't
have that ability. So now what did they
do? The first thing they did was they
purchased a piece of land from 2 orphans.
K. The prophet went to this specific land.
He said, I want we're gonna go ahead
and build the masjid here. This land belonged
to 2 orphans. The orphan said, we're Muslim.
This land belongs to Allah. It's completely free.
They can have it. But the prophet said,
no. No. We're not gonna take it as
a donation. We're not gonna take it for
free. We're gonna buy it
because they're orphans, number 1. And number 2,
we don't know what's gonna you know, we
don't know exactly how they're gonna feel later
on or what people are gonna say. So
they raised some funds from the other Muslims,
Abu Bakr and other people, and they paid
the orphans. They bought the land. They decided
we're gonna do it ourselves. So they bought
the land themselves
and the construction began almost immediately.
Now imagine this is this is the prophet
he just came
from a very long journey.
His life was in danger and
immediately the moment he gets to Madinah,
it's not vacation time. Right? What's the time?
It's working. Immediately,
things are moving. The land is purchased immediately.
People start getting to work. Construction begins immediately.
So every single person started participating in the
construction.
It's not that one group of Muslims said,
okay. We're gonna help and the other ones
are okay. You go ahead and do whatever
you want. Free Muslim played their part including
the prophet himself.
So the prophet himself was picking up
bricks physically and he was going. This is
not,
this is not a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Right? Like some, leaders go and, you know,
they go and smile and, you know, with
everyone else and, like, look, look, look, I'm
gonna I'm gonna put this shovel in the
ground, and I'm gonna do the first one,
and then take the picture, put in the
newspaper, and then everyone else okay. Let the
workers now work, you know, get everyone there,
and I have a lunch to attend. This
is the prophet helping
actual construction,
not one brick. We're talking about brick after
brick, helping build, helping do every single thing.
K. So everyone started
participating in the construction of the masjid. Now
what were now how were they working?
Were they like, oh, man. We gotta work
and, you know, we gotta build this masjid,
and it's so difficult and everything. These people
were so happy. They were so motivated by
their faith. They were singing songs
while working. Right? You know, the whistle while
you work type of thing. Right? They're singing
singing poetry
while they're working along, and their poetry was
that like, you know, oh, Allah, there's no
other,
there's no other life except the life of
the hereafter, and they were singing different. They
were making up poetry on the spot. Everyone
is happy. Imagine this is like a nice
collaborative effort and everyone is feeling good. So
they all participated in the construction, they were
all happy, and they were all making this
masjid. Now this masjid became known as the
mosque of the prophet.
Okay? The mosque of the prophet, Masjid al
Nabi. Okay? The mosque of the prophet, which
is there, but
which obviously we know where it is now,
but the thing is
at that time let's take a look at
what kind of Masjid this was. It was
a courtyard,
very basic courtyard
surrounded by mud walls.
Okay? Now mud walls don't really hold up
that much. Very primitive.
Very, very primitive. So mud walls,
and you have some, you know, palm trees,
bamboo, and all of that covered with palm
tree branches on the top.
That's all it was. Palm tree branches on
the top, and that was sufficient.
That was a very basic primitive Masjid, and
that was the Masjid al Nabi. Can you
imagine? This is the most important place, and
that's all they put into it.
Now, what ended up happening is the 1st
few months they were praying, when it started
raining,
the rain would come down through the roof
because the roof is made of?
Palm. Palm trees. This is few palm leaves,
like, you know, branches of palm trees. The
rain would come down, leak through the roof,
and there was no carpet.
There was no ground, there was nothing, so
it would get muddy.
So it's actually muddy and they're praying inside
the mud because the rain would come down.
So somebody came along with the idea and
said, you know what?
This muddy, you know, praying in the mud
and everything, it's not that great. Could we
upgrade a little bit? Like, can we get
a little bit nicer? They said, okay. We'll
make you a little bit nicer. They scattered
little pebbles around, so it doesn't get muddy.
You're praying on rocks instead of praying on
the mud. That's their that's that's the level
of luxury that they got to. So that
shows you the type of,
you know, the type of resources that they
had at that time. So that was sufficient.
Okay? So now,
we talked about in Makkah, they were not
able to pray. Now that the threat was
gone in Makkah, in Madinah, the same type
of threat didn't didn't exist. Now they could
actually,
perform their 5 prayers in a group, you
know, on a regular basis. So who did
they call? So Bilal remember Bilal, the one
who was tortured, he was a former slave.
He was the one who was selected to
have the honor to call people to prayer.
So they made the call to prayer, and
every single time he would call out Allahu
Akbar, Allahu Akbar, everyone in the entire city
would stop working. They would stop whatever they're
doing, and they would come to the masjid,
and they would come for prayer. Just imagine
this kind of city. Right? Every time this
guy starts calling out for prayer, the entire
city stops.
Everyone is focusing on going for prayer, except
for the people, of course, who are not
Muslim at that time. Right? So
what is a masjid?
Right? What is a masjid? What what's what
function does it serve?
It's not only a place for praying.
It was much more than just a place
where people used to come and pray. It
used to be a place where people can
overcome the anxieties,
overcome the difficulties that they were going through
in life. A place where they can go
and seek refuge.
