Omar Suleiman – When the Sahaba Met a Racist King

			Everyone said I want to come up with a law here but a cartoon of blasphemy I initially thought it
was now Mr. Heyman handed in law horrible. And I mean, what I wanted to analyze I mean, when I got
to dealing with tequila Allahumma salli wa sallam a radical radical, so we can Mohammed and sola LA
and he was selling it only he was actually he will send them to see them Kafeel. So in the midst of
all of the important conversations that are happening right now, in our community, and in sha Allah
tala, I pray that we are all able to grow. Obviously, one of the things that is being discussed is
the racism that goes unchecked in our own communities. And I wanted to use this opportunity, this
		

			particular moment to speak about a very special incident in Islamic history, to help us understand
the shift of mindset, that the companions of the Messenger of Allah sallallahu wasallam experienced,
in the midst of all that was happening, to speak about the shift in their thinking, and then how
they were able to articulate that shift in their thinking, both internally with those who had not
undergone the tarbiyah, the process of purification and mentorship and character building that they
had gone through, and those that lived outside of their context, and in neighboring nations of the
world, the neighboring tribes of the Arabs, and they were able to convey their shift in perspective,
		

			and some of the greatest lessons in what Islam was meant to bring to the world come through those
initial conversations between rulers and the ambassadors, the emissaries of Muslims, as they were
going out to meet these different rulers and these different leaders in the world because they were
forced to encapsulate in just a few sentences, what Islam to them what Islam meant to the world, and
what it was to mean, particularly to that group of people now that we're being approached with
Islam. And so, the initial conversations between the Sahaba the companions that had lived with the
Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam, and undergone that transformation, and the people of Mecca. In
		

			fact, McCann the opening of Mecca, where racist comments were holed hurled towards bedeviled the
Allahu anhu, as he ascended the carrabba, to make the other for the first time. And those people had
not been in the presence of the Prophet peace be upon him and undergone what the prophets lie Selim
had put the companions through, to purge that evil disease from their hearts and from their
societies. And then you have the story of you know, the Muslims, as they were on the hits, and up
prior to that the migration, the famous incident between without well the love of time, one below
the line where without insulted without many of the companions are, many of the scholars point to
		

			the fact that without was not amongst those that were present with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam for all of that time, he came, and he accepted Islam. And he left when he came back on the
higit off, to join the Muslims on the migration, he had not gone through the tunnel via the
character building yet that the Muslims had gone through. And so he hurled what was very common in
the days of ignorance at the level, the lavon, when he said, You have no soda, oh, son of a black
woman. So a lot of these conversations took place between Muslims who had been around the Prophet
slice along and nurtured with the prophetic methodology for so long, and those that had not
		

			experienced the Prophet sallallahu Sallam before those moments. So I want to speak about this
particular companion this particular incident and frame it in a certain way, and Charlottetown that
hopefully we can all benefit from. And I'll start with a story that many of you may have heard. The
story is one in which the Prophet peace be upon him, visits the house of ROM bint mill Han, and on
her on the intimate hand, may Allah be pleased with her is the onset of NSM, the molecule of Viola
Han Han, the sister of unsane, or the Allah one her and she's one of the first to accept Islam from
Medina. She's a non Saudi woman, and one of the first to accept Islam and Medina and was very close
		

			to the messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And some of the narration say she was a sister through
the law through breastfeeding. So the ties of kinship had been established as well. And the Prophet
sallallahu wasallam once fell asleep on a visit he took a nap on a visit to the home of him how long
Lindemann hand while the allow Thailand Hmm. And he woke up smiling. solahart and he was on one of
the profits all alone and and woke up, smiling, she said to the Messenger of Allah sallallahu
wasallam May Allah keep you smiling? What is it that caused you to smile? And so the Prophet peace
be upon him goes on to say that I had this dream last night, and in this dream, or rather, in this
		

			in this short nap that the Prophet slicin took in this dream
		

			He said I was shown some of the people of my own, and they were traveling through the seas, they
were traveling through the seas. And so as they were traveling through the seas to spread Islam,
		

			the prophet size, some of them tied up he was he was amazed by that because these were not people
the companions had not seen the water they were, they lived in the desert. They were not used to
that. And the fact that they were spreading Islam through the seas, was very special. And the
prophets lie. Some describe them like kings on their throne. So the Prophet size on describe the
special group of his own, that would spread the message of Islam through the seas. And hold on
Benjamin hand did not think at that moment about any obstacles to her. She didn't think at that
moment. Well, that can't be me. She immediately asked the Prophet sallallahu wasallam, O Messenger
		

			of Allah, pray that I am amongst them, pray that I'm amongst them. supplicate that Allah include me
amongst those people that you have just seen. And the prophets lie so long, recognizing the
sincerity and of course Allah, recognizing the sincerity of how long Benjamin Han said, You are
amongst them, you will be amongst them had a lot later on, we fast forward. And we find that this
woman on how long Benjamin had traveled with the companions on battle. And she, she was with the
Muslims that went to Cyprus, that traveled on ships to Cyprus, and she was with her husband. And as
she got to Cyprus, she got off of the ship, she tripped and and fell and died as a result of that
		

			fall, and was the first of the Muslims to die in Cyprus. And they actually have a grave for her
today, they still have a tomb for her today in Cyprus that is marked and well known, all the allot
of time. A woman that had her sincerity, acknowledged and recognized by the prophet of Allah, and
then was given that great reward was one of those people that the Prophet sallallahu wasallam had
saw in that dream of a group of Kings of a group of leaders of a group of special people from this
home. So she passed away in Cyprus in the year 27. After all the a lot of time. Now, who was her
husband, and who was the person that brought Islam to her in the first place? Her husband was about
		

			to blossom, it's about the alumni about an assignment. And before I talk about about the different
assignments, I want to say that one of the problems with how we talk about black Sahaba black
companions and you know, a few years ago, I did a lecture called Black and noble, long, a long class
on some of the black prophets and companions that we're often not spoken about. And this comes from
Josie Rahim Allah, this is not something that was just done now. And then Josie Kamala wrote and
we'd publish a book on on the notable black companions. We find this from emammal clt Rahim Allah,
you know, writing about some of these great black scholars and prophets in history, and CD that
		

			would win each if they would read me Allah bless him, actually compiled the book on on black nobles.
And we find so many different sources to pull from that talk about this. And one of the problems
with how we talk about billaudot the a lot of time, in particular, is that we exotic eyes belong to
a point that we leave some of those other companions out. So if you watch the movie, the message and
like it was a beautiful movie, and it's a great contribution to our time, the movie of the starlet
brought great pride and love to the religion for many people who were exposed to Islam are exposed
to some in a very unique way. When they watch the movie, or restarted the message is that the lotto
		

			the lion who stands out as if he's this lone, black Companion of the Prophet, sallAllahu, wasallam,
and then the story of Bill Otto the law and who gets exotic size. Now when I say it gets exotic
size, that doesn't mean that it's overestimated or that his position in Islamic history is
overestimated anything his position is underestimated the role of binotto the law, in so many
different ways is underestimated the virtues of the lotto the line, but below the law and whole
being looked at as this as this unique, you know, black companion that was saved by the rest of the
of the Muslims who were not black gives us a distorted image of the early Muslims. And we leave some
		

			of the people out some of them that were the mother of the Prophet slice on them after his mother on
a man with the alarm. Some of them is a little the alarm for the first commander of the Muslim army
and the list goes on and on and on and on of people that were surrounding the Prophet slice alone,
that the Prophet slicin put in important positions and in the process of that chipped away at any
ism that would take away from Islam, tribalism, nationalism, racism, all of the isms
		

