Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
The sign of the believers, brothers, is they believe in the unseen. يؤمنون بالغيب You believe in things that you haven't seen. That's the sign of Iman.
My brothers and sisters, we were in the seerah of our beloved messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم and we were speaking about تعنّت قريش وطلبهم الآيات والمعجزات قفار القريش, قفار القريش, they requested from the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم signs. They said if you do these things for us and if you do these things for us we will believe in you. We spoke about the discussion and the dialogue that took place between our beloved messenger and them.
Today we're going to talk about why did Allah سبحانه وتعالى not give them what they asked for? Why were they not given it? The hikmah, the wisdom في أنهم لم يجابوا لما طلبوا what they requested for wasn't given to them. الإمام أحمد بن محمد بن حنبل رحمه الله إمام أهل السنة والجماعة he mentions in his musnad and also الإمام أبو عبد الله الحاكم النيسابوري mentions in his مستدرك على شرط الشيخين on the conditions of Bukhari and Muslim which is the case, it's authentic that عبد الله بن عباس رضي الله تعالى عنهما he said سأل أهل مكة the people of Mecca they asked the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم أن يجعل لهم الصفى ذهبا that he makes the mountain of صفى gold.
They wanted Allah to move from them the mountains. As you would know, Mecca is a city that's full of mountains, right? It's a lot of mountains. So they said to the prophet we want two things from you. Right? Number one, mountain the mountain of صفى make you all of gold for us so we get money. And by the way, brothers and sisters, gold is one of those things through its human history it's always been seen with value. Gold has always had intrinsic value. We can't say the same for bitcoin, can we? Like gold has always had intrinsic value; its value is very high.
So because there's so many things you can do with gold, even if you don't sell it, you can beautify yourself with it. It's something that lasts for too long; it's something you can decorate your houses with. At that time, of course, they used to drink from it, cups, plates, all of that. Even now, as you broke your tooth and you put in any other, it might rot in it; gold won't rot, for example. And it has so much value in it which put it up. So they said we want صفى to be ذهب.
The other thing that we have is we're from a land where there are so many mountains, so we want Allah to move all of these mountains for us. They didn't have what today we have in terms of the ability to crush down mountains, and even that's a very hard construction work, right? To crush mountains and then start to build roads inside it. Mecca really struggles with that. I remember a few years back a conversation with one of the highest construction companies who were telling me, subhanallah, sometimes it took them to crush a mountain 10 years to make roads and things from it. Very hard and it's very tough, and the mountains of Mecca are very, very strong.
عَلَىٰ كُلِّن, tell your Lord to crush all of these mountains and not only that to change this type of land that we have, make it vegetations and all of that. The Messenger ﷺ of course he wanted that to happen because he wanted to show them that he's a Nabi from the Anbiya of Allah. So he wanted this to take place. Allah ﷻ informed Nabila Muhammad, he said listen there are two options here: I give them what they want, but if they don't believe in you, I will destroy them like I destroyed the previous nations, or I don't give them what they want and they don't get punished.
Nabila Muhammad cared about his people, and so he said my Lord don't give them what they want because you're going to destroy them after that. And this is the hikmah; he never gave them what they wanted because why? The sign of the believers, brothers, is they believe in the unseen يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ. You believe in things that you haven't seen; that's the sign of Iman.
و لذلك there's this statement that we use very often and we use it very lightly, but we tend to forget that it's very dangerous to say it. We say seeing is believing, right? Seeing is believing that is a bit problematic because we believe things we don't see. صح? So be very careful when we say these words; it could have a very bad meaning in it. We believe one of the signs of the Mu'min is we believe in Jannah; we haven't seen it. We believe in the Prophet and we never saw him. We believe in Nahr; we haven't seen it. We're all together, brothers.
So Allah mentioned that, and also Allah even mentioned in the ayah وَمَا مَنَعَنَا أَن نُرْسِلَ بِالْآيَاتِ إِلَّا أَن كَذَّبَ بِهَا الْمُرْسَلُونَ. الله تبارك وتعالى إِلَّا أَن كَذَّبَ بِهَا الْأَوَّلُونَ وَآتَيْنَا ثَبُودًا نَاقَةً مُبَصِرَةً. Allah mentions that we did not give them what they wanted; we prevented them from what they wanted. The reason why it was prevented from them was the hikmah that we just mentioned is because if they get given what they wanted, it is no longer believing in the unseen. And now if they reject it, they will be destroyed, and this is the sunnah of Allah لا تتبدل ولا تتغير; it doesn't change and it doesn't alter over time.
Ibn Kathirah rahimahullah, he's one of the great scholars; he's a student of Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah. Ibn Kathir says listen to this: he said وَلِهَذَا قَتَضَتِ الْحِكْمَةِ Allah's infinite wisdom has become has always been وَالرَّحْمَةُ الرَّبَّانِيَّةِ and also Allah's mercy has been أَن لَا يُجَابُوا إِلَى مَا سَأَلُوا that they do not give; Allah doesn't give them what they ask for. Generally, generally speaking, when they ask for all of these things from their prophets, they don't get given what they ask for لِأَنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى because Allah knows عَلِمَ أَنَّهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ. Allah knows that they won't believe بِذَلِكَ فَيُعَاجِلَهُمْ بِالْعَذَابِ so that it will then be a punishment that comes fast.