It became
a place where
it formed the center of the society. People
would meet in there. People would come together
and talk. People would hold, you know, important
meetings that were taking place inside the masjid.
This was a meeting place as well at
the same time. So another thing so so
the Masjid was not only a place of
prayer, it served as a place of gathering,
a place of refuge where people could go.
Another thing that the Masjid served was that
they formed in the corner of now remember
how many how much resources they had. Very
primitive Masjid.
Despite their lack of resources,
what did they invest in?
They invested
in making a place, a platform that was
known as sufa.
This little platform that they had, which was
covered with a roof and had a little
roof on top of it, was a place
for people to seek refuge who didn't have
a home.
K? So they were just think about this,
though. You barely have resources to even put
small pebbles to pray on, and yet you're
putting emphasis
on making this as part of the masjid
as well. And this was within the masjid
compound. So they made this place as a
refuge for homeless Muslims who had nowhere else
to stay. They had no other house. So
this was a place. Now
where would these people get their food? So
these people would be living there and the
Muslims would be sending the more fortunate Muslims.
They would be sending food to these people.
So they would be getting their food at
one point in time and also,
there were some people who used to go
out from amongst them, and they would work,
and they would come back, and they would
spend the money on those people who they're
living with. Right? This is very interesting thing.
So these people were always
in flux. Their numbers were always changing. Sometimes
these people would be here. Sometimes they would
get a house to stay in. When someone
loses their house, they would be put into
this place. It's like a transitionary,
you know, place.
There were some people who were there voluntarily.
They had a home, but they decided we're
gonna stay here anyways.
Now, where did why would somebody
want to stay in a place where all
the homeless people are staying?
Because they know that the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam is where for the for the
most most of his time is spent where?
In the masjid. So he said, well, where
is the best time to learn from the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? What he's doing,
what he's saying, who he's talking to? It's
gonna be in the masjid. Not everyone can
just walk around follow the prophets around everywhere
like, you know, some other companions Abu Bakr
and everything. So these people said we're gonna
stay in the masjid and we're always gonna
be here. We're gonna be watching. Whenever the
prophet comes in, we can learn something. We
can learn something. So these people
became among the very knowledgeable people
among the Muslims. They became the people who
knew the most about the prophet's teachings. Why?
Because they had most ability to, you know,
they had most access to him. So these
people used to be they used to be
not just be, you know, people who just
sit there and just waiting for food to
come or something like that. These people used
to pray their nights.
They were praying at all night.
And what were they doing in the daytime?
They were learning more about Islam.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam remember,
he would go and he would talk to
these people sometimes separately
and he would go and address them and
what he would do is he would look
at the people who were able from among
these people and he would tell them, don't
just sit here.
Don't just go and beg, you know, if
you're if you're begging or something, don't just
go and beg. It's better for you to
go and chop some firewood outside of Madinah
and bring it back and sell it and
bring the money back and keep investing it
so that you can become self sufficient. This
is something that he used to do and
he used to give them this specific advice
so that they don't resort to begging if
they needed to start begging. So
let's see. Where are we? Very simple.
So far. Okay. So he encouraged the work.
So while the masjid was being built, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam stayed with Abu
Ayub al Ansari since he had no house
of his own. So now think about this.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam didn't have
a house of his own. He comes to
Madinah.
He controls the city technically. He's like the
number one guy in the city. He doesn't
have his own house. Before he builds his
own house,
what did he participate in building?
The masjid.
Before his own house.
What takes precedence today for us? Let me
get a nice house, make sure it's really
good, let me pay off my mortgage, let
me get my car, then we'll donate whatever
we have left to the masjid.
Whereas the prophet is doing what? First, you
build the masjid, and then we'll go and
focus on I'll focus on my own house
later on. So he's living with Abu Ayub
Al Ansari for for several months before the
you know, the masjid is finished. After the
masjid is finished, then he decided, okay. You
know, then I'll go ahead and, you know,
build, you know, place for myself. I'll actually
have a a residence for myself. While he
was living with Abu Ayyub ans Al Ansari,
where was he eating? People were coming and
delivering him food
because this is the they love the prophet
so much. So they would come and they
would deliver him food and Abu Ayyub would
also get meals to eat. Right? So now
he's not ashamed
of taking a, you know, a gift. It's
not charity. It's a gift that he's taking
from other people at this point in time
where he doesn't have a house, he doesn't
have he doesn't have a business, he's not
able to work at this point in time.
Right? Because he's obviously organizing the affairs of
the entire ummah.
So this was his situation.
Now after the masjid was complete, which took
several months,
then finally next to the masjid, a few
rooms were built for the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. Now when you see a few
rooms, remember,
up until now, he has how many wives?
Okay. Check and then he married Aisha. Right?
So then he has 2 wives at this
point in time, so he's gonna need at
least 2 rooms or more.
And he has some family. Right? He still
has some family. So now, they started making
some small rooms next to the masjid. Now
how big were the rooms? If you do
the actual calculations, which I decided to do
just to look at it, the actual rooms
were a 100 and about a 135
square feet.
