Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Understanding Al Hayat Al Ijtima'iya: The Mannerisms and Etiquettes of Society
Brothers, remember this in your life as long as you live, if you have two things, you will reach your goal. In today's session, I want to speak about Al Hayat Al Ijtima'iya. I want to speak about their mannerism and their etiquettes. And inshallah ta'ala, today is going to be the last class on this.
After the next lesson inshallah ta'ala, we will start the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. But I believe this knowledge is very important for you to know all of this. I think it's very important that you know all of this information to appreciate what society and community the Prophet was born into ﷺ.
The Pre-Islamic Arab Society
How were the Arabs before Nabi Muhammad came? The first thing was they had Al I'tizaaz. They looked for honor that had no limits in their lineage. Their lineage was the ultimate honor. And what tribe are you from? That determined if you were respected or not. Now if we look at this today, people still use that. And they use it in different ways, forms, and shapes. Some people use it for ethnicity, right? I'm from this country, you're from this country. Some people use it for class, right? And in the UK, some people use it for turfs, areas, and even codes. I'm from this end and you're from that end. All of this is من عمل الشيطان. We're all together.
The Arab poet will say, I'm a man of my tribe. If my tribe fights, I fight with my tribe. And if they withhold, I withhold. I don't ask. No questions asked. My tribe, I'm going to go in with them. We're all together. And this hasn't died. It's still here till today. People still act upon this.
The Impact of Islam
When Islam came, the thing that it gave position to, Wallahi, it wasn't your color. Wallahi, it wasn't where you're from and the ethnicity and your background. It was purely based on who is righteous. إِنَّ أَكْرَمَةٌ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَى.
Brothers and sisters, there's a story of a great imam in Islam. His name was called Ata ibn Abi Rabah. Ata ibn Abi Rabah was a black man. He was a what? What Islam did when it came. He occupied the seat and sat on the chair of Abdullah ibn Abbas. In the Haram. When Abdullah ibn Abbas died, Ata ibn Abi Rabah sat on his chair. And he used to give the fatwas and educate the people.
One day, Sulaiman ibn Abdul Aziz, who was the leader of the Muslims, Ameer al-Mumineen. By the way, the leader of the Muslims at that time was not controlling a small portion of land. He's controlling continents. From Jazirat al-Arab to Aqsa, Sham, and Iraq. All of that is under one man. We're all together brothers.
And Ameer al-Mumineen was a big title at that time. They conquered many lands under the Muslims. To Egypt. All of these Muslim countries that you're hearing were under this one man, Sulaiman ibn Abdul Aziz. Sulaiman ibn Abdul Malik. Sulaiman ibn Abdul Malik is the brother of Fatima bint Abdul Malik, the wife of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz.
He came into the Kaaba and he had a question. Ata ibn Abi Rabah was praying Salah. Sulaiman and his two sons, they waited for Ata to finish the prayer. When he finished and he prayed, he said, Salam alaikum. Sulaiman came and he asked him a question. And he answered the question for him. And he said, it was issues related to Hajj. He said, you can do this, you can't do this, you can do this. He answered his questions.
Sulaiman then said to his two sons, after they said, Dad, who does this man think he is? Talking to you like that. Not giving you any high respect. He said, my two sons. Did you see how low we were in his presence? Yeah, we did that. He says, that's what knowledge does for its people. That man is Ata ibn Abi Rabah. The man who sat in the chair of Abdullah ibn Abbas.
The Essence of Righteousness
And the moral of the story is once Islam came, it measured people on righteous deeds. Beneficial knowledge and what? Righteous deeds. Brothers, don't let this just be information you hear. Go home and act upon this. Live by this. Bring close the person who has righteous deeds. Distance from yourself a person who doesn't have righteous deeds. Don't look at his ethnicity and his background and he's related to me and he's closer to me. No. Are we all together? إِلَّا أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ.
If the person who is pious is your relative, then he has two rights. There's two rights. Are we all together brothers? But the Arabs, this is the Jahiliyyah they had. Are we all together brothers? And Islam came and it destroyed it.