But some nations, there are exceptions; they were given what they asked for and they rejected it, and the punishment came right after it. This teaches us something very important, which is, brothers and sisters, the purpose of why these people, the reason why these people were even asking for these things was تَعَلُّت. Sometimes people ask you things to want to know; they ask you things because they genuinely want to reach the truth.
I give you an example: Abdullah ibn Salam was a Jew man. He was a Jew man, and he was not only a Jew man; he was from the most knowledgeable of the Jews of Medina, a well-read scholar. Abdullah ibn Salam came to the Prophet and he said when he heard everybody running to the Messenger, he sat with him and he said I'm going to ask you three questions. The answer to these three questions no one knows unless only a Prophet would know it. Three questions only a Prophet would know the answer to these questions. If you answer these questions, three questions for me, I promise you I will believe in you. Take my word for it.
He put his three questions forward to the Prophet a.s. Who knows what the three questions were? The first question he asked was what is the sign from the signs of the hour? The first sign I want to know, what's the first علامة من أشراط الساعة? Tell me. The second question I have is what is the first meal that the people of Jannah are going to eat? The third question is the child when does it resemble the father and when does it resemble the mother? All of those three questions, the Prophet answered. As soon as he answered it, he said أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله و أشهد أن محمد رسول الله.
Back in those days, they didn't have to say و أشهد أن محمد رسول الله; they could just say و أشهد أنك رسول الله. I bear witness that you are the messenger sent from Allah. Then he said يا رسول الله, the Jews are liars. The people I am from, they are liars. This is their character; this is their trait. So if they find out that I have embraced Islam, they are going to say the worst thing about me. So, message of Allah, let them come to you, ask them about me, and then tell them I have embraced Islam.
The Prophet said ok. Abdullah ibn Salam stood up and went into the room and went behind the curtain. He went behind the curtain; the Jews came. The Prophet spoke to them and he said to them how is Abdullah ibn Salam amongst you? How do you see him? And they said to him خيرنا و ابن خيرنا. He is the best from amongst us and his father was also the best man. The messenger then said to them what about if he embraces Islam? What do you guys think? He said we seek refuge in Allah from that sort of thing.
Abdullah ibn Salam, this big mountain, embraces Islam. As soon as they said that, Abdullah ibn Salam came out from the curtain and he said they did not move from their position. They said شرنا و ابن شرنا. You are the most evilest and his father was also evil; he is from a very evil people. You guys don't know his reality.
In that same sit, they said it. The reason I mentioned this story is Abdullah ibn Salam asked those questions to the Prophet not because he was challenging him per se; he really wanted to know the truth from the falsehood. So not everybody who asks you a question is trying to reach the truth. So it is not everybody that you answer their question; some people you can see they are stubborn and hard-headed.
وَلَوْ جَعَتْهُمْ كُلَّ آيَةً if every sign comes to them, if every proof comes to them, they won't believe it حَتَى يَرَوُّ الْعَذَابَ الْأَلِيمُ until they see the severe punishment of Allah. The day of judgement, they are just not going to believe. So the Prophet ﷺ and Allah did not entertain their requests because they were never willing to accept it.
I want to mention what happened and what took place after this incident when they presented to the Prophet ﷺ these requests and the Prophet ﷺ didn't go through. Quraysh returned back to their ways. What they started to do was they started to persecute, they started to torture, and they started to harm the Messenger ﷺ's followers. This time they went even harder than before; they went what? Much harder in persecuting the Muslims.
And brothers and sisters, you have to really understand that the concept of persecution and the causing harm for the Muslims has been very long. Anyone who reads Islamic history will realize through history Muslims have always, except a short period of time, they've always been what? Persecuted. Wherever they are, and this which took place in the city of Mecca to the Prophet ﷺ and his companions, it is what repeats itself all the time. History repeats itself.
It is important, very, very important for the Muslims to always go back in reading history, always understanding the plots and the plans of shaytan and their followers. So the sahabas, they migrated; they did their second hijrah; they went to Abyssinia. There's a doubt whether Ammar ibn Yasir he went because this time the people who went, how many people went the first hijrah? Does anyone remember the first hijrah? How many people went? How many did we say? 13? Any other views? How many people did we mention for the first hijrah that left? 17? 14? There's a difference; I can see it. 14, 11 men and what? 4 women. That's what we have. Muhammad's view is mashallah the closest to the truth.
There's all different sorts of numbers that were mentioned. The second hijrah, how many people went? Yeah, some scholars said 80, and to be more precise, it's what? 80? 83? Okay. Ammar ibn Yasir, there's a doubt whether he was with them or not. If not, then it's going to be 82; if he's with them, it's going to be 83. Ibn Ishaq in his seerah he mentions this doubt whether Ammar ibn Yasir was with them.