Now just think about that. Think about how
big your house is, square footage. Think about
how big your apartment is. Think about how
big your studio is.
Now think about the size of the room
that the prophet was
built was living in,
and he's the ruler of the entire city.
Think about that status.
And the the house was high enough that
if you stand up and if you put
your hands up, you're gonna reach the ceiling.
It's just high enough for a person, and
you can barely stretch a person across. A
135
square feet. Think about that. Think about that.
So this was,
the simplicity of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam even though he had the ability. He
had people who were quite wealthy in Madinah,
but he did not want to live anything.
He did not want to live, you know,
in a status of luxury greater than that.
Alright. So now we talk about true brotherhood.
So
the Muslims who migrated, they were given the
title by the prophet, the
respectful title of Al Muhajirun.
For the ones who migrated, they're known as
the immigrants, the Muhajirun.
And the ones and I why? Because they
left their homeland
for the sake of Allah, for the sake
of Islam. So they they are known as
the people who migrated away. And this is
an honorable title because it means you left
up. You you gave up. You left all
that luxury, you gave up your possessions, you
gave up your homeland, very very difficult. It's
not easy to leave all of those things
behind. The Muslims in Madinah,
they became known as Al Ansar or the
helpers.
Why? Because they were helping and aiding and
welcoming the people who had migrated from Makkah.
So these people have the special titles that
they're given. Now this is really genius if
you think about it because
people were always
people always had a sense of needing some
type of identity.
Right? And the identity that they generally had
being Muslim is one form of identity,
but there's multiple identities that people have. 1
is Muslim
and another can be something else. Usually, it's
tribal. Right? It's gonna be, I'm from the
tribe of, you know, I'm from the tribe
of Quraysh, or I'm from the clan of
Hashim, or I'm from the clan of Makzoum
or I'm from the clan of Banu Umayyah.
And the people in Madinah, I'm from the
clan of, tribe of Aus. I'm from the
tribe of Khazraj
within clans in between. So what the prophet
did was, he's giving them now says, yes.
You're all Muslims,
but we're gonna have some kind of division
amongst you. Why? Because you are different. You're
from different places.
You have different cultures. Even though they're from
Arabia, their cultures were different. They used to
eat different kind of food. They used to
have different kind of living conditions. The environment
that they were used to was different as
well. So it was not,
they were different people. You have to understand.
They're not just oh, but just because they're
up, they're the same. They're not exactly the
same. So even even some of the their
accents and stuff were a little bit different.
So what ended up happening? By giving these
two labels,
he's creating
sub clans within Islam by clans that are
not bound by
blood bloodline.
Clans that are not bound by, know, type
of
tribal, racial superiority,
or inferiority, or something like that. He's redefining
and giving says, your your privilege.
What defines you as a person now is
not only that you're Muslim, your second identity
is that you are a person who migrated
for the sake of Allah. That's something to
be proud of. And your identity now is
that you are one of the people who
helped the other Muslims come. You're the one
of the people who helped welcome the prophet
salaam and welcome the Muslims. This is a
beautiful thing, and it actually helps them, you
know, to relate to one another while maintaining
some kind of independent identity,
that they needed to have to differentiate themselves.
So,
once the people of Makkah had migrated, it
was quite difficult for them to adjust to
the foreign environment, actually. A lot of them
became sick because Madinah had a lot of
stagnant water, actually. They used to have a
lot of stagnant water, and with stagnant water,
you get a lot of illnesses. So a
lot of people became very ill. You know,
the prophet was one of the few people
who didn't become ill. Bilal was very sick.
Abu Bakr was very very sick. Lot of
people got, very ill and it was very
difficult for them to adjust. So now
the fact that most of the Muslims had
migrated
away from Makkah to Madinah,
most of them had left their belongings behind.
Like
who? A Rumi? Suhayb. Suhayb. A Rumi. Right?
One of the guys who left everything behind,
most people had to leave their stuff behind.
Now imagine the the Makkans who migrated, they
have very little money. They have almost nothing.
And the people in Madinah, they still have
their business, their business is going, their crops
are still there, their land is still there,
their houses are still there. So now we
need some kind of system to welcome these
refugees quote unquote
into the land and somehow make them integrate
and adjust
to their living standards, to their living conditions.
So what could have been done? A lot
of things could have been done.
How do you get,
how do you get the Muslims, the the
the Ansar, the helpers, how do you get
them to
welcome the Muslims
and, you know, let them settle? There are
several things you could think of. One of
them, you know, you could think of saying,
well, you know, they you just encourage them
to give charity. Right? Just everyone, you know,
give charity to your brother and to your
sister in Islam and inshallah, it's gonna be
fine. Whoever gives, gives. Whoever doesn't give, doesn't
give. The prophet said, at this time,
this is not sufficient.
We need something more than that. Just a
a random,
you know, lecture about charity is not sufficient.
So they said, we need something more. So
what they did was they instituted a pact
of brotherhood,
which is known as al Mu'akha.
You don't need to know the, Arabic term,
but they instituted a pact of brotherhood. So
what they would do basically
is one of the immigrants, one of the
Muhajirs
would be paired up with 1 of the
Ansaris.