The Prophet's Guidance
And whenever Shaytan whispered, the Prophet ﷺ would correct them. One day what happened was, Ansar and Muhajireen, Shaytan tried to benefit from this. And he tried to bring past history. And they had a quarrel and an argument. And then Ansar said, يَا لِلْأَنْصَارِ. And the Muhajireen, they said, يَا لِلْمُهَاجِرِينِ. Each people calling for their people. And then the Prophet said, أَبِ دَعْوَا الْجَاهِرِيَّةِ وَأَنَا بَيْنَ أَظْهُرِكُمْ. Are you gonna use Jahili terms? And I'm amongst you.
دَعُوهَا فَإِنَّهَا مُنْتِنًا. Leave this, it's a filthy thing. I wanna ask you guys a question. Ansar and Muhajireen, they were calling on to each other. Isn't the Quran already mentioned these terms? وَاسْتَابِقُونَ الْأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنصَارِ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُمْ. Are they not mentioned in the Quran? Yeah?
So what does the Prophet mean بِدَعْوَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ وَأَنَا بَيْنَ أَظْهُرِكُمْ? It means they turned that term which was good, Ansar which is a good term, Muhajireen which is good, but they turned it into a what? You are against me and I'm against you. When they did that, he said this is a Jahili term now. Are we all together brothers? What did he mean by it was a Jahili? Meaning this is قَبْلَ الْإِسْلَامِ. Before Islam, Islam came and destroyed this.
The Resistance to Change
Well لذلك one of the things that people tend to not accept is that when they occupy positions and Islam comes and it spreads and it raises the people based on righteous deeds and piety, the people who are in power don't tend to appreciate this new change that's taking place and that's what happened to what? Quraish. That's what happened to Mecca. They were not accepting the religion because of position and power.
I mentioned to you the other day, Abu Jahl in saying, Us and Bani Hashim, we were كَفَرَ سَيِّ الرِّهَانِ. We were like two horses running after, like this. One day they win, and sometimes we win. There was an ongoing competition between us and them. Sometimes they will be the upper hand and sometimes we will be the upper hand. There was an ongoing competition between us and them. Until they said, فينا نبي. Amongst us is a prophet. Until they said what? Amongst us is a prophet. He said, how can we now then beat that? How did they want us to challenge that now? There was an issue of what? Tribalism.
Now I want to say, Islam is not against tribe, but it's against tribalism. We're all together. And Allah created us different tribes and nations so we may recognize one another. Does that make sense? Not so that we base love and hate on it.
The Honor of Lineage
So the first thing that they had was that unrestricted tribalism in them. And so the blood of one tribe was very honorable and another tribe would be disgraced and put down. Even though this was very bad and Islam came and destroyed that, but from a perspective, it had a benefit in it.
What benefit did it have? In Jazeera tul Awal, because everybody was sticking to their tribe, it kept the Arabs pure from not mixing with other people. So their language was not infiltrated. Does that make sense? From one perspective, it was good. I mean, they didn't marry and go and other... Everybody kept themselves to themselves. And so the language stayed very clean and pure.
This information is very important because it helps us later to understand why it was Muhammad sent out from these people. All together. Another thing that they had was the importance they gave to eloquence and speech. As you all know, as the poet said, جاء النبيون بالآيات فانصرمت وجئتنا بحكيم غير منصرم آيات كلما طال المدى جدد يبينهن جمال العتق والقدم.
Every prophet, he came with what his people can believe in him for. Every prophet came with a miracle for his people to believe in him. Musa came with what? He came with the what? The staff, so he throws it. فألقى عصاه فإذا هي فعبان مبين ونزع يده فإذا هي بيضاء للنظر. What about Nabiullah Isa Alayhi Salaam? At this time, it was about medicine. So Isa came with what? Isa Alayhi Salaam, with the permission of Allah, he can bring life to the dead. With the permission of who? Allah Subhan.
