Yasir Khan – Weekly Seerah Session The Year of Grief Visit to Taif
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AI: Transcript ©
The point in Sira where the prophet
is
going through a lot of difficulties,
but, you know, it's all the test of
Allah
He wants to see how much you can
handle.
And the prophet is
about to go through the hardest year of
his life.
Later on, when everything got kind of settled
down in Madinah,
Aisha
asked the prophet
she said,
what was the hardest day of your life?
Was it the battle of Uhud?
And the prophet
said, no. It was what
the people
of Ta'if did to the prophet
and today we're gonna be going over that.
Last week we covered we reviewed about the
acceptance
of the Islam of,
Umar
and Hamza
and thereafter we started to talk about
the boycott.
The boycott that was so torturous and oppressive.
Just like we see in today's time, sanctions
being done,
oppression, and why can't anybody talk about it,
why can't anybody say anything about it. Same
thing, it went on for 3 years.
Today,
a lot of people lose,
hope in the situation of and say it's
been going on for 6 months, 7 months,
8 months. The boycott against the the Banu
Hashim at the time of the prophet
lasted for 2 to 3 years,
and after all of that,
it came to an end, but it had
weakened Abu Talib,
the uncle of the Prophet
to such an extent,
that as soon
as it ends 6 months later, Abu Talib
passes away,
Because he's old in age and now he's
going through this mental torture
of his people screaming out of hunger,
and all of that is happening because he
is protecting
his beloved nephew.
Imagine you're put in a situation
where you have most beloved person to you
that you have to take care of, but
at the same time you're put under pressure
by all the people around you to do
something.
This is what Abu Talib was facing.
He was always worrying that one day he'll
wake up and the prophet
would be no longer there.
He was he would tell the prophet
you don't sleep on your bed. You go
sleep on one of your cousins, one of
my sons' beds. Let one of my sons
sleep on your on your bed. We don't
want anybody to try to do anything to
you. And as the prophet
is seeing all of his efforts, the efforts
of his uncle for him,
the only thing he could wish for
is that his uncle recites,
And at the time when he's about to
die,
he goes to him and he whispers,
please my uncle,
just recite it once
and I will, you know,
I will ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in
the hereafter
for to do shafa'a for you. To ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he recited it.
Just please just once recite it.
That's why
we don't recognize the blessing of Islam.
We don't recognize the blessing of Islam
that the most beloved person, the person who
took care of the Prophet
more than anybody else who can,
he is dying without this kalimah,
and you and I received it.
And why
is he not able to do it? Because
at the time when he was about to
utter the words, he was about to say,
what happens?
Abu Jahan, Abu Sufyan, and all the leaders,
they're like,
Are you gonna leave the way of your
forefathers?
And simply because of peer pressure,
he was not able to recite
Simply because of peer pressure, social pressure,
he was, you know,
he made a decision
that there's no way to come out of,
simply because of that. And that's why it's
so crucial for us to understand
the people that we need to be surrounded
by,
the people that we call friends,
the people that we are influenced by so
that this way they influence us towards something
good, not influence us towards something bad.
That is something we need to really really
keep in mind. I know so many people
who have left
amazing decisions in their life. Why? Because of
social pressures.
I know some people,
they had the best come for their wife,
for their daughter. The best
But
they'll say, no, why? Because people oh,
he's married from this scribe or from this
poem or from this.
Know the best people who were able to
go and study Din, but the parents wouldn't
allow. Why? Because people, oh,
he went on to become this, he went
on to become that.
I know the best people who are able
to go and dedicate themselves to deen, but
because of social pressure,
because of social pressure, and even today we
have to recognize
that even today
people some people are ready to accept Islam,
but they're not able to just because of
that social pressure.
You and I, we don't have to go
to social pressure
when it comes to our deen,
but other decisions
other decisions,
whether it's decisions about our children or it
is decisions of ourselves,
if we are not surrounded by the right
group of people,
we will make the wrong decisions. We will
regret it.
We will do it because this person will
say this and this person will say that.
And we forget the hadith of the prophet
that whoever chooses to please Allah,
the people will automatically become happy with him.
And whoever chooses to anger Allah,
the people will automatically become angry with him.
Today you tell me, the people that Abu
Talib
was afraid of their pressure, what did they
do to him? What did they do for
him?
Did Abu Lahab do anything for him? Did
Abu Jahal do anything for him? Did Utbah
do anything for him? Did Abu Sufyan do
anything for him? No one.
But if he just recited
whispered it in the ears of the prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam, that would have been
his ticket to Jannah.
