Tesneem Alkiek – Inspirational Muslim Women #09 Zobaida bint Jaafar
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the story of Zubay Chobana Chobana, the wife of the famous Khalifa. She was given the nickname "by the way" by her grandfather and later given the name "by the way" to reflect her lineage as the granddaughter of the Khalifa. She later went to work in construction of wells and water reservoirs for Hajjaj or pilgrims and eventually faced the drought and poor water supply. She also had a large amount of money spent on a project to improve water supply throughout the Mecca area and deepen the Zam bounding walls. She was also known for memorizing the Quran and spending on a regular basis on the poor and needy.
AI: Summary ©
Assalamu alaikum Warahmatullahi Waikatooh, and welcome back to
another episode of Sayi Dati.
Today, I want to discuss the story of
Zubaydah Bint Jafar ibn Mansur
who is the wife of the famous Harun
al Rashid during that Basit Khalifa.
For those of you who might be familiar
with her story or not her real name
was actually Ahmed Razi's and she was later
given the Kunya or Agmen of Umni Jafar
to reflect her lineage as the granddaughter of
the Khalifa Ujjafar al Mansur.
As for her name, Subaydah,
it was actually a nickname she received from
her grandfather when she was a child.
Fun fact, if you know Arabic, you might
be familiar with the term which means oil
or butter. And
is the form of
so her name literally means like little butter,
which is really cute and a great conversation
starter for those of you who know or
meet a Zubaydah.
Anyways back to our main story so Zubaydah's
father Ja'far was a half father to the
then sitting abbaas of harif al Mahdi she
married her cousin Harun in 165 Hijri when
Al Mahdi's caliphate was in Baghdad and she
soon gave birth to her son Al Amin
who would eventually become Khalifa for some time
as for her personality,
one author described her as among the greatest
women of our time in terms of her
religion, heritage, beauty, eloquence,
mind and her cultural competence.
Talk about a rounded personality.
Her literary and grammar knowledge was so impressive
that once when one of her workers presented
her with a book to read,
she read it all and told him to
fix the mistake.
Now as you can imagine, she only hired
the best of workers to start off with
so the mind was sort of you know
taken aback.
What mistake could I have possibly made?
So he went through it over and over
again and he couldn't find anything.
And then finally, he requested the help of
other experts in the field and they pointed
out this one Dua he wrote slightly incorrectly
in the entire
book. So of course he fixed it and
immediately returned it to beta, but really the
whole incident just goes to show her sharp
perceptiveness
and acute grasp in the field
now what she's most usually renowned for is
her construction of wells and other water reservoirs
for Hajjaj
or pilgrims along the route from Baghdad to
Makkal Madira which are still present till today
and were renamed in her honor as Darbiz
Zubaydah
the reason she took this project upon herself
was a result of her own experience
during her 5th pilgrimage to Mecca in 186
Hijdi
upon her route, she noticed that the drought
that was occurring at the time was so
devastating that even the Zamzam wall was down
to a trickle of water
In order for more Zamzem to be retrieved,
she called her treasurer and asked him to
gather all the engineers and workers from around
the land to improve the water supply throughout
Mecca and the surrounding areas
as well as deepening the Zamzem walls in
order to increase their water supply.
At her request, the workers hesitated and informs
Raya that her plans were kind of enormous
and would cost a large sum of money
yet she persisted in her demand and offered
to pay any amount needed to get the
job done. Her generosity wasn't limited here either.
She was also known for spending on a
regular basis on the poor and needy.
One of my favorite facts about Zubaydah was
that she had 100 maids who were memorizing
the Quran.
If you've ever heard someone reviewing or memorizing
the Quran, it's kind of an entertaining sight.
I for 1 pace around my room endlessly
murmuring and you can always find that one
little boy or girl in the masjid sitting
on the floor rocking back and forth reciting
under the breath
and you can hear the murmuring.
But what's even more interesting is when there's
a whole bunch of people doing it at
the exact same time.
So here you had a 100 of her
maids memorizing together
and the sound of the recitation was so
captivating that her palace was described as a
beehive
because it constantly sounded like a 100 bees
were buzzing.
I
mean that's a lot of bedikah right there,
what an environment to be in. My respect
for Zebaida stems for her concern of others.
When she went to Khalei Hajj as the
wife of the Khalifa,
no doubt she had plenty of water to
suffice herself. In fact, she probably could have
arranged for all the travelers in sight to
be granted water as well. But she had
a bigger picture in mind.
Not only did she want to help the
pilgrims of that year, but she wanted to
ensure that no Hajjaj would face this problem
again.
And so she dedicated her time and her
money in making sure this project was successfully
carried out.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala allowed for her work
to be established and remain until today.
Can you imagine the number of good deeds
Zubayla receives every time a thirsty pilgrim quenches
his or her thirst on their way to
worship Allah Subhayla?
Now think about your own community and the
challenges they might face. Is there an older
Khana or uncle who always needs help grabbing
a chair when they come to sit for
Jannah?
Does the city you live in have refugees,
homeless people, or others in need of help?
Identify the issues in your community and think
of creative ways for solutions.
Tag team with a friend before or every
Friday to make their make sure that there
are chairs set up in the prayer hall.
Organize a clothing or furniture donation drive local
members of your community in need.
What my husband and I like to do
is keep a whole bunch of food gift
cards in our cars so anytime we see
a homeless person, we can offer them a
meal for the day.
Take time to reflect on your own challenges
and remember the reward you'll get every time
the little girl you donated just to smiles
and happiness.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala put barakah and
blessings in our efforts, and maybe he reward
us for simply sincerely trying.
I mean,