Even at the time of those people, something is like considered to be the best. So Allah gives that prophet a miracle in that thing for his people to believe in him. Does that make sense? And in the time, at the time of the prophet, it was eloquence, it was how good was your words. We all together.
So they gave language importance. ولذلك there were poets who were considered معلقات. They were called what? المعلقات. What does معلقات mean? يعني their poetry was connected to the Kaaba. Because of how eloquent it was. From them is Umar al-Qais, Zuhair ibn Abi Sulmayyah, Hamtar ibn Shaddad, and these guys. They were considered the most eloquent of the Arabs. It was like, can you beat this?
ولذلك, some of them were like so high that if anybody wanted to claim they were good, they would have to sit in front of them and be tested. For example, Nabi ibn Zubayyani. Nabi ibn Zubayyani, if anybody claimed eloquence, he would be given a khaymah, a tent. He would sit and listen to what he would have to say. And by hearing your poetry, he would bring out so many mistakes and deficiencies in it, and better words you could have used for how they were. The language was very cleansed and very good.
Does that make sense? And brothers, Wallahi, I have to say this. In order to understand this, you have to read these poetries. We're all together. قِفَ نَبْكِ مِن ذِكْرَ حَبِيبٍ وَمَنْزِلٍ بِسِقْطِ اللِّوَى بَيْنَ الدُّخُولِ فَحَوْمَرِي فَتُوذِحُ فِي مَنْ.
The Status of Women
Umar al-Qais, what he's saying, what's it called? شَنْفَرَ أَقِيمُوا بَنِي سُدُورَ مَطِيِّكُمْ فَإِنِّي إِلَىٰ قَوْمٍ سِوَاكُمْ لَأَمْيَلُ فَقَدْ حُمَّتِ الْحَاجَاتُ وَالْلَيْلُ مُقْمِرُ. By reading these poetries and looking into it, Wallahi, it makes you appreciate the Quran.
When Allah is saying وَإِن كُنتُمْ فِي رَيْبٍ لِمَا نَزَلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِّن مِثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا شُهَدَاكُمْ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ فَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوا وَلَنْ تَفْعَلُوا فَاتَّقُوا الْنَّارَ الَّتِي وَقُودُهَا الْنَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَةُ أُعِدَّةٍ لِلْكَافِرِينَ.
You read the Quran and you ponder over the Quran and you say Arabs, all of the tribes, all of them couldn't come with the likes of this? One day, the Prophet was praying Salatul Maghrib and he recited أَمْ خُلِقُوا مِنْ غَيْرِ شَيْءٍ أَمْ هُمُ الْخَالِقُونَ. And he carried on reading Surah Tuttur أَمْ خَلَقُوا السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مَنْ لَا يُوطِنُونَ. He kept reading it.
There was a noble companion, who knows the name? Jubail ibn Mut'im. What did he do? He said, I heard the Prophet recite Surah Tuttur فَكَادَ قَلْبِي أَنْ يَطِيرُ. My heart was about to fly out. From what I heard, I was like, wow. Salatul Maghrib, he heard the Prophet recite that Surah. And we might look at this and say, Yeah, I don't feel that. I don't what? I don't feel that because of our distance from that language.
Does that make sense? The miracle that we have today is the Quran. We have to learn the Arabic language, brothers. We have to what? We have to learn the Arabic language.
The Status of Women in Pre-Islamic Society
Another thing that they had was the woman in the society was insignificant. Insignificant. She had no weight. This is the bulk and the overwhelming majority of situations. A woman was considered a lost cause to them. And Allah mentions that in the Quran. That one of them, if he was given the news that his wife just gave birth to a girl, the distress and the pain he would feel, Allah knows best.
Allah says, And when one of them is given the news of the girl, his face turns black. His face turns black while he is angry. He turns away from the people in the evil of what he was given. Should he keep it on him or bury it in the dust? Allah says, Allah says, If one of them was given the glad tidings of a daughter, his face turns black while he is angry. He will feel distress and pain. Hurt. What is it that my wife just gave birth to? The first thing that comes to his mind is where am I going to bury her? How am I going to face the community?