			Right that would take away from the beauty of Islam shining forth in a wonderful way. And so rather
than Asana for the allotted time, who is is the man that I want to talk about today, and a very
precise and get to a very particular incident with him. He's the husband of Benjamin Han. He is a
man who served as a companion of the Prophet slicin. He was a leader. He was a judge, he was a
scribe, he was a warrior. He held many roles in the time of the Prophet sly Salaam, he was one of
the first onsolve You know, there were two bears, two pledges, they are to the Kaaba took place,
with the profits license twice for the low on who was one of the first group, which was a handful of
		

			people that came from at that time yesterday, which is Medina, to meet the prophets lie some in
Mecca privately to take the pledge with him and then came back the next year to take the pledge with
the Prophet slicin. And once again, with a larger group brought their people with more about little
the local animal is one of those people, and he is one of those that's distinct in that he
accompanied the prophets, I send them in every battle. And on top of that before and that you read,
the Quran that you read, or by the assignment was one of kuttabul way he was one of those that the
prophets I some entrusted with writing the revelation as it came from Allah through God, and he his
		

			Salaam, to the heart of the prophets lie Selim. And then to the tongue of the prophets, I saw them
captured in the pen, a very special people are about to to Muslim with all the love and who is one
of qutab and ye one of those that wrote the Quran, as the prophets like Selim spoke the,
		

			as it was revealed to him, I think it's a lot of stuff. So he holds an incredible position in
Islamic history. From the early days of the prophets, I send them throughout the lives of Hooda
outwash, the dean, ultimately dying in Palestine as a judge and Philistine as a judge. And someone
that was, that was notable for many reasons. But one of the things about about the assignment that
will be a lot of time is that he had an imposing presence, he had a distinct presence, he has
described the alota angle as being shadows, so very black, very black, so not just kind of dark, but
very black. He's described all the time as being very tall, so not just tall, but very tall. He's
		

			described as being very handsome, okay, and a person of extreme beauty that if you looked at her
about the Muslim of the law, and who you were, you were captured by his beauty, defined features his
housing howdy mountain, that'd be like him, Allah describes him that every part of him all the time
home was extremely pronounced, that he was extremely strong and very defined, and his muscles were
very defined. So he was a strong man of the a lot of time. And they said that if you one of the, one
of the, the the books, mentions that his forearm was too big to be grabbed by two hands, because of
how strong he was, all the time. So he had an imposing physical presence. And then he had an
		

			incredible command of speech. And so when he spoke, he spoke in a very strong way. And everyone in
the room would naturally be silenced by the speech of her by that will be a lot of time, I know
because of how, how eloquent he was. So he he's really a person who has a presence will be a lot of
time, an imposing presence in a beautiful way, all the time. And as someone who has bed that he who
accompany the profits license, in the Battle of feathers throughout all his battles, and then
accompanied and led expeditions and armies under the hood of outwash, the dean,
		

			you know, his presence was not just felt, amongst the companions will be a lot of time as marine.
But there's a very particular incident where Avada leads the the first delegation under armed and
also the a lot of time, I'm going to Egypt to Muslim. And, as he is on his way, to or as he arrives
in Egypt, and this is the year 641 641, where the Muslims arrived in muscle. And this is within the
overall battles between the Byzantines and the Muslims at the time. And they are an army of money.
But in front of that army, there are 10 men that serve as a delegation to speak to the ruler of
Egypt at the time, and that is a man by the name of focus. So the Egyptian king or the Egyptian
		

			ruler, and without this is Hold up, and he comes out to meet this delegation that is representing
this large army of Muslims that have come and robanda all the time who steps forward as the leader
of this army, and
		

			This was not something that these people, again, this is this is a Roman installed leader, they
don't understand what they're seeing right now they don't get it. And it's really interesting
because, you know, of the very famous incident between the Vietnam War The allot of time, and
roustan and Persian like who is this guy, right, that speaks and says, We are people that in a lot
of times, and I know that he badminton about this, everybody knows about that the popularity that,
that we are people that have been sent to liberate people, from being slaves to other slaves to
being slaves to the Lord of all slaves, and from the construction of this world and lead the dounia
		

			from the construction of this world to the expanse of the of this life and the hereafter, and from
the injustice of all other systems to the justice of Islam. So, they articulate themselves
beautifully to describe Islam and encapsulate Islam well here, and we'll focus comes out this ruler
of Egypt, and he sees this large delegation of companions, this large army, and they're being led by
a very black man, right? A very black man. And so he sees rabada while they allow Thailand home, and
as robot the steps forward, and will hope this disrespects him in many ways. So first, he looks
around him, right to suggest this can't be the guy that's actually going to speak to me, right, this
		

			can't be your leader, who was sending, regardless of an assignment, or who's sending this man to
speak on their behalf, I want to see who the actual leader is. And so he looks around him and then
realizing that rabada about the law of Taiwan, who is actually the leader of this army, he says to
He says to him, he says, Do I need that he can ask what he said, Send this black men back, well, the
more later who you can leave money, and put forth someone else to speak to me put forth someone else
to speak to me. So every Do I need that he can us would take this black man away from me, and put
someone else forward to speak to me, I'm not even going to speak to him and he's speaking to the
		

			inferiors over about the to the summit, or the low tide, I'm in this regard, because he is the one
that is leading this delegation leading this army. And the response was from those other people in
the habit of laluna. Yeah, we're in that this person is the best of us in knowledge and wisdom. And
they said, and he is our leader, um, you know, he is our leader, and he is the best of us, and he's
been appointed over us. And he said that they responded, they said, we defer to him, both in terms
of opinion, and in terms of orders, in terms of taking orders, because he has been placed over us.
What in essence, whether when a viola and Anna Salah, and verily to us, to us, both black and whites
		

			are the same, no one is superior to the other except by their Deen, no one is superior or made more
noble in the sight of Allah, except by their religion, except by virtue of their of their piety, and
that's how we consider a person to be greater. And that's how we give people you know, the position
in our religion.
		

			Now, when they said that to my caucus, this is a, this is not normal to him. And so, and without
this, he speaks to the delegation once again, over Roboto. So he's still not even acknowledging the
presence of about a dozen assignments. And he says, How could you accept this black man to be the
best amongst you, where he should be the least amongst you? So this is a person that should be
considered the least amongst you. And he's speaking over Ababa, which is just inherent disrespect,
right? He's the one who's leading the delegation. And they respond and they say that, that even
though he is black, he is the best and status amongst us. He is the foremost amongst us and the
		

			wisest, and we do not deem blackness as something that is bad amongst us. So we don't see blackness
as an issue. We don't see it as something that detracts. So it's not that he's exceptional. You
know, even though he's black, he is exceptional, and his skin color does not matter. That's not how
we we judge in our religion and amongst our own amongst our peoples, how you're seeing these
concepts being floated in this conversation in canonical mirandola, Scotland's most noble of you in
the sight of God is the one who is most pious. So in my focus, he finally resigned himself to having
to speak to others of the psalmist after disrespecting him this way, after failing to even
		

			acknowledge his presence. And he says to him, come forward, oh, black men, and he said and speak
gently because your blackness
		

			scares me. And if you speak harshly, You'll scare me even more. So now he makes a racist insult
towards her about the assignment himself to his face addressing him directly about what the law of
Thailand Whoa, he comes forward and listen to what robot it says to him. robot is a smart man. And
he is he's using the moment to, to his advantage. So he says that I've heard what you said, I heard
everything that you just said about me and everything that you just said to the people around me.
And he responds, and he says, but if you're scared of me, in the female and her love to me, as hobby
alpha Rajan, as sweat could lose a shot, do salad and Mini, he said, Listen, I have left behind me,
		

			this army of 1000s of people behind me, there are 1000 men who are all as black as me. In fact,
they're blacker than me. And they'll scare you even more. So he's speaking to him, using the moment
to humiliate him and say, Look, I'm not the only black man that's here. I'm leading this army, but
there are 1000 men behind me, that are as black as me. And if you're scared of me, you're going to
be scared of them as well. And he said, But nevertheless, he said, I would not be scared, if 100 men
of my enemy would face me all at once. And he said, and the same is true for each one of them. You
know, each one of us is willing to fight 100 of you, each one of us is willing to fight 100 of you,
		