Okay. They would be paired up together and
the the the the helper or the Ansari,
he would share his house and he would
share his possessions with his brother who he
was paired up with. Okay. So they were
paired up together like this. Now look let's
take a look at some of the details.
The people of Mecca generally were merchants.
They were businessmen by profession.
Why were they businessmen?
Because Mecca is
a valley
burning hot, very little
greenery there.
Almost nothing grows in Makkah.
That's just the way the land of Makkah
is. Madinah is a very it's arable land.
Things can grow. There's a lot of palm
trees. There's a lot of, you know,
you know, you can plant crops. Things will
grow. So there's a difference between the 2.
So that's why the people of Madinah were
more like farmers.
The people of Makkah, most of them were
like businessmen.
Businessmen are shepherds. That's that's pretty much what
they used to do. So the difference between
the two causes some
difference in cooperation.
How do you cooperate between the 2?
So the thing is, most of the land
that the people in Madinah used to own,
most of their wealth, wealth was not only
measured in cash. Wealth used to be measured
in the numb the amount of animals that
you have, the amount of land that you
possess,
and the amount of,
you know, whatever tools and, you know, other
type of business you have. So because the,
wealth was distributed that way, the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam decided that we're not gonna
distribute land across the board. Some of the
unsars some of the unsars, some of the
helpers, they went and voluntarily said, we're gonna
give up half of our land to our
Muslim brothers who have migrated from Makkah. The
prophet alaihis salaam refused.
He said,
no. Do not give them half the land.
Now what is the reason for that? It's
not exactly known, but one of two reasons
could have been there. Perhaps I would say
both. Alright? One of the reasons could have
been that he did not wanna put the
prophet did not wanna put too big of
a burden
on the people of Madinah because giving up
half of your land is a lot. Right?
Giving it up 100%, it's gone. So not
putting such a great burden so that the
actual the Makins themselves, the the Muhajirun,
they could kind of establish themselves, they would
work hard, they wouldn't get lazy, they would,
you know, they would put their effort in.
That's number 1.
Number 2 reason could have been or perhaps
both is that these people
wouldn't know what to do with the land.
If you gave them half the land, what
would they do? They don't know what they're
doing. Right? Imagine you're not a farmer and
someone says, here, look. I'm gonna give you
half of my farm, and you take care
of the trees and you sell it and
go ahead and do it. You don't know
what to do. All you know how to
do is trade goods that are coming in
from Syria and from Yemen and all of
that. You don't know what to do so
the the land itself will become messed up.
So the prophet was very intelligent
probably one of the reasons why he did
it is he knew that they're a good
in business, but they're not good in being
farmers and, you know, dealing with land and
all of that. So
instead of accepting that, he said, let them
work
on the land,
you train them, and they get to keep
half of the produce.
That makes much more sense. They're gonna be
trained, they're gonna learn how to deal with
the land. And some of the people who
are businessmen, they said, just give me some
of your wealth, and I'll go ahead and
take it to the market, and I'll start
trading. But some people were really, really skilled
in trading. Like, Abdul Rahman ibn Aufi was
one of the people who were really good.
He just took a little bit of money.
He went to the market. He sold something,
and he bought something else with that money,
and he sold that. He bought something else,
bought so so started buying and selling and
got a really big, you know, big business,
and the guy became rich in a in
a matter of, like, a year or so.
So the guy knew how to do business,
so they used to, do these kind of
things. This pact of brotherhood continued
for,
a few a few years,
and then it was canceled. K? At this
point in time, during this pact of brotherhood,
even
the Ansar and the Muhajirun,
they would be inheriting from one another.
The pact of brotherhood went all the way
completely,
and this lasted for a while until the
Makkhans were able to stand on their own
two feet, and they got used to the
land, and then the, you know, the pact
was, overturned. So it was a temporary thing,
but it shows you the wisdom. It shows
you how
if we are faced with similar circumstances,
we need to utilize that kind of wisdom
to make the same kind of programs to
achieve similar results.
Okay? Any questions on this?
Oh, because they're living in the same house
and everything?
Yeah. They probably they probably quartered off their
house. So, like, this side is for your
family and this side is for my there's
2 families living in. They probably quartered off
the house and so you get this side
of the house, I get this side of
the house. Yeah. There was there's one incident
where one of the companions, he even offered
and he said, I'm willing to even,
divorce one of my wives, and I'm willing
to give her to you for marriage. Right?
And we were talking about it this morning
and saying that, you know, some people,
they they they will have a major problem,
understanding
this because of the culture that we live
in. We have a difficult time even understanding
plurality of wives, let alone somebody doing something
like this. But if you understand
what kind of culture they came from, and
if you understand what kind of culture the
woman
of Medina were like, that what what type
of women that the women were like from
Medina, they were very different from the women
of Mecca. So if you if you understand,
like, these people in that context, it's not
unlikely that this happened.
Alright. It's very likely that it happened, and
this is a a report that's narrated as
well that somebody offered. Now it was not
everyone. This person offered. This was not something
that the process has mandated on everybody, but
this man offered himself.