This hijrah, the second hijrah, a lot of the sahabas or some of the sahabas passed away, like Khalid ibn Hizamin; he passed away in this travel on the way to Abyssinia. He passed away and died, and al imam Ibn Abi Hati mentions it with an authentic chain of narration. He said Khalid ibn Hizamin migrated to the land of Abyssinia. He migrated to the land of Abyssinia, and as he was on the way, death came to him and he passed away.
It is him that the verse came down: anybody who migrates will find a lot of opening on this earth. These verses came down and who? Him. That's one view. Another view is that it came down on an old man who lived in Mecca. This man was very old and he lived in the city of Mecca, and he felt the disbelief that was in Mecca and the rage and the hate that they had for the prophet. He was one of the companions of the prophet, and he just never migrated because he is an exception because of the ayah those who can't travel.
Those who can't travel, he was from the elderly people who couldn't travel, so he had an excuse; he didn't have to travel. But he couldn't watch the disbelief, the hate that they had for the prophet. So he made his decision; he said you know whatever it is, I'm gonna go to Medina, I'm gonna meet the prophet. I can't live like this. The sahabas are educated, learning; they're sitting with the prophet; they're enjoying their time with him. I can't do that to myself; I'm gonna go to Medina.
So he took a riding beast and he made his way to Medina, and as he was on the way, death came to him. As he was about to die, they said he took one palm of his and he hit it with the other hand and he said, oh Allah, this is a pledge of allegiance to you. This is you, and then he hit his hand again and he said, oh Allah, this is a pledge of allegiance to your messenger. I can't reach him; I can't give him my hand; this is a pledge of allegiance. He died on this; he fell on the ground dead, and that's when the ayah came down وَمَن يُهَاجِرْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ. The one who migrates for Allah's sake وَمَن يُخْلُجْ مِن بَيْتِهِ مُهَاجِرْ إِلَى اللَّهِ ثُمَّ يُدْرِكُ الْمُغْتُ وَالْدَّتْ comes to him فَقَدْ وَقَعَ أَجْرُهُ عَلَى اللَّهِ. His reward is with Allah.
And what's powerful is that Allah did not mention the reward. He didn't say this is your reward and this is your reward فَقَدْ وَقَعَ أَجْرُهُ عَلَى اللَّهِ. And I say this message to my brothers and sisters who are in the lands of the non-Muslims. My brothers, my sisters, this man is an old man; he's got an exception. The ayah clearly and categorically said you are an exception. How can a Muslim live right next to him who is a non-Muslim and then the other side is a non-Muslim and you're a Muslim ذُوقْتَ حَلَوَةِ الْإِيمَانِ? You taste the sweetness of Iman.
How can you live in a land where you don't hear the Adhan? A land where you are forced to learn practices and teach your children things that go against your Deen? Why are you there for just so you can get Deen out and Dirham and you're losing your child on the way? You're losing your offspring. The other day I read an article, I read, sorry, a statistic that Akhulashahid said to me, a statistic of how many Muslims have apostated from Islam this year to this year and this year to this year. And the way that they think it's going to go, they're talking about thousands of Muslims leaving Islam in these lands.
The reason is because when a people live in a land, they get affected by the people which they live in their land with. Brothers and sisters, COVID, when it took place, COVID happened. When COVID happened, we had to quarantine, right? Why did we quarantine for? What was the reason we quarantined for? We're quarantined because then we can catch this flu, we can catch this illness from another person, sah? We were told to stay not in our houses. If you had COVID-19, you were told to stay where? In your inner chamber; you shouldn't even stay with the other family members.
So you were locking yourself in your bedroom, sah? We all heard all sorts of stories, brothers, because the illness will spread if people stay around each other. This is an illness that affects your health. What about being in close proximity with somebody who has an illness which will affect your aqeedah, corruption? He will blow into you. Now we all together, how do you stay in close proximity with them? This is important that we ponder, we think about it.
That's why the messenger, even when he was in Mecca, the city of Mecca, and he didn't migrate, the sahabas did not associate themselves with the non-Muslims. They were separated; they used to go to the prophet, they used to sit with him; they had their circles going on. Now in the west, they're pushing the Muslims to assimilate, not integrate only, assimilate. They're saying you have to live with each other. They're putting Muslims who come to these countries into areas where there's no Muslims, so that they are forced to what? Integrate, assimilate with the society.
Because if you went in the early 90s in London, there were areas where you would walk in and people are purely speaking Urdu and they don't speak English, for example, Tower Hamlet in East London. You go through shops after shops; the people only speak their own Tamil language, and they have businesses, and the whole big board is in their language, and you think you're not in London. So this, for them, it doesn't happen. Those people, can they be affected by the society? No, they can't because they don't speak the language. There's a language barrier so that they can't get to them.