So it is for us to also recognize
that we need to choose the right company.
Even like this past week, my
whole entire
was about company because the prophet
says,
that every single person he follows the religion,
the ways of his friends.
And so when it comes to our friends,
even just 2 days ago, one person came
to me student, he came to me, wanted
to talk to me. Not a student in
our institution. He was in another institution and,
you know, he needed some scholar to speak
to. He came and started to speak to
me and he says,
you know, I was doing so good and
I was this, but I got caught with
this group. And because of this group, I
did this. And because of this group, I
did that. And because of this group, I
did that.
And he's reminiscing about all the different mistakes
he did. But, you know, you you you
you start to think that, yes, you can
say that, but in the hereafter, you cannot
blame anyone but yourself.
Before Abu Talib, Khadija radiAllahu anha passes away.
When Khadija radiAllahu anha passes away, the one
person the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam finds
peace and comforts him, she passes away. Abu
Talib passes away, the person who gives him
support, security and all of that, he passes
away. Now what?
Now it says that the whole world has
become dark on him. Nobody is there to
support him.
What is he going to do now? Is
this the time he's going to give up?
Is this the time where he's like, that's
it, I can't do it anymore?
And we all go through situations like that
in our life. We go through pressure and
pressure and pressure, but is it that a
time comes when we just give up and
we're like, we can't do it anymore?
Well, we see over here the prophet
recognizes
that it is too much for him
to keep on trying, trying and nothing is
happening, so he decides to go to Taif.
And Taif is how far?
Taif is how far?
Taif
is 60 miles.
Sixty miles.
I was teaching this the other day to
the kids and I told them that it
is further than us going from here all
the way to by walk.
It is more further than that. Imagine walking
all the way there.
One time we did a challenge with the
students. We actually walked from Arlington all the
way to Irving Masjid.
They were telling me that I can't walk.
So I was like, okay. Let's do a
challenge.
It's what? Like, I think 15 or so
miles.
15 miles. So we left around 3 o'clock.
Was coming over here. So I said, okay.
Who's ready to walk with me? And I
think about 3 or 4 students got ready.
We left around that time, and we made
it here for his bayan. We walked all
the way. It was quite a journey. But,
kayr, that was about 15 miles. The prophet
is walking 60 miles
to go and he has this hope that
maybe these people will accept Islam.
He's working hard and hard and hard and
finally he reaches, and he goes to the
the leaders over there. He goes to Abdi
Ali,
and he goes to Mas'ud, and he goes
to Arwa. These are the 3 leaders. He
says, please, can you guys accept Islam?
One of them is like, Allah couldn't find
anybody better than you?
One of them is like, if Allah chose
you, I'm gonna go and rip out the
Kaaba's cloth.
And one is like, listen, I'm just not
even gonna talk to you. It's better not
to talk to you because if you're actually
a prophet then I'm in trouble. And if
you're not a prophet then it's you're not
worth me talking to.
These are the responses the prophet
gets. After trying so much
and realizing that they're not going to accept
anymore,
he says, okay. Don't accept, but please don't
tell people.
Don't just keep just keep it a private
thing between you and I.
And then the prophet
stays there calling people towards Islam and calling
people.
Nobody's really listening.
The leaders get up and they go and
they tell the children. They said, this person
is crazy. Go take out rocks and go
start stoning him with rocks.
And the prophet
is running
and all of the children are running.
And his
his his freed slave,
Zaydum
is with him and he's protecting the prophet
with his own body.
He's protecting with his own body
to the point where his head becomes wounded
in multiple places.
And
the prophet
is running and running and running and he's
not even realizing
where he reached, where he finally reaches one
place and he looks that he's sitting under
a a a a a the the the
the shade of a grape tree.
And he's at this point,
you know, just exhausted exhausted.
And from far away, 2 guys from the
leaders of Makkah, they see him,
and they actually feel bad for him.
Even they feel they are the enemies, but
even they feel bad.
At this point, Jibreel alayhi salam comes to
the prophet
and says, oh prophet of allulah,
we see what happened to you. Here are
the 2 angels, the angels of the mountains,
they're here. They say salaam to the prophet
They say, oh prophet of Allah, if today
you want these 2 mountains of Makkah, the
Akshabein,
we will get these 2 mountains and we
will smash the city of Ta'if in it.
And the prophet
says, no.
I don't want you to do that. Because
perhaps somebody from this cone
will get up, will accept Islam
and perhaps
that will become the means of their hidayah.
And later on we see the people who
were the person who went and conquered and
gave, you know, Dawah in the land of
Hind, the land of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, all
of these area was Muhammad ibn Qasim who
was from Taif.