Alright. So cold war. Now before I get
into this slide, I just wanna make a
note that
the concept of this stage in Madinah being
a cold war
is,
I think, rarer than it should be.
So most books, you won't find a deep
analysis
about the period
about this period in history.
What you'll find generally is in most books
of history, a very shallow analysis actually. In
fact, little to no analysis rather than it's
just a description of events without kind of
piecing things together. You'll find it in some
books,
but not in most books. Alright? So I
think it's important that
you pay very close attention,
especially if you've been reading other books
and you kind of say, well, you know,
I've already read many other books in Sira.
You know, I pretty have a good grasp.
I don't need to read this. This is,
one aspect which we're covering right now, which
I think very few authors,
with the exception of some like Shiblini al
Amani and and them that have covered in
detail. They have covered sufficiently with a with
a with a good deep understanding of things.
So
let's look at the situation now. The Muslims
have escaped from the persecution in Mecca. They're
in Madinah. Right? So you think, oh, everything
is fine. Everything is safe. Muslims can pray.
They can have their own Masjid. But actually,
the Quraysh
Like, we've been looking at, people in Madinah
are happy.
The house is being built. Right? People are
eating. People are enjoying. There's brotherhood.
Business is going on. There's a Masjid.
Where did the Quraysh go? Right? What happened?
Let's let's now shift focus and look what's
going on in Mecca.
The Quraysh, these people are still really upset.
These people tried to kill the prophet. They
tried to kill the Muslims. They tried to
stop them from migrating. They didn't just disappear
all of a sudden. They're still there and
they want revenge. They really wanna get rid
of Islam. How many times have they tried
to stop Islam. Right? So the Quraysh are
still there.
So for them, this was the biggest insult.
Their own family members had accepted Islam. They
left Mecca. They they they migrated to a
new place
leaving their family behind. For them, this is
like the biggest insult that they could ever,
you know, have. So they were really upset.
So they were just well, imagine what they
were doing. They were waiting for the right
moment
to get the Muslims.
Right? They're just waiting for the right time.
Things are sensitive.
When do we attack them? What are some
of the factors? Well, 1, it's a long
distance.
2, you have to be you know, you
have to deal with your reputation in Arabia
when you're attacking a foreign enemy. And number
3, that, you know, maybe now that the
Muslims are so many, it's not that easy
to just take them out. So we have
to do something. So they're waiting for the
right moment to attack the Muslims and just
get rid of them completely. So what's the
first move the Quraysh make? The first move
and this is unfortunate
that many authors of Sira,
they tend to neglect some of these facts
even though they're in books of hadith, the
most authentic books of hadith. So they don't
kind of piece everything together sometimes. They just
mention certain events.
So the first move that they make is
they send a letter
to a man by the name of Abdullah
ibn Ubay,
ibn Salud.
So they send a letter to him, and
who is this guy? Who is this ibn
Ubay guy? K. Abdullah ibn Ubay
was one of the few remaining leaders
who survived the battle of Bu'a.
Remember the Aus and Khazrash tribes in the
city of Yasserib city of Madinah before the
prophet came, most of the leaders were killed
off in this major battle.
Abdullah ibn Ubayhi was one of the few
leaders or kind of semi leaders maybe who
survived.
So before the prophet of allalahu alaihi wa
sallam was invited to Madinah and before the
people started accepting Islam,
he was about to become the leader of
Madinah. He was about to be crowned king.
This was the guy who was about to
become the leader of Madinah. Now imagine him,
like about to become the leader of the
entire city and then all of a sudden
people start accepting Islam and they say, oh
prophet, we want you to come to our
city and take over. Imagine how this guy
is feeling inside. He just lost his power.
He just lost he he was gonna control
the entire city, and he just lost all
of that. So you can tell that it's
gonna be a little bit difficult for, you
know, maybe having a little grudge in his
heart or or perhaps a a big grudge
in his heart. You can imagine how he's
dealing. So the Quraysh, they know this.
It's not like they don't know. They know
this guy was about to be put in
power. Said who's the who's the best guy
to target? You gotta target the guy who
has some power
and you gotta target a guy who has
some kind of kind of a grudge against
the Muslims or against the prophet or something
like that. So they send him a letter.
Right?
And the letter was very clear. Rather than
just trying to bribe him, the Quraysh
for them, people of Madinah are like this
little tiny tribe. You don't have to they're
not like tough people. Right? There were other
tribes around Arabia who were really tough. They
were really strong. Like, some of the big
Bedouin tribes, like, in the Najd area, right,
across in the east where, like, Rial and
all of that is today. Those were some
big Bedouin tribes, and they had a lot
of warriors and soldiers. They were rough people.
People in Madinah were not really they were
not really that powerful. They were not that
amazing. So the Quraysh didn't care too much.
So the letter clearly said, you've given refuge
to one of our people.
You've given telling Abdullah ibn Ubay, you've given
refuge to one of our people. Who is
that?
The prophet. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Right?
Either you're gonna kill him, or you're gonna
expel him, or we're gonna attack you. We
got 3 options.
Right? Either you kill him yourself,
and we don't have to deal with it,
and you handle the business yourself, and we'll
be fine.