Not the news that his wife just gave birth to a daughter. Rather, it wasn't just the fact that they felt like that towards their daughters, but even their wives. The wife was inherited just like the property was inherited. When the man dies, his property will be put for inheritance, right? His children were inherited. If he had multiple wives, his oldest son would inherit his wife as well. His wife would be inherited. She has no say. She can't say anything. The biggest son would marry his father's other wives other than his mom. She has no say. She just moves from one hand to another. That's how she was.
And a woman was dignity for them. If anything happened, they would fight over it. From the other side, from the other angle, they had excessive jealousy for a woman. Their women, because of that, became very, very strong women. Very strong women that they had very masculine characteristics. They can live in the Bedouin lifestyle. They would be the ones to wash their husband's riding beast. They would prepare the blades and the swords. And we all together.
Therefore, Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, you all know Muawiyah, right? Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan was what? Before he became the Amir al-Mu'minin, he was the governor of Sham, right? Appointed by who? Umar ibn Al-Khattab. Umar ibn Al-Khattab appointed Muawiyah as the governor of Sham. And he stayed as the governor until Uthman was killed. And when Uthman was killed, he went to Ali ibn Abi Talib and he said, Before I give bay'ah to you, I need you to bring me the people who killed my cousin, Uthman.
And Ali said wait. Let me just put everything in control. In the meantime, just give me a bay'ah. Muawiyah said, I'm not going to give you a bay'ah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran وَمَنْ قُتِلَ مَظْلُومًا فَقَدْ اجْعَلْنَا لِوَلِيهِ السُّلْطَانُ فَلَا يُسْرِفْ فِي الْقَتْلِ. If a family member of yours is killed, you have the rights to demand for the blood. I'm here asking for the blood of the people who killed my cousin Uthman. And Ali said, I'm not going to give it to you now. I'm going to give it to you when I feel like it's the right time. And plus I am the leader of the Muslims. You are just a governor. And then here the fitness started.
The Nature of Marriage and Divorce
لَكِ مُعَوِيَةِ مِنْ أَبِي سُفْيَانِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى عَنْهُ. The reason I mention this is because he was married to a woman whose name was Maysoon بِلْتِ بَحْدَلِب. And she said to Muawiyah, she was the mother of Yazid ibn Muawiyah. She said to Muawiyah, This lifestyle that you have in Sham, this beautiful rich lifestyle, she said that's not for me. I want to go back to the rough Bedouin lifestyle, that's how the women were. That's the life I know. This is not for me.
Yeah, Air conditioner. Yeah, these women were very strong women. Another thing was the issue of النِكَاح والطلاق. The third point when it comes to their society was the issue of marriage and divorce. In terms of divorce, there was no number. The man would divorce the woman. And then whenever he wanted, he would take her back again. She had no choice. And they used to use it to never give her a good life. They would divorce her. And then she's not under him, right? And then before the Eid could finish, he would take her back again. And then he would do it to her again. And just before the Eid is about to finish, he takes her back. And he would do that forever as long as he wanted.
So he's not married to her and he's not letting her go. When the Sharia came, what did he do? For this reason, so the man doesn't do this to the woman, he's got three chances. Two times and the third time she's gone. The divorce is how many times? Twice. That's it. It's over.
In terms of their marriages, there were four types. Their marriages were four types. Listen to how this type of marriage was. The first one is the first nikah was a man would marry the woman like we do today. You'd go to the guardian, the willy. He would marry you off to his daughter and you'd have to give a dowry. And witnesses had to be there. That one was there before Islam. And Islam came and it just affirmed that. Does that make sense?
The second type was a man would say to his wife, go after she cleans herself from her menstruation. He says to her go and sleep with a certain tribe, a certain tribe. The man, the leader of that tribe. Remember before what I said to you? The issue of tribe was very important. He would say to his wife, go and sleep with that man from her menstruation. That he never had intimacy with her. And he wouldn't have intimacy with her until she becomes pregnant for that man. Once she becomes pregnant for it, he would claim the child or take care of the child. But he knows that the child comes through what? It comes through that man. All he's looking for is the honor of that child.