And so this was
the eagerness of the Prophet for
the that he said, no. Don't crush don't
crush them.
As the 2 guys, the rich guys, when
they see the Prophet
they see
him. They send one of their servants, his
name is Adas, he's a Christian.
He tells them, he's like, here's some grape,
go take this to him.
They bring the grape to the prophet salallahu
alaihi wasalam and before the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasalam starts,
he starts and says
When Adas hears this
when Adas hears this, he's shocked.
He's like, what are these words that you're
uttering? I've never heard these names from the
people over here.
And he said that
this is Islam and these are the names
of Allah.
He asked Adas, where are you from? He
said, I'm from a place called Niwa.
Said, Niwa, that's the city of my brother,
my brother Yunus alaihis salam. He's like, how
do you know Yunus alaihi salam?
He's like, because he was a prophet and
he did this and this. Adas radiallahu anhu
goes down and starts kissing the hands and
the feet of the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam.
He starts kissing the feet of the
prophet He believes and at that time,
his two masters,
they realize that has been changed.
When they go,
they tell
don't leave your religion for the religion of
this person.
Like, look at this
Is on the religion of these two people?
No.
But simply
they just don't want Islam to grow.
Because whether Adas is a Christian or he's
a Muslim, what difference does it make to
somebody who's a who's a mushrik?
It doesn't make any difference whatsoever.
He's like, Adas, don't
your religion is far better. Don't listen to
this guy.
But
this was the journey of the prophet
When the prophet
when he's running and running and he's exhausted,
and he sits down,
at that point,
let's say you try your best and you
get exhausted and you get tortured, what do
you say?
You Allah, why this? You Allah, when are
you gonna send help? You Allah, what do
you want me to do? But you know
what the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did?
He starts to make dua.
Allah
You Allah,
I ask you about the weakness of my
strength.
And the the the the You know, I
don't have enough ways to go and give
the I don't have anything. I'm asking you
because of my weakness.
You Allah,
you help me.
You are the lord of the weak ones.
You help me, You Allah.
Today, if I know
that you are not angry with me, You
Allah,
I am happy.
If you're not angry with me,
I am happy. That's all I want.
This is the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
This is at the time of the most
toward the
the even he says later on in Medina
that this was the toughest day of his
life.
This was more severe for him than on
that day when his tooth broke, when there
was blood coming out of his cheek, when
his uncle passed away, when his Sahaba passed
away, when they had to retreat, when they
were under the anxiety that today they're going
to annihilate Islam.
This day was worse, the day of Taif
was worse than the day that I just
explained.
And what is the prophet saying?
Allah
I am asking I I am complaining about
the weakness of my own strength.
It's me. The problem is with me.
He's not saying, Allah, the problem is from
your side.
This is how we develop a relationship with
Allah
You know,
if I could summarize
Seera
in a few words
and if you can leave with this,
I think it is sufficient.
Seera
is your relationship with Allah.
If you can go and develop a relationship
with Allah
to where you are pouring your heart out,
you're having your
and reliance on Allah
You have gained something from the Sira.
You have learned something.
Sira is to know how to love Allah
and how
to humble yourself in front of Allah
and how to rely on him and how
to have hope in him.
All of these are things that has to
do with with Allah
The
people who got up in the middle of
the night, or the people who are in
some strength,
the people who have tasted
the sweetness
of the warm tears,
of the love or the fear of Allah
flowing down their cheeks,
they will tell you that that is the
sweetest moment of their life. Nothing compares to
that.
That is the most fulfilling moment of your
life is when you have the warm tears
out of the love or the fear of
Allah
flowing down your cheeks. You will never find
a moment sweeter than that.
That is what we need to understand.
When we tire ourselves,
tire ourselves and then we pick up our
hands
and ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
you forgive us. You Allah, you guide us.
We make those type of things, That's what
we need from the seerah of the prophet
understand
that Allah
does not let
any effort go to waste when the prophet
now decides
that now I have to go back
to Makkah.
At this point, his
adopted son, his freed slave, Asim Zaydub Nuharita,
O Prophet of Allah,
how are we gonna go back to Makkah
when they have kicked us out? The prophet
what does he say? Allah will make a
way out for us. Allah will make a
way for us. Don't worry.
And they proceed.
As they're proceeding, subhanallah,
look 60 miles of walk
and the torture
and the humiliation
and all of that, and guess what? And
they're in the middle of the desert. Guess
what the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is
doing in the middle of the night?
Guess what he's doing in the middle of
the night?
He's getting up for
to pray.