So what do they do? They force these people to assimilate with the rest, and then now the sumoom and social media is social media being on it; everything is there. You can be in whatever part of the world that you want; everything is brought to you. So the sahabas, they migrated to Abyssinia. When the sahabas migrated to Abyssinia, brothers, Abyssinia was a land. The Prophet mentioned what type of ruler there was. The man who was the head of Abyssinia was Najashi. Najashi had a quality لا يظلم عنده أحد. Najashi was a fair man; he wasn't a Muslim at that time, but no one would be oppressed in his presence.
And our messenger, he told us, it's a statement of Sheikh of Islam Ibn Taymiyyah that if, listen to this, this is very important, Ibn Taymiyyah he said in his Kitab Minhaj Sunnah Nabawiyah that الدولة كافرة a government which is a disbeliever, Allah will give it victory if it doesn't oppress its people. And a government which is Muslim, if it oppresses its people, Allah will destroy it because the punishment of oppression is haste, is fast. It's one of those عقوبات that are fast that you فَلَا تَحْسَبَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ غَافِلًا عَمَّ يَعْمَلُوا الظَّالِمُونَ إِنَّمَا يُؤَخِّرُهُمْ لِيَوْمٍ تَشْغَصُوا فِيهِ الْأَبَصَارِ. The people who are oppressed, the punishment is very close, and what a waste for them; the hellfire is even severe.
So Najashi was a very just man. So the Prophet told the Sahabas to go there. When Quraysh found out that Najashi took in the Sahabas, he's caring for them, they're good, they're practicing their deed, they have no issues, nothing, this did not make them happy. They said we have to go after them; we have to bring them back here and carry on persecuting them. So they looked for a person who could convince Najashi to give them back, and there were two men that were very close to Najashi; they had a relationship with him, very close to him, and it was Amr ibn al-As and Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'ah.
These two were the two closest. Also, Najashi, he liked gifts, certain gifts that used to come from the Arab world. So they brought him gifts. So they brought him these gifts, a lot of it, and gifts is one of the things that makes people love you, right? If you get them a gift, the world together, brothers, not the type of gifts where the person has to say after they give you the gift it's the thought that counts. If everyone has to say after they give you a gift, it's the thought that counts, have they given you the best gift? Yeah? You always have to be thankful for whatever is given to you.
Like in gifts, the Qaida is that it increases love. Tahadu Tahabu; gift people gifts and people love you for it. When I was young, there was my dad who used to have in his house a transfer, a money exchange company. This is the 90s in my country, Somalia. There was a civil war in the 90s; the government collapsed, so the money had to be sent back home. People needed their money. So my father, in his house, in the living room, he changed into an office, and he would send money from there to Somalia.
So every time people would come to the house, the house wouldn't close; people would come to him and say give him money. He takes that money and sends it back home, and the whole money transfer system in Somalia, how it works is just ajib; it's just trusting someone you don't know. That itself is a whole baht and a whole research. The point is there was this man; he used to come to our house. We were little kids, and every single time he came, he would always have sweets. We were kids; his pockets were full of sweets. He had so much sweets in both pockets. As soon as he entered, and he was a Sufi in London, we loved him, and we didn't know his name because he never introduced himself to us.
So we used to call him the sweet uncle in our language; that's what we used to call him, the uncle who was sweet. We loved him. Whenever we saw him coming to the house, he had sweets to give to us. Of course, we weren't allowed to take it, but my mum wouldn't let us take no sweets; bans for taking anything from anybody, those principles. But sometimes he would force us to throw it on our laps, and we put it in our pockets. But the idea of gifts really shocked me, how it can affect even little children, right? The one who gives to the children, they always remember him, and it would affect the Maseer of a child just because of the gifts that you gave, the small little things, sweets and chocolates and the things that you give to them.
So when you visit your nephews and your nieces, don't just knock on the door and say Asalaamu Alaikum, how is everyone? Give some gifts to the nephews and the nieces that you come to have sweets and chocolates in your hand.
So what happened was at Najashi when they came, Amr ibn al-As and Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'ah, they came to him, and all of these gifts came to him. Amr ibn al-As, by the way, he was known as Dahiyat al-Arab. Amr ibn al-As was a very smart individual, very clever, and I think it's very important that you study the biography of Amr ibn al-As as an individual. Very smart individual, and his very close friend was Khalid ibn Walid, right? And Khalid had that smartness when it came to the battlefield.
And Amr ibn al-As, generally speaking, they called him, the title they gave him was Dahiyat al-Arab. Arabs, this is their brain, the brain of the Arabs, smart individual. So what he did was he said I can get to Najashi and I can speak to him; I'll be able to convince him. So when they brought all the gifts to him, so before they were on the road, Amr ibn al-As said to Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'ah when we reach Najashi, don't talk. Let's just give him all the gifts; let's connect with him, get to know him, ask questions, how is he, everything, and after that we mention him. We get to know him; we then put our case forward, and that is we tell him that there is a man, a group of men that are in your land, and we discredit them; we speak bad against them.
Amr ibn al-As saw what he is; he said that's not going to be enough to convince Najashi. That's not going to be enough to what? Convince Najashi to give back these men. So what we have to say is these men, they speak against Isa and Maryam because this is dear to Najashi. Najashi is a Christian. We are all together, brothers.
