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