			I'm not scared about the, by the way at this point isn't, was an older man. So he, he acknowledges
he says, I'm, you know, My youth is gone. But I'll still fight as many of you as you put forward.
And he said, for our hope, and our desire to strive in the way of a loss of Hannah Montana, is to
strive in the way of a loss of power to Allah and to seek the pleasure of Allah. And then he
continues on about the law and who gives this long speech, and you could look it up, you know, the
speech between the robot and will focus, but he talks about how we are not a people who have who
fights out of the out of the desire to accumulate wealth were people that fight in the desire to
		

			please Allah, we're a people that do not care about how much gold is put forward about what spoils
are put forward were people that are fighting out of something that's more noble than this. And so
he immediately deters any element of focus, to try to buy him off, and to try to, to bribe him to
stop what is going to happen. And so and will help us as he hears the speech, or robots have an
assignment, and the power of those words, the integrity and the nobility of those words. He says to
him, he says to those that are around him, he says, how to submit to mithila kalami. How to cut he
says Macaca says to those that are the Byzantine commander is that Have you ever heard a person
		

			speak the way that this man is speaking? Have you ever heard a person speak the way that this man is
speaking? He says, Look at him tomorrow, he said, I was afraid of the way that he looks. When hola
hola However, in the mon body, he said, but what he said actually scares me more than how he looks.
I was alarmed by his looks, because he's a racist, right. And he put him down and he degraded him
and he tried to use that as an excuse. And he and he tried to demoralize the Muslims, and it didn't
work. And he said, but the words of Avada the words of about the capture me even further than the
then the scenes in the site have about a dozen assignments for the allot of time. The brothers and
		

			sisters I shared this incident with with us for many reasons. That it's not enough for us to simply
cling to the knowledge of the world and the one or two stories of the world and to say that Islam
has done away with these things. It has to be a shift in mindset. It has to be a shift from within
the community. And so listen carefully. Listen carefully, to the experiences that people have had in
the community, particularly black people have had in the community of racism, listen carefully to
what we need to do as a Muslim community to live true to our Islam because the only way that we can
give Islam to the world as a solution is if we are applying Islam as a solution to racism within our
		

			community right now. And that's actually the point is that regardless of Islam, it was not speaking
to the resentment of those that were behind him. The people behind Obama spoke on his behalf
repelling the racism that was being thrown at forgot little the longtime robot that did not have to
highlight what Islam had done to to bring it back.
		

			Quality and to bring justice are about little the allot of time who stood there in his full earned
nobility and dignity while the other companions came forward and the others made it a point to say
this is what Islam has done for us. This is how the words of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, as he was giving his last farewell address and the prophets lie Selim mentioned that there's
no superiority of an Arab over a non Arab or vice versa no superiority of a white man or a black man
or vice versa.
		

			This is how it penetrated our hearts. This is how economical Mengele he that's often that the most
noble of you in the sight of God, as the most pious has actually penetrated our behaviors. This is
how things have shifted for us. And so when we, you know, post empty quotes to the world, when we
use Malcolm's words from hedge while ignoring Malcolm's politics, post Hajj and Malcolm, please and
cause post Hajj as well, when we, when we put out their Islam as a solution to the world. But we are
not living that solution within our Muslim community, then we have to ask ourselves, why and what do
we do better? What do we do better? And so no amount of conversation is going to change that unless
		

			our hearts are open to those conversations and we start asking ourselves, you know, how do I
contribute in the night to Allah to living that reality that we see here from the companions of the
Prophet sallallahu Sallam as a result of the presence of the prophets lie Selim, we have the message
of Mohammed, peace be upon him, so why some amongst us, and that message should have that same
effect on us in the night. And so we pray that a lot. We pray that a lot expel this disease of
racism and all of its political, social, cultural, theological manifestations, we pray that it be
expelled from our massages, we pray that it be expelled from our community lives, we pray that it
		

			expelled, that would be expelled from our family lives, we pray that it'd be expelled from our
systems, we pray that it be expelled in all of its monstrosity in the most meaningful way, and that
we are able to usher in the Mohammedan spirit that way of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
that transformed his community first to our own community to live that, that that way of the
prophets of Allah Han he was settled on and then to bring that to the world around us as well a lot.
I mean, there's often a lot of hate on the lawn or southern that being hammered while the heat will
certainly drain. So now, Michael