Or you expel him. You kick him out,
and then we'll deal with him later on.
Or we can just come and we can
attack you, and all of you are going
down. Very clear that the Quraysh are intent
to get rid of Islam and get rid
of the prophet. Now the Messenger of Allah,
salallahu alaihi wasalam, he found out about this
letter,
And he went to Abdullah ibn Ubayh and
talked to him, convinced him, says, look, you
know, I know you may may not like
me that much because you wanted to be
in power and all of that, but
do you want to fight your own people?
These are your people. Right? The people who
have accepted Islam
are Obey's own people. So do you really
want to fight your own people? Do you
really want to go against them?
And he thought about it and he probably
thought in the back of his mind as
well, you know, a lot of people have
accepted Islam. Right? Not just a few, a
lot. So going against them versus going against
Quraysh, okay. Fine. We'll leave it. We'll we'll
we'll we'll we'll we won't cooperate with the
Quraysh right now. But
this guy used to utilize
every moment he could to somehow insult Islam
or insult the prophet openly, but not openly
openly
in a subtle way. So the prophet is
riding behind, you know, coming on his donkey,
for example. Some of the obviously, when you
ride the animal, some of the dust is
gonna come up from the sand.
So he starts complaining, oh, this dust is
coming, and why is this guy causing dust?
These these petty little remarks that he would
make, he would make these little remarks wherever
he could. Every time he got an opportunity
to do that. So he kept on voicing
his, aversion to Islam openly, and he was
he was quite clear about that.
So now
the situation in Madinah was actually dangerous.
Even though we realized that they have the
masjid, they have everything, now that this letter
had been sent,
it means that the Quraysh are planning something.
So the situation in Madinah was so dangerous
that even the prophet,
he had an armed guard stand outside his
door
at nighttime because it was so,
you you don't know who's gonna try and
attack. It looks like the Quraysh are gonna
try and assassinate him or something. So there
was an armed guard actually outside his door
to show you what kind of situation it
was in Madinah. It was not, it was
not all, you know, a bed of roses.
That's not the only threat. So then what
what else you you find? The the the
biggest problem was
is that the prophet migrated to Madinah for
what reason? What was the one of the
main reasons
why he was going to Ta'if
and why he was considering other tribes and
why he came to Madinah?
It's not just the situation in Mak he
could've why didn't he go to Abyssinia?
To establish a base to do what?
To
spread the message of Islam. Right? That's very
crucial.
He's established a base to spread the message
of Islam, but now you got a problem.
The message of Islam was spreading throughout Arabia
because Mecca was the center,
and everyone would go during pilgrimage season.
Now you have a double problem.
Now the problem is what? One of the
problems is
you can't go during pilgrimage season because you've
been you've left Makkah.
Right? So you don't get to meet all
the tribes in one location because they're not
gonna be coming there. That means you have
to go to them individually, which is not
that easy. Number 1. Number 2,
the Quraysh have clout in Arabia. They have
political ties. So they were putting pressure on
the other tribes and saying you better not
go to Madinah to visit this guy.
You guys should anyone who they had good
relations with, they were being forced
to not go to Madinah. They were being
blocked for even going to Madinah to visit
with the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam. So
now we got a problem. Right? Now not
only is there a danger on the prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam's life, there's a danger
with regards to spreading the message of Islam
because they can't get it out, because they
can't be in Makkah and the people the
tribes cannot go to Madinah at the same
time. So what did they need?
Right? They needed a strategy
to do 2 things, either to reduce the
hostility with Quresh
or to even hopefully
have some type of mutual coexistence
that look, Okay. Now that we're gone, okay,
how about you stop trying to kill us,
right, and we say, okay. We recognize your
right to be there. You recognize our right
to be there. That's something that you have
to understand.
Madinah is a new city now.
It's not Yathrib anymore.
It's a city of Madinah. It's a new
identity.
It has the Muslims have a new space.
They're a new entity that exists within this,
social sphere. Right? So that space, whenever you
what like, when a country decides
to become independent,
they declare their independence. Right?
You have to what? You have to be
recognized
by somebody else. So one country will say,
okay. I've recognized your sovereignty.
Another country, okay. I recognize your sovereignty. Alright?
So this is the same thing. Madinah, now
that it's a new entity,
it needs to be recognized by different tribes.
And they have to say, okay. We recognize
that you're a legitimate
political,
you know, space that exists here in Arabia.
So that means
that no one can live
in complete isolation
from the society in which they live in.
And this is a very important lesson
Because sometimes we find Muslims, they go and
say, well, let's just, you know, buy a
little farm or little village somewhere.
All the Muslim will just live there and
it just we're just gonna focus on our
own thing. That's not the way the world
works. That's not the way the society works.
And the prophet, he understood that. You don't
just go and establish yourself somewhere, and then
all of a sudden say, well, we live
in our own place. We don't need to
be recognized by anyone. You have to have
relationship with other people, some type of relationship.
So now there's no central government in Arabia,
so the tribes
would associate with one another through either alliances
or treaties.
Now if you want to have an alliance
or you want to have some kind of
treaty of mutual recognition or whatever it is,
you have to have some kind of incentive.