That is why they people of Arb Habasha in Islamic history, the Prophet ﷺ, they are the people that we are not allowed to in Islam. We are not allowed to do jihad al-talab to the people of Habasha. To the people of Habasha, we are not allowed to do what? There are two types of jihad, right? In Islamic books, fiqh books, what do you study? Jihad al-dafi, which is jihad, you defend yourself, and the jihad al-talab is what? Offensive, right? Where you go and spread Islam like that.
We are all together. The people that the Prophet ﷺ said do not do jihad al-talab to is the people of Habasha. The Prophet ﷺ specifically commanded the sahabas and the believers. The reason is because they are Coptic Christians, and I don't know if you know, in Africa, all of Africa has been colonized except them. The Habash, they have never been colonized by no one. The British and the Europeans, when they were taking over Africa, they sliced all Africa up, and then they went like in Habasha; they did not take them. They are not people that surrender and give in to what? And there are other factors, of course; there is religious connection and all of that there, but they don't surrender to anything.
Later, when we look at Najashi when he embraced Islam, imagine generally speaking when the ruler embraces Islam, what happens? The people follow through; they say he was the only one to take Islam from the entire, and he had to hide it. They said he never used to pray. Najashi died and never used to pray because they would see him, and they would do things to him; he had to hide his Islam. Generally speaking, when the tribal leaders embraced Islam at the time of the Prophet, they would come and they would what? They would bring all of their people with them, right? But they were like that.
So all in all, Amr al-Asr said we have to tell Najashi that Mohammad and his followers, they insult Maryamah; they insult Isa, and they say bad things about him. So we want you to return them back to us just the same way we would return to you your people because we are the leaders of our land, and you are the leader of your land. Najashi, he said listen, I am not just going to give you them based on your statements and what you guys said.
This is when the Prophet's prophecy and the statement that he said came out, right? And that is what, brothers? Yeah, he is a just ruler. One of the signs of the just people is that they don't judge a thing on just hearing one side of the story. You are not just if you just listen to one side of the story and you make a judgment based on it. You have to hear both sides. Say what was your story?
Okay, that's why Dawood alayhi salam when he was being tested by two angels and they came to him, and the first one put his case forward, and Dawood alayhi salam, he listened to the first one, but he didn't listen to the second one. When he said Dawood only listened to one, and then based on that he gave the judgment. And when he gave the judgment based on that, he was told there were two angels; they were testing him, and Dawood got it wrong. He got it wrong, and then he got told off for his mistake, and he fell into prostration and he asked Allah for forgiveness, and then he was commanded to be just in his ruling.
So a brother will judge between a wife and a husband. The wife will call the sheikh, sheikh alayhi salam. The sheikh will say hey wallahi my husband does these things to me, and wallahi he does these things to me, and the brother goes wallahi he's a dhalim, dhalimun ghashoob, sah? He'll say your husband, ha, he's an oppressor, ha. He hasn't heard the husband's side, sah? So the principle is what? When the sister tells you something, just advice, amma inshallah, the sabr is needed. Every relationship has its downfalls; may Allah make it easy for you.
And if you want me to judge the situation, you and your husband come inshallah, both of you inshallah, we'll listen to both sides, and then inshallah we'll give you the verdict. I'll tell you guys a story, subhanallah, on this issue of judging between the wife and the husband. Sheikh al-Albani rahimahullah, Sheikh Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, he had a conflict one time with his wife, Sheikh Albani, and it got very serious.
And the reason was because Sheikh al-Albani had a big library, a big, big library, and his wife used to clean it, and all the time, and he would say to her clean the whole library, clean all of this, clean this and that. And he would also say, and a lot of guests would come to his house, and she would cook for all of his guests, and she got tired from this, so she found it very hard. So Sheikh al-Albani rahimahullah, he made one of his students the judge. He called one of his students; he said you need to be the judge of me and my wife. Things are getting out of control now; it's getting very problematic, which shows you there is no one except what? Except there are issues and conflicts at home, sahib.
Brothers, if you think your marriage is stressful and headache, join the club, brother. Join the what? Join the club. I only I know I'm digressing, but I only read one time that Amir ibn Sharahil and Qadi ash-Shuraykh, they met each other, the two of them. When they met each other, Qadi ash-Shuraykh said to Amir ibn Sharahil, I've been married to my wife for 20 years; we've never had conflict for 20 years. There was no khilaf except once, and I was wrong. That's the only time I've ever read there was never conflict between, and it's a long story of why he mentions the reason; I'm not going to go into that now. And some of us will look and say I've been married for 6 months and I've had conflict 20 times a day. So Sheikh al-Albani rahimahullah, he said to his students, you be the judge and please solve this issue for us. The student said ok; he came over. He said to Sheikh al-Albani's wife, come here. Sheikh al-Albani said wait, wait, wait. How are you going to let her start? I am the one who called you. If you're listening to a case, the person who put the case forward, I'm the one who submitted a case, not her. That's one; I'm the older one, and the hadith says kabbir kabbir.
When the two sahabi spoke, one was young and the older one was there, and the young one started to talk. The Prophet said to the young one when he started talking first, he said kabbir kabbir, wait, wait, let the two older one talk. So Sheikh al-Albani said to his student, why are you getting it all wrong? I'm the older one; I'm the one who should talk. Why are you jumping me? The student said, Sheikh, are you the judge or I'm the judge? Did you call me to judge this situation? Sheikh al-Albani said, yeah, I did call you to judge this situation.
He said, wallahi, Sheikh, if you called me to judge this situation, leave the matter to me or I'm just going to leave. I'm not going to judge this situation. Sheikh said, allahu usta'an, hey, carry on. He listened to the wife of Sheikh al-Albani. She said, look, I have this issue with the Sheikh. The Sheikh has guests after guests; students keep coming to him. They want to ask him questions; they have discussions with him. His house is guests after guests, and every time they come, I have to make them tea.
I have to make them food if they stay for lunch, if it's breakfast, if it's dinner, everything I have to make. Then I have to leave his office, prepare the room for him and his students. I can't. The student said, wallahi, Sheikh al-Albani, you're zalim; you're an oppressor. And he said to the wife, you're mazloom; you're oppressed. Sheikh al-Albani said, audhu billah, I'm here; you haven't heard my side of the story and if it's true or not and what took place; you didn't hear anything.
How are you going to judge? How the basic stuff of knowledge is missing from you to the student? The student said, Sheikh, I'm the judge. I'm the judge, and if I judge, if you want me to judge, I'll judge. If you don't want me, I'm leaving. Sheikh said, allahu musta'am. The student then said to Sheikh Nasir rahimahullah, now that it's clear that you are the oppressor and she's the mazloom, the oppressed, the verdict is you marry a second wife. You marry a second wife, and that second wife, she helps the first wife in the house with the cleaning and the sorting out the library and all of this; she takes the burden off him.
So the student said when I said, al-Bani, you're a zalim and you're mazloom, Sheikh Nasir's face was very angry, and her face was smiling, and she was happy, and she seemed happy, and Sheikh al-Albani rahimahullah seemed angry. But the minute he gave the verdict and he said get married to a second wife, the face flipped, so she became angry, and he became what? The reason I mentioned the story is because listening to one side of the story and not listening to the other in the sharia, it's not right. You listen to both sides of the story.
And so Najashi, he said I'm not going to do that. They gave him the gifts; they gave him all the gifts that they put together. They both said to him, king, there has come to you, to your land, ghilmanun sufaha, young, immature men, dimwitted. They left the religion of their forefathers; they didn't enter your religion. They came with an innovated religion; we don't know it, nor do you know it. It's a religion we don't know about it. Our leaders from Quraysh have sent me to you to talk to you and convince you to send these people back.
Najashi said I'm not going to accept this, as I said to you all, and he said I won't do anything until they come and I meet them and I ask them about this issue. Najashi said tomorrow morning I need all of them to come. So they came to him. When they came to him, they selected the person to speak for them, which is another thing. If you're a jama'ah, you need to choose the most eloquent person from amongst you, the one you know can do justice in speech. Sometimes he may not necessarily be the most knowledgeable one, but he's eloquent; he can get the point across. So important, the one who can speak the best.
So they gave the speech to Ja'far Ibn Abi Talib. Ja'far then Najashi said to him, is it true that you guys left the religion of your forefathers and you guys haven't entered my religion and you even have you've not entered any of the known religions that are out there and you guys have come with your own innovated religion? Ja'far Ibn Abi Talib, he said we used to be a people who are upon ignorance. We worshipped idols; we ate the dead, the corpse; we never slaughtered it; we ate the corpse; we committed zina as we wished; we fulfilled our desires the way we liked; we cut the ties of kinship; we didn't care about our neighbours and the rights of the neighbours. The strong one would always get away with whatever he did to the weak one; that's how we were as people.
Allah sent from amongst us a messenger; we know his lineage, how truthful he is; we know how tahir he is, and he's not committed zina, none of that. We know him inside out; it's like the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born under what? A microscope. We know everything about him. He didn't call us to himself, but he called us to Allah, that we sing on Allah in worship and that we worship him, that we stay away from and we leave off what we were worshipping us and our forefathers.
He commanded us to be truthful in our speech and that we keep the ties of kinship and that we fulfill that which we are being trusted with, that we stay away from blood killing and we stay away from committing haram with our own relatives. He also prohibited us from all other prohibited things such as idle speech, eating the wealth of the orphans, falsely accusing the women who are far from zina, accusing them with zina. He commanded us; he commanded us to pray, was zakat, and then he went into the factors of Islam.
We believed in him; we took on board what he told us; all that which he said to us, we took it on board and we followed him in it. Our people have, based on that, they became our enemies. When he commanded us all this and he prohibited us from all of that, our families and our people like him, they became enemies to us; they showed us hostility; they even persecuted us, and they only did this so they can bring us back to idle worshipping, and what they want from us is that we go back to doing the filthy things that we were doing before.