He's getting up for
to pray,
and at this moment, Allah
sends a group of jinn.
And the jinn said that we have heard
you recite in the Quran
and we are here to accept Islam.
And that was the first time a group
of jinn came to accept Islam and thereafter
many times the jinns came and accepted Islam,
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
But you see, the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam is making effort.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala here wants to show
him your efforts are not going to waste.
Maybe it's not going to the people that
you're targeting but it's going somewhere else, so
don't you worry.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is showing to him
that today, a group of jinns are coming,
a day is gonna come where other people
will come to you and accept Islam as
well. So be hopeful.
So we also need to learn
in the time of strength, in the time
of weakness,
in the time of gain, in the time
of loss,
in the time of happiness, in the time
of loss,
in the time of sadness?
How can we turn to Allah
and pour our hearts
pour our hearts?
Today,
everybody should go with one thing.
Go and reflect over the incident of As
you guys know, we cover the in a
very brief way here. We don't go into
too much details.
But go and reflect over the incident of
and go and see how you can pour
your heart to Allah
How you can go and memorize the dua
of the prophet of Allah alaihi wasallam. Allah
I am complaining to you of the weakness
of my strength.
And this is how we develop a relationship
with the prophet and
with Allah
As they get close to Makkah from Ta'if,
the prophet
sends somebody
to go and speak to Akhmat Subnishurair,
one of the leaders of the Quraysh, and
tell him, hey,
can you please give me protection that if
I enter into Makkah, then nobody's gonna harm
me.
And
is like, I'm not gonna do that.
He goes and asks somebody else.
He asked
He said, can you please give me protection?
He's like, I'm sorry. I cannot give you
protection. Just imagine the situation he's in.
And then he asked Mutin mumu Adi,
and he said, can you please give me
protection?
And Mutin mumu Adi, even though he did
not pass away as a Muslim,
he said, yes. I will give you protection.
And he told all his sons to come
out
and have your weaponry with you, and Muhammad
is gonna come and make ilan, make an
announcement that nobody is allowed
to do anything to Muhammad because I am
protecting him today. The prophet
goes on, and Mutaimun Adi with his son
is standing there
until he enters into his house.
The prophet
never forgot the favor of anyone.
He remembered at the time of Badr,
when they had the prisoners
at the time of Badr,
he said that if Mutaim Abu Nuadhi was
alive today and he was to ask me
to free these people, I would have done
it.
I would have done it. I remember his
favor.
This is now bringing us to one of
the last years in Makkah,
because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam tried with
his closest people, with the further away people.
He tried away with different
tribe. His uncle passed away. His wife passed
away. When his wife passed away, some companions
say, we remember.
When his wife passed away, we did not
see
the prophet
laugh for months.
He would just be sitting there with so
much grief, so much pain,
so much grief and so much pain. He
loved Khadija radiAllahu anha so much
that he would always talk about her. He
would talk about her so much so much
that one day,
Aisha radiAllahu
anha is like,
Allah has blessed you with a nice young
wife. Why do you keep on bringing her
up?
Right? She's referring to herself. I'm here. I'm
your wife. Why you keep on bringing her
up? And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam got
so angry that his face turned red.
Like, what do you want me to do
if Allah put her love in my heart?
What do you want me to do when
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given me all
my children through her? What do you want
me to do when I remember that nobody
accepted me and she was the one to
accept me?
Nobody was able to support me and she
was there to support me.
This is the person who just left his
life.
Abu
Talib, he would sacrifice his own son
to protect the prophet
He just passed away.
The Quraysh
are doing anything in their capacity
to get rid of him.
The people of Taif are not ready.
This is all the situation he's going through,
and he's still waking up for tahajjud.
He's still asking Allah,
please don't be angry with me. Please don't
be angry with me.
Like, we would be like, I'm angry with
you.
But he's asking, Allah, you Allah, please don't
be angry with me.
This is the taluk of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala that all of us need to learn.
This is the relationship with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala that all of us need to learn.
As the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam goes,
he got a little bit more upliftment
and a little bit more encouragement
from the jinns accepting Islam.
And so he's like, now I'm gonna continue
to call towards Allah. And the next step
that he's going to take is that as
people come for Hajj, the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam will go and start to call them
towards Islam,
and this will start to make way towards
planting the seeds for Madinah. So inshallah, 1,
2 more sessions in Makkah, and then after
that, we will start the Madinah session inshallah.
May
Allah give us the ability to understand the
Sira and all of the sunnah of the
prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam. Allow us to implement
it and develop the love for Allah and
his prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam.