Sadullah Khan – Courtesy of Listening
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Among the most basic of all human social
needs
is the need and the desire to understand,
and more importantly to be understood.
And the best way to understand people is
to listen to them.
And listening
is, of course, an essential element
for effective communication.
After all,
listening attentively,
and responding appropriately
is the basis
for good conversation.
And also,
it's the foundation for
respectful communication.
Do remember though,
listening is a simple task,
but it is a complex skill.
That's why very few people really listen.
Very few people
really listen.
And therefore, we don't always get
what the speaker intended.
And therefore, very often, our responses are not
always appropriate.
So it's a simple task, listening simple task.
But it's a complex skill.
Because
it involves hearing attentively,
with a desire to truly understand what the
person is saying.
And
if you were to respond,
that you would respond in the most appropriate
manner.
Now as we continue
our series,
duroosh amikah minasiratin
Nabawiyah.
Profound lessons from the life of the prophet
Muhammad
We reflect on an incident
that indicates the prophet's attentiveness
in listening even to those
who may be opposed to him.
We don't even listen to our own parents,
or our own children, or or friends, or
workmates.
But here the prophet's attentiveness
even to someone who oppose him.
Early in the mission of Rasulullah
at a time when preaching the message of
Islam was increasingly
difficult,
and where opposition
to Islam was also on the rise in
Makkah at that time.
In that period,
the Quraysh felt it necessary
to send someone to seriously speak to Prophet.
It's he's their cousin of course, he was
also of the Quraysh, his uncles were in
charge, many of them.
And they wanted to
ask him to stop his preaching of his
message.
And they formally counsel, a group of people
who decide,
first of all, to try and stop him
but also to analyze,
is he, why is he
attacking so many people?
Like,
is he a poet maybe, a shayid? Is
there poetry in what he does? Is he
a magician maybe? A sahir?
Is he a sorcerer, a kind?
Or is he just making rambling of things
that bamboozles people? Maybe he's majjoonu 'Abdu Bilillah.
Maybe he's not mentally
sound.
So they identified a person by the name
of Ubba bin Rabi'ah.
Who was a leader of the Quraysh.
He was the father of Hind, bin Utba,
the one who chewed the liver of Hamza.
And of course the father-in-law,
Abu Sufyan. Hind was the wife of Abu
Sufyan.
And this 'udba' bin Rabii'ah was an extremely
wealthy man, leader among the Quraysh.
Politically influential,
internationally well connected,
well traveled. In fact, he had stood and
spoken in the courts of the major kings
and rulers of that time. He spoke in
the courts of the Roman emperor at that
time and even the Abyssinian king in Ethiopia.
So he's a man of
distinction.
So Othba
was commissioned by this group to speak to
the prophet to try to subdue him
and also to check out
is there something wrong? Or is he a
poet? Is he a magician? What is he
doing? So Utba arranged to meet the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasallam made the Kaaba
to convey the concerns that the Quraysh had
about this Islam that he brought. For example,
one of the things.
Islam was a religion preaching against the idols.
Now
people from all over Arabia came to worship
the idols at the Kaaba.
That gave the Quraysh prestige. It gave them
honor. It gave them political clout.
It brought a source of revenue for them.
People came to Makkah for that.
Now this islam was affecting their religion.
More than that, affecting their politics. And most
of all, affecting their revenue.
So Ubba
engaged the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam at the
Kaaba. He warned the prophet
The Quraysh may take up their sword against
you. They may fight you.
Now this is the part. And the books
of Sira documents,
Muhammad
The prophet listened to Utba very carefully
without interrupting him once.
Without
interrupting him once.
And he gave Utba all the attention till
Utba had completed what he wanted to say.
The prophet then asked him,
Are you now done, oh father of Walid?
For
Audba.
Are you finished? Do you say what you
wanna say? So Audba said, no I'm
I'm done.
Then the prophet said, first
it's okay, now you listen to me.
Audba had to say yes because the prophet
listened to him very attentively. He didn't interrupt
it.
And now the prophet said, Will you listen
to me? He said, Okay.
And the prophet said,
This is the revelation for the most compassionate,
the eternally merciful.
A book whose verses are well expounded
in pure Arabic recitation
for those
who know.
Conveying good news and admonition,
yet most of the people have turned away
from it without really listening to it.
Most of the people
have turned away from it for
own.
Just listen to him. And the ayah where
he ends it, and people don't listen to
what the Quran is saying.
The prophet did not go into some kind
of argument,
insulting him, you mushrik, you kafir. Which we
would do nowadays.
Or undermine his question. Who are you to
question me? What kind of question is this?
The prophet responded with the best proof. They
wanted to know what was he really preaching.
So he didn't say anything. He read the
Qur'anic verse. He read from Surah Fusilat.
And
this response
stunned Audubah.
When Audubah returned to his people, he's also
eloquent, he's a leader, he's met kings by
the way, he traveled all over the world.
He's not some disorderly guy from Makkah, he's
a big boy.
He's at the top branch.
So he goes back to his people and
he reports to them and he says,
By God, I have heard something today the
like of which I never heard before.
I've heard something today the like of which
I never heard before.
By God, I swear I swear, this is
neither poetry
nor sorcery, nor a touch of magic.
From this incident,
we learn
to listen carefully
to what is being said before responding.
Otherwise,
you may not know exactly what you're responding
to.
Remember,
respect also begets respect.
If you do not have the decency to
listen to others,
how can you demand the right to be
heard yourself?
So, listen carefully.
Respond
appropriately.
That is the art of effective communication.
And this was exemplified
in this incident
of our beloved Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, with an opponent
who came to check him out.