That's what they want from us when they oppressed us and they overpowered us and subjugated us and they got in between us and our religion; they wouldn't let us practice our deen. We came to your land; we chose you over everybody else out there وَرَغِبْنَا فِي جِوَارِكَ and we wanted to be your neighbour وَرَجَوْنَا أَلَّا نُظْلَمَ عِنْدَكَ أَيُّهَا الْمَلِكَ and all we wish in return is that we do not get oppressed.
Najashi said, brothers, what Ja'far ibn Abi Talib said, what do you guys think? He just summarised everything. Najashi then said to him, do you have anything from the Quran, from the book of Allah that you mentioned? Ja'far said نعم. He said read to me what you have, and Najashi recited, sorry, Ja'far ibn Abi Talib recited what surah? He recited surah Maryam حِكْمَ النَّوْلِجِ. What did he choose? What did he select specifically? Specifically, why did he select the story of Maryam?
Yeah, Maryam was significant to them, صح? So he recited it for him فَبَكَ النَّجَشِ. Najashi cried; he cried, he's a ruler; tears came until it filled his bed. And brothers, then those days, the beard was a sign of manhood, صح? The beard, all religions had it, صح? So Najashi had a beard, a man of the scripture.
Now it's what? Yeah, what is it in the sharia? Sorry, what is it in the world? You cut your beard, and that's not the deen of Allah. The four imams, Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam Shafi, and Imam Ahmed, four imams, four of them, you don't find them all agreeing on everything, right? We all together, but they all agreed, the four of them, they agreed shaving your beard; there is a difference of how long can it be, that's another discussion. The issue of the length, that's another discussion, لكن there is no difference of opinion on the issue of shaving; that is haram, it's not allowed, it's a major sin.
Now we all together, it's a what? It's a major sin, and some of the scholars went as far as to say that shaving is what? مثلة, mutilation. It's what? Mutilation, to mutilate yourself because it's something Allah تعالى. Shaykh al-Bani used to have an opinion which was very strange that he fought for and he debated, very strange opinion. I definitely don't agree with him, but it's an opinion that he pushed, and he didn't allow it, and that was if a woman grows a beard, she's not allowed to cut it.
Shaykh Nasir had that opinion; if a woman had a beard, it came out, which she is allowed to cut it, shave it. Yeah, لأقول لشيخ ناصر رحمه الله, yeah, Shaykh al-Bani said no, very strange opinion like him, صح? And there's no scholar except that he has a what? ما من عالم إلا وله قبوة, صح? There's not a scholar except, of course, he's going to have a mistake. There's only one person who's infallible; who is that? Allah and His Messenger, right? Everybody else is what? Open to what? Mistakes.
So Shaykh Nasir al-Rahim, how hard he was on this opinion, he used to say, he used to recite the ayah ما كان لهم الخير. They have no choice; if Allah created you in a way, but they don't allow that you have a beard, sister, yeah, there's nothing you can do about it; that's what he was saying. I used to love Shaykh, and I still love him; I love him so much.
So every opinion Shaykh al-Bani used to hold, I used to hold it; that was the default for me. For when I was young, I would listen to him; he has a سلسلة هدى و نور, 800 videos recording. I listened to every single one of it. I read his سلسلة حديث الصحيح, سلسلة حديث الضعيف. I was Shaykh Nasir al-Rahim said something that said it is the what هو الحق. There's nothing else about this; I dare you to say anything to me.
I loved him in Ramadan; I was in the Haram, and I read his سلسلة الترويح. He has a book on سلسلة الترويح. Shaykh al-Bani is of the opinion that if you pray more than 11 raka'ah, it's not allowed. He pushes it hard that in Ramadan, you're only allowed to pray 11 raka'ah, صح? So I read it; I remember in Ramadan in the Haram حجيب. I underlined it, put it in my pocket.
Anybody who was in the Haram when we prayed, how many raka'ah did they pray? Yeah, how many raka'ah did they pray? So anybody I saw who would pray more than 11, I would drag them out of the Haram, and I could convince them, come with me, كيف? There's no evidence for this. When you're first seeking knowledge, what are you, brothers? When you're first learning at the beginning, and you read the opinion, and you look, what do you think, brothers? You think it's, that's it; there's nothing else, and you start to become very what?
Some brothers are sitting here thinking I still believe 11; I still believe 11 is the only opinion, but there is more evidence otherwise. The point is Ja'far put a very strong argument against Najashi. Najashi then said recite the Quran on me, and he recited on him, and he cried after he heard these verses.
And then this is what Najashi said: what you just recited, Ja'far, إِنَّ هَذَا وَالَّذِي جَاءَ بِهِ نُوسَى. Nusa came with this, and Wallahi, what you have just recited on me, Ja'far, and what Nusa said خَرَجَ مِن مِشْكَاتٍ وَاحِد. They came from one source. I can tell this is the difference between a studied learned man; Najashi was a learned man. أَمَّا قُفَارُ قُرَيشٍ, they were not learned, so he knew when he heard these words where it was coming from.