If you have no alliance,
you have no treaty,
essentially,
you're at war.
Right? Essentially, you're at war. There's no relationship
between you. So we come across you,
we have the we have the opportunity to
just attack you. That's the way life existed
at that time.
Now today, we have little bit different some
people will say, well, we have United Nations
and people who sign off, you have to
hold get approval before you go and attack
a city or, you know, before you attack
a country, unless you're one of the big
five nations, and you go ahead and you
do it anyways whether or not you have
approval. You know, all these kind of things.
But if you look at that kind of
world that they were living in, that's the
way it was. Right? You either have an
alliance, you have some kind of treaty where
we don't kill each other, or you're just
some random person that's there. You we don't
know who you are. And if you are
we see you're a threat to us, we're
gonna go ahead and attack you. So that's
the way it was. So
the what do the Muslim what do the
Muslims need to do? They need to make
a treaty
with the Quraysh somehow. Now why in the
world would the Quraysh wanna make a treaty
with the Muslims?
What do they have to gain?
Nothing. Right? There's nothing to gain for the
Muslims,
for the for the Quraysh because they're the
they're the ones who are in power.
Right? So for them, say we'd rather just
fight you. So the Muslims have to establish
their authority
in such a way that the Quraysh are
pressured to actually make some kind of treaty
and recognize the Muslims as being a legitimate
entity.
So now the prophet he understands this. Okay?
He understands this
and he comes up with a strategy. But
but before we,
before we talk about that strategy,
the verses were revealed
from the Quran for the first time where
the where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, those
who have been where are the verses? Those
who have been attacked
are permitted to take up arms
because they have been oppressed.
Where is it? Take arm because they have
been oppressed, Allah has the power to give
them victory. Those who have been expelled from
their homes unjustly
for no other reasons besides their statement, Allah
is our Lord.
So now let's take a look at this
verse very carefully. Those who have been attacked
are permitted to take up arms.
Does this sound offensive or defensive to you?
Because they were attacked.
Alright? And it says those who have been
expelled from their homes unjustly.
What does it sound like to you? Alright.
Defensive, meaning they're reacting here. They have to
react. Now this is something new though. Before
this, Muslims were not allowed to fight back
at all.
Even remember how many people were being tortured
and all of that? They were not allowed
to fight back. Now, because the circumstances have
changed,
the revelation
was revealed to change the rule
according to the present circumstances at this time.
So now, they're allowed to fight back. As
soon as the prophet
got this revelation,
he comes up with a strategy.
Now the strategy is 3 things. Number 1,
it's a 3 pronged strategy. He sent out
armed expeditions to accomplish 3 main objectives.
Okay?
One objective is to gather intelligence about what
the Quraysh were up to and to track
the movements of their caravans.
Very important. Gathering intelligence throughout Arabia to make
sure that if the Quraysh are gonna be
coming to attack Madinah, they know about it
in advance. They're trying to figure out who
are they making alliances with to go and
boycott the Muslims, whatever is happening. You have
to know what your enemy is doing. You
have to know what's taking place around you,
first thing. Number 2, to conclude peace agreements
with other people and enter into alliances with
the various tribes around Arabia.
So these these armed expeditions were going out.
Every expedition is gonna be armed in Arabia.
You're not gonna go and send out some
people who don't have any weapons. Their job
was to go and make peace treaties with
as many tribes as they can. So do
you see the political strategy here? 1, gather
intelligence about Quraish. Number 2, go and establish
relationships with as many tribes as you can,
as many clans around as you possibly can.
And number 3,
block off
all the trade caravans and harass
the trade caravans that the Quraish is sending.
K? Now
which direction is Madinah
from Mecca?
North.
So there are trade caravans which are going
up to Syria.
Madinah is on the way. Remember, one of
the things that they were scared of is
that they would get blocked. That was one
of the things that they were really scared
of. This is exactly what the prophet is
gonna do. Now what he's gonna do, he's
gonna send our expeditions to intercept their trade
caravans so that they're being harassed.
The main goal is to put pressure on
them.
Why are why is the prophet putting pressure
on them? Why not just leave them alone?
What's the objective here?
So so so they get recognized and they're
willing to cooperate. They're willing to negotiate some
kind of treaty. They're willing to say, okay.
These people are at a a level where
we can actually sit down and talk to
them. Otherwise, the battle the the the hostilities
will never end. So this is pretty much
a cold war at this point in time.
No one is
no one is,
you know, no one's getting killed, but there
are a lot of things that are taking
place at this point in time. K. So
we
see that. Put pressure on the Muslim, disrupt
their trade. Right? And also their trade would
most likely be used to do what? Finance
war against the Muslims. So you cut off
their finances as well so that they can't,
you know, they can't start attacking the Muslims
with more weapons and more supplies. K? So
this is where we are. Any questions on
this?
So so specifically so you brought up a
very good point, and this is where I
I feel that other books of Sira are
missing on this point. So the thing is
that
the excuse is made that, you know what?
The poor, Quraish, their caravans are getting attacked.