The third one was ten men would be with one woman. Ten men. No less than that. Ten of them. They enter upon this woman. If she becomes pregnant, if she becomes pregnant, she will say all ten of these men come to me. All ten of them. She will call for them. She knows who they are. And she will say, you're the father to one of the ten. And he can never say I'm not. He cannot say I'm not. She will choose whichever of those ten she loved. Are we all together?
The fourth one and the last one was it's a woman who's a prostitute. She's a what? A prostitute. She has a flag appointed, plugged in her front house or tent. The men enter and they pay her, they give her money. When she becomes pregnant, she knows all the men she slept with. So she will go to a man who specialized in knowing the children. He would request for certain things of each man. He'll say bring it to me. And she would bring it. And he would say the father is this person. These men would know a child by seeing that's the father.
Are we all together? You all know the story of Osama Ibn Zayed, right? When Osama Ibn Zayed was one day lying down and one of these men who specialized in this, who knew it, saw the foot of Osama Ibn Zayed. Just a foot. And he said, Wallahi this came from this. Are we all together? This is the son of this man over there. They would even know if a woman was pregnant just by her foot prints on the ground. So she's four months pregnant. The way she's walking, if it was a woman, if it was a man, they would tell.
These were people that they would bring and he would say you are the father. This was the Nikah. And Islam came and it got rid of all of that.
The Prohibition of Alcohol and Gambling
Also, another thing was Shurbul khamr. Drinking alcohol was so prominent and it was so common that if you read their poetries, they talk about the taste of alcohol. If you want to make it very tasty, do this to it, and do that to it. Umar Al-Qais talks about it, Al-Tara talks about it, Zuhaira, all of them, they talk about it. They mention the different flavors of alcohol. Are we all together?
So this was something very common. Labid Ibn Rabi'at Al-Amiri and others. Another thing was gambling. Gambling was very common in the society. و لذلك قتادة من دعمة السدوسي. He said كان الرجل في الجاهلية. Before Islam, the man would what? يقامل على أهله و مني. He would gamble his children, his wife, his wealth, everything. After that, فيقعد حريبا سليبا ينظر إلى ماله في يد غيره.
فكانت تورث بينهم عداوة و بغضاء. And after that, imagine you just saw a person take your wife in front of you and your wealth and everything. This would bring animosity and hate. And they would fight one another for so long.
The Role of Islam in Society
Also, so all these things, are they common today in the world? Islam, did it come to get rid of all of these things? Yes. What I want from all of these brothers is that we can solve these issues, these communal issues that we have. Inshallah with Islam we can solve it. We just have to bring Islam in its purest essence to the people. Inshallah it will solve the problem.
Another thing was Riba. Usually, Riba was very common. The Arabs and even the Jews, they would do Riba. Very common amongst them. If a person loans you money, that money will increase. And when he would want to come back to take it from you, he would give you two options. He would say, look, you want to give me my money now or it will multiply. And the person is miskin, he doesn't have the money. So it would multiply. The money would go up and up. And if the person didn't give the money, there were different consequences they had for it. Some of it being family members being taken, children being taken.
When Islam came, why did it stop all of these things? Why did Islam stop Riba? Because it brings animosity. You're sucking someone's blood. You're taking more than you've given. And the whole idea of buying and selling is to bring what? What's the purpose of buying and what's the reason? Yeah, the ayah it says وَلَا تَأْخُذُ أَمْوَالَكُم بَيْنَكُم بِالْبَاطِلِ. Do not take one another's wealth إِلَّا تِجَارَةً عَن تَرَاضٍ. Both parties have to be happy with this trading, business.
When Allah says all of this brings animosity and hate to the people, Islam doesn't want us to hate each other. It's getting rid of all these things that will bring hate, so riba, qemar, all of these things they bring about what? Hate and animosity between the people.