So he said this is what I want to say, brothers, and I'm going to conclude with this point. Wallahi, brothers, Wallahi, brothers, take this from me today. If you have not taken anything else from me, please do not undermine the Quran. Wallahi, if we learn the Quran and we understand this book, Wallahi, it will resonate in people's hearts. We don't need to use philosophy; we do not use the art of debating and tactics and this and that. Wallahi, if we take the Quran and we explain it to the non-Muslims as it is, trust me, brothers, it will settle in the heart because the one who said these words is the one who created this creation.
Are we all together, brothers? Don't say the Bible has this and it's false and it contradicts itself, and he goes into defense mode and he says no, that's not true what it says here and there, and you're debating on it. Give him verses of the Quran; explain those verses for him. The majority of the people are willing to take that. Yes, there is a group of people where Allah says وَجَادِلُهُمْ بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ. Debate with them; it's a small group of people; it's not the bulk of the non-Muslims.
I'll give you guys an example. I used to go to college in the UK; I was going to a college called Westminster Kingsways College. It's located in Kings Cross; anyone who knows London knows Kings Cross. So I was going to that college, and for me personally, I've never been interested in reading the Bible and getting points out of the Bible. I just, I don't like it; I don't find that to be the way for me personally. I believe, have I got the best? Yeah, have I got the Quran? Yeah, trust me, my life, if I spend on the Quran, I still cannot go through the Tafasir books that are written on it and the gems and the jewels in the Quran.
I spend every minute on the Quran, and I'd share that benefit with the non-Muslims if I come across them. One thing I saw, I used to go to college, and in my class, there was this young girl. I used to have, I don't know if you guys know, there were these USB drives where you just plug it in the computer; you can download everything you wanted on it. But on the other side, you could put your headphones in, so people used to put music in there, but I used to put Quran on there.
So in those countries, the western people, they're very open, and they talk to you, how are you, how's everything? So this girl in my college, she came up to me and she said to me, what are you listening to? So what did she say? She said, what are you listening to? So I said to her, I'm listening to Quran. So she took the, she said, can I listen to it? She asked me, or can I hear it? So what she wanted to do was, she wanted one to be in my ear and one to be in hers. So I gave the whole thing to her; I said listen to it as well.
So she went and she listened to it; she put one in the other ear and she put the other one in the other ear, so she listened. She said, this is the best music I've ever heard. So I explained to her, this is not music, by the way; it was Mohammad Khalil Hosari, Allah will tell you, this Sheikh Safios, that's another story. So she listened to it; she goes wow, what is this? So I explained it to her, by Allah, no Christianity, nothing.
If I, I've never sadly enough, I've never been able to convince a non-Muslim to come to Islam. I've never managed that. I was the Imam of the Masjid, so they used to always bring me someone who wants to take Islam, and I used to give them the Shahada, but I've never been able to convince somebody about Islam, and then I got through to them, and they accepted Islam. It's never happened. Make Dua inshallah, Allah gives me that opportunity; it's an act of worship.
I've never been able to, who has ever managed to give Dawah to a non-Muslim and they took Islam? Put your hand up, Allahumbarikh. Put your hand up just, you did two, yeah, they said you did, but just put your hand up if you have one, two, just three people, four, five, six. I need to know, brothers, put your hand up. You be, I asked you, you didn't volunteer to Allahumbarikh; it's good.
So did you guys go up to them and convince them about Islam from the beginning and they accepted Islam, and they took on board Islam? Or was it they were already looking for Islam and you finished off? I'm talking about someone who caught the attention of the person and convinced Islam from scratch I hear who now is cutting down the people. This person was not thinking about Islam, and you brought the message of Islam to them, and you put your hand up if you were like that. So it's a good act; Allah forgives you, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So anyway, she just said to me, this is nice music; where is this? Where can I find this music? I said, listen, this is not music; it's something else. I said, this is the speech of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. I told this to Quran and etc., and she, how I like it, where can I find it? So I have an issue in life, and that is I don't keep connection with people for too long to keep going out and asking them, did you read the Quran? What did the Quran? I didn't do that.
So I just told her, it's on this website. I gave her the website; I said this is it, download it, everything from there, whichever reciter you want, sort yourself out; here it is, and I left it there. So I don't know what happened after that. The point I'm telling the story is that, subhanallah, an entire conversation can spark from just the Quran and the meaning of the Quran.
I remember one time, another story, and I'm going to conclude with this. There was a university, sorry, in college, there was a presentation that you had to do a presentation in class. So there was a Yemeni brother in my class; he was passionate about the deen, passionate. So what he did was he did a presentation in college about the Quran, and he was explaining, he literally was, I was sitting in the back; I was like wallah al ajeeb.
And then I came on, and I spoke about Coca-Cola; that was my presentation. But the issue of brothers being able to articulate Islam and convey Islam and do that, inshallah, I'm going to carry on next lesson. Anything I've said that was wrong or incorrect is from me and shaytan, and Allah and His Messenger are both free from it.
Subhanakallahumma wabihamdik, wa shadu an la ilaha illa anta, astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk.