The Muslims should have just left them alone
and everything would have been fine and all
of that. Even people who try to
come up with a good justification
like Karen Armstrong and all of that, their
their justifications are, in my opinion,
quite poor, unfortunately.
The thing is, if you look at all
the evidence here, number 1,
the Quran send the letter.
Right? The letter means that they wanna attack.
Right? Number 2,
has a security guard outside his house, which
means that
there's very good intelligence
coming in that the Quran are trying to
kick them out. Right? Trying to kill them
or kick the Muslims out or something like
that. Right? The verses are revealed
in what in what state? In a state
of defense. That, you know, you're being oppressed,
you have the ability to fight back now.
K. All of this indicates
that this is not an offensive. Right? This
is not something where the Muslims are taking
the thing. If you don't understand so here's
the thing. People don't understand this as being
a state of war. That's why I mentioned
specifically the entire chapter is called cold war.
Right? Why? Because if you don't see it
as being a cold war, if you don't
see it as being a state of war,
you think, oh, well, now that the Muslims
escaped, the Muslims are in a 100% state
of peace. Had they done nothing, everything would
have been fine. Who's making the first move
here?
It's not about the first move. Things didn't
reset.
The Quraysh never stopped wanting to attack the
Muslims. Right? So the intentions are there, the
motives are there, the letter is there, the
security guard is there, the fact that,
the Quraysh are not willing to even make
a treaty or recognize them at all is
there. So making the argument that, you know,
the poor caravans and they got looted, or
they needed the money, or something like that,
all of these things don't add up when
you actually look at the entire situation as
a whole. That's that's that's that's what you
have to understand. If you if we didn't
have any if there was no oppression for
13 years,
if
the Makkans had signed a treaty and said,
okay, you're free to leave, and we'll leave
you alone and everything, and then they went
and attacked the trade caravans, then we could
say, okay. You know what? The Muslims attack
first. But that's not what happened. That's not
what happened. So if you look at all
the evidence, it makes sense.
Here's the thing. How many caravans did they
loot?
0.
0. K. They didn't loot a single caravan.
Right? So people say that well, their intention
was to loot the caravan. So you're telling
me that the prophet and the Muslims who
who are so good at strategizing, they can
win the battle of Badr, they can win
all the other battles. They were so bad
at intercepting caravans, they couldn't intercept 1.
Right? So you you have to look at
the intentions. You have to look at the
political ambitions here. What's really going on? Everyone
any incident that happens, you can spin it.
Anyway, remember we talked about, like, somebody puts
their hand on some child or something like
that? Either he's caressing the child, he's loving
the child, or he's trying to molest the
child. Depends on what kind of mentality you
have. Right? So to read somebody's intention the
other way around without looking at all the
variables present, I think it's an injustice.
It's really an injustice.
Right? Let let's say they looted a caravan.
Was that the intention that they were tear
and take the money and they were gonna
do what with the money? Right? The so
if you look at the political intention. Right?
Here's the thing.
They looted caravans of Quresh
or they they they tried to attack and
harass the caravans of Quraish.
Did they attack any non Quraish caravan?
No.
Right? So their argument is the Muslims are
they're going in, they started looting and they
started doing this even unfortunately,
you know, may Allah bless you. Karen Armstrong
is a great,
you know,
a great defender of Islam in in her
own way,
but she missed this one, you know, off
the mark, unfortunately.
She says, you know, this is like a
sport. This is a pastime what Arabs do.
You know? When they have nothing to do,
they just go and loot caravans. I'm like,
come on, man. That's a that's a pretty
bad I mean, they could have come up
with a better explanation than that. But anyways,
so
this makes sense. So you look you look
at that, and it's only Quraysh caravans. They
could have gone next door tribe, next door.
They could have gone to the Jews, started
looting their caravans. They didn't loot anybody else's
caravan except Quraysh. Why? Because they're at war.
Why are they at war, and why are
they doing this? Why are they taking the
strategy? There must be an ulterior motive to
it. Right? If they were just after money,
they could go rip off somebody else. That
can't be the reason, and it's not the
reason. Alright?
Abdul Leibn Obey? He's a he's a pagan.
I idol worshiper.
Idol worshiper. You can.
You can. See, the way Wikipedia
works is,
if you have enough
entries
in other fields, and you have enough clout
in Wikipedia,
then you update it, and it can be
edited. If you, and me, and like 4
guys go and update it, it'll get changed
back by somebody else. And you go and
change it back, it'll get changed back by
somebody else. So Wikipedia has its own politics,
and people don't understand that.
You can call it wiki politics.
Right? It has its own political thing. So
if you try and modify it some way,
you have to, you know, do something. That's
why the conservatives,
which is even more biased, so they started
the conservative pedia. Right? Which is even more
biased than Wikipedia. Right? But, this is the
this is the problem.
This is why people the Arabs were complaining
that, the Arab p d or whatever, the
Arab version of Wikipedia, it's by the people,
but no one's contributing to it. They started
contributing to the English Wikipedia instead of the
Arabic Wikipedia.
So okay. Whatever whoever
puts interest in that. Any other questions before
we take a break? Alright. Inshallah, then we
take a break. We'll resume after the prayer.