The Tragedy of Child Sacrifice
Also, the spread of killing children in general. Certain tribes used to practice that, qatul al awlat, because of poverty they would kill their own children. They would want to kill their children because they were scared of, because of poverty. And Islam came and got rid of that. When the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was asked what is the greatest sin? He said it is to make Allah equal when he's the one who created you. Then they said thumma ayn, and then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said an taqtula waladaka, is to kill your child, khashyata imlaq, fearing poverty.
Then they said after that he said an tazmiya, to do zina, from who? Halil Tajarik, the woman of your neighbor. Your neighbor's, zina is different levels, the worst zina is to do it to your neighbor's wife. He trusted you to be his neighbor. He believes that inshallah ta'ala you're a good person and you went behind his back and cheated, it's the worst form, it's the worst form of zina.
The State of the Arabs Before Islam
So in simple terms brothers, aqeedah wise the Arabs were living a very bad belief, we spoke about that last lesson, and in terms of their akhlaq and their mannerism and etiquettes, this is how it was. Bal they were a nation that couldn't read or write, everything was memorization. This man would make poetry in his head, and he wouldn't know how to read or write.
We're all together brothers, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said inna ummah, ummiyah, laa naqra wa laa naqtum. We are a people who do not read or write. They couldn't read or write, but we're all together. Without ika Islam came and propagated knowledge. What was the first thing that came down in the Quran? iqra bismi rabbika allathee khalaq, khalaqa alinsana min alaq, iqra wa rabbuka alakran.
The Reasons for the Prophethood of Muhammad
Ya'ni read, recite, Islam honored the concept of reading and writing. The Arabs were brothers living in dhalamut mutbiqun, wayatsun qatil, they were in regret. They were living in a darknesses upon darknesses. They were what? The last point I want to talk about is then why, why did Allah send down Muhammad from Jaziratul Arab? Why these people?
So inshallah ta'ala I'm going to mention some of the reasons if you can write it down, and at the end I'm going to ask you all. Okay, number one, is the scholars they mentioned, annahum kanu alal fitrah. They got tainted over time, but their fitrah, their natural disposition was better than any nation at that time. We're all together, the fitrah was not tainted like that, it was easy to remove all of this from them. That's why when Islam came, they embraced it straightaway, a lot of them, like in the Romans and the Persian Empire, the Greek philosopher and Aristotle said this and Plato said this and wahakala, their fitrah got tainted so badly.
So that was the first reason and in there as well that they were ashabu iradatil qawiyah, the Arabs in Jaziratul Arab, they had determination, they had what? Conviction, determination. My brothers remember this, in your life as long as you live, if you have two things, you will reach your goal. Remember this, if you have two qualities wallahi, qasama li man ahalla alqasama, I swear by the one who permitted swearing by him if you have two qualities, you will reach your goal.
The first one is if you have ilm yubassiruka wayahdiik, if you have knowledge that will guide you and you have insights and the second one you have himmatan turaqeek, you have aspiration that raises you up. Anything in life you can do, if you know how to do this and you have the will and the desire wanting to do it, you will achieve your goal.
And those two brothers together is what Muslims ask Allah for every Salah they pray in Suratul Fatiha. What do we say? ihdina saraatal mustaqeem, saraatal ladheena an'amta alayhim ghayri almaghdoobi alayhim waladdhaleem. What is it that the Jews didn't have? What was the Christians what they didn't have? The Jews had insight but they didn't have that drive to want to follow it. And the Christians, what do they have? The desire and the will but they didn't have the what? They didn't have the knowledge.
Every day five times at a time, 17 times a day right? You read Suratul Fatiha at least if you don't pray sunnah or anything else, you're asking Allah to give you knowledge and aspiration, ya'ani irada, wanting to do something. And we all together, even when Allah spoke about Himself, Allah told us, allahu alladhee khalaqa sabAAa samawati wa meena al-ardi mithlahun yatanazalul amru baynahun lita'lamu anna Allaha ala kulli shay'in.
Lita'lamu anna Allaha ala kulli shay'in qadeerun wa anna Allaha qadaa hata bi kulli shay'in illa. Allah tells us that He created the seven heavens and the earth and everything in between it, why? lita'lamu anna Allaha ala kulli shay'in, to have knowledge Allah has the ability to do everything, wa anna Allaha qadaa hata bi kulli shay'in illa.
And Allah is saying I created all of this because I have two qualities, knowledge and the will, the ability to do it. Doesn't make sense? And then these two qualities if one is weak, so if somebody for example I know how to cook Weetabix, no that's not food, you know how to cook food but you don't want to, is it gonna be cooked? Yeah, you want to cook but you don't know how to cook, does that make sense? You have to have both in order anything in life you want to achieve, does that make sense brothers? Anything you want to achieve.
So the Arabs, they didn't have the knowledge nor did they have the insight, but one thing they had, they were a people who were determined. All that needed to come to them was the knowledge and they will embrace it. You all know that when they took Islam, what did they do? Let's take one companion for example, the Prophet and Abu Bakr and all of them when they left Mecca, they were hiding, right? It is said that Umar r.a when he embraced Islam, he went to, not when he embraced Islam, when he was leaving to do hijrah, he came to Quraysh. They were sitting in their assembly all of them. He said, Quraysh, I'm leaving today. I'm going to Medina. I'm doing hijrah with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. My route is as follows, taking that road over there. I'm gonna go to Mecca, Medina straight. Anybody who wants his wife to lose him and his mother to lose him and his father, they let him follow me in that route. Come after me if you want.
I mean, they had Aziba, they had Quwa, that's what they had. We were all together brothers and no one followed him. Umar r.a. The second reason was the animosity that they had for one another and the hate that they had for one another was not deeply rooted like it was in other societies and communities. They had hate for each other, they would fight one another, but it was easy to clean it off. It's just that no one came to them who brought them together with a good goal. That's why Allah says in the Quran, Arabic, they were enemies to one another, but it wasn't a deep-rooted issue.
And Islam works with unity when the Muslims come together and they are together like in the Romans and the Persians, بأسوهم بينهم شديد, صح, and etc. Number 3, the Arabs, whatever you can, whatever bad color or bad traits that they had, they were truthful in the way that they dealt with people. If they loved you, they loved you, and if they hated you, they hated you. خلاص صريحين جادين, they were direct, real. They didn't have this in your face.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, let's take the example of Al-Aws and Al-Khazraj Al-Aqabah. We're going to take inshallah when they gave the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم the pledge of allegiance. العباس بن عبادة بن مضلة Al-Khazraji, he said, يا معشر Al-Khazraj, هل تدرون على ما تبايعون هذا الرجل? Listen to this, he said people, you guys are all giving your hands to the Prophet and you're shaking his hands. Do you guys know what you're signing up for? Do you guys really know what you're signing up for? قالوا نعم, they said yes, we know we're signing up. He said you guys are basically signing up to fight with every people for his sake. Are you willing to do that?
That's what you're signing up. قالوا, they said فما لنا بذلك يا رسول الله إن نحن وفينا? They looked at the Prophet if we do that for you, direct people straight to the point. If we do that for you and we protect from you what we protect from our women, our children, what do we get in return? The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, he said, الجنة. Allah is going to give you guys جنة. Is that how they were, الانصار?
Yeah, the battle of Badr as you all know when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم left Medina and they were not going for a fight in the first place. All they wanted to do is they wanted to get the caravan from the road and take it to Medina, that's it. They weren't even prepared for a battle. They were not wearing the right gear for a fight. Please brothers listen to this. As the Prophet went and he's on the way, he realizes the caravan has gone. This is now going to be a battle. The revelation has come. He said to them, هيا أشيروني, يعني give me a verdict in the view. What do you guys think I should do?
Abu Bakr stood up, he said he's part the Prophet. He said another companion stood up and he said he's part the Prophet. انصار, they said يا رسول الله, do you want us? Are you intending us? And he said yes, I don't want to hear what مهاجرين have to say, I'm looking for you guys انصار. Why does he want انصار to talk? Because the promise they made here was that they were going to defend him in the walls of Medina and he's now taking them out of Medina. Are they still going to defend him and take care of him? They said يا رسول الله, لا نقول لك كما قالت بني إسرائيل لموسى, ا ذهب أنت وربك فقاتل إنا هنا قاعدون. We are not going to say to you what the Jews said to موسى, you and your lord go and fight, what we're going to say to you is اذهب أنت وربك فقاتل إنا معكم مقاتلون. You and your lord fight, we will be fighting right beside your shoulder, we're not going to abandon you today يا رسول الله. والله if you take the ocean and you walk in the ocean and we know we're going to drown, we're going to go in there with you. Words that deserve to be written in ink or gold, that's who they were the Arabs, that's why they gained that level and that's why Allah sent them to them.
Also, the reason why Allah sent نبي محمد from them is that the Arabs were the furthest from what extravagant life. Cold juices, yeah, like us if the air conditioner doesn't work at night it's a big headache for us, right? These people were very strong, tough people and we all together. Like in the Romans, when the sahabas were conquering Rome and Persia, some of the riwayat mentioned some of them were not wearing shoes. Imagine you're opening the biggest empire of that time and locks were being opened and sahabas, some of them had no shoes on. Does that make sense? They were not extravagant people, they were people who had endurance.
Another reason was because they were very truthful people. Even at that time, if a man gave you his word, he gave you his word. They had amanah and sidq and they had shaja'a, bravery. We all together? That was the quality of the Arabs. Nifaq, hypocrisy, and al muamara was not their nature. Backstabbing someone and that wasn't their nature, the Arabs.
We all together brothers? When the messenger came to Medina, there were three tribes of the Jews: Banu Qurayza, Banu Qaynuqa'a, and Banu Nadhir. All three of them, the prophet said, I want to give you pledge of allegiance. You live here, we live here, stay here, we stay here, no one is going to do anything to us, you don't do anything to us. And the prophet and his companions stuck to that.
We all together? Every single one of those three tribes, they broke the contract. We all together brothers? Lacking the prophet and his companions didn't. You will know Mecca, the Arabs will rob each other, right? They will rob each other, they will take each other's properties. Lacking they would make an oath and a promise that they will never touch the caravan that comes from the Kaaba or is taken to the Kaaba. It was marked, it will go through the battlefields, it will go through, no one will touch it. Everyone will just put their weapons down and watch it, whether it was Ashurul Hurum or not.
We all together brothers? Am I making you all know the story of when he went around the Kaaba? He went around the Kaaba and then what happened? As he circulated around the Kaaba when he was doing Umrah, Abu Jahl said who is this man to Umayyah? Umayyah said he is my guest. Saad, he said what is he doing around the Kaaba? And he said he is doing Umrah. Abu Jahl insulted him and said Wallahi if it wasn't for what you did for us in the past and what we have in the past, I would have dealt to you right now. I would have cut your head off right now in the Kaaba. Again, they had this belief, moral compass, that's what they believed.
We had contracts before our tribe sat down, they gave each other that promise that person will not be touched. So these were qualities that were very good when they took Islam. Another thing that they had was they were warriors, horses, camels, how to fight, strategy, tactics of fighting. They had that on lock. They were what? They had all of that on lock and because of that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he sent Nabi Muhammad from them.
Inshallah next session I'm going to start from the Prophet, his life, but I'm going to start from the tribe of Jorhum and then I'm going to bring it to the Prophet, his granddad Qusay ibn Qilab and then I'm going to bring it to Abdul Muttalib and then I'm going to bring it to the Prophet and how it came to the Prophet, the issue of Mecca by the will of Allah. Anything I might have said that was wrong but incorrect is from me and shaytan and Allah and his messenger are both free from it. Subhanaka allahumma bihamdi, ash-shadu wa la ilaha illallah, astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayh.
