Sh. Dr. YQ's Seerah Transcript (EP 031 - 040) (1) PDF

031. Building of the first Mosques in Islam We are still discussing the first few days of the Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬arrival. In this episode, we back up a little bit to talk about the Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬stay in Quba, before he entered central Madinah. When Did the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬Arr...

031. Building of the first Mosques in Islam We are still discussing the first few days of the Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬arrival. In this episode, we back up a little bit to talk about the Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬stay in Quba, before he entered central Madinah. When Did the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬Arrive in Quba? As to when he arrived in Quba, we don't know for sure. The sahaba did not concern themselves with dates that much. We have a spectrum of opinions among the scholars, and the 12th of Rabi' al-Awwal is commonly put — but academically, this doesn't make sense. One early book of history mentions the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬left Makkah on the 1st of Rabi' al-Awwal; and the average time it took to get from Makkah to Madinah by a fast rider was about 3½ days; and if it was a slow caravan, it would take up to 9 days; so it doesn't make sense that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬arrived on the 12th, even if we put in 2-3 nights in Ghari Thawr. A date of 8th or 9th makes more sense. And we know from the reports that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬arrived around high noon: the reports say that when the news reached Madinah that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬had left Makkah, the Ansar went out every morning to wait for the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬to come, until eventually, when the sun got too hot (by 11 AM or so), they would go back to qaylulah — and the reports say the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬arrived at this time when everybody had gone back home. So from this, we know that he ‫ ﷺ‬arrived at around high noon. And this was on a Monday, as mentioned in Ibn Ishaq. ______________ Houses the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬Stayed at While in Quba We already said that Madinah was composed of small pockets of villages, and that the farthest settlement of Madinah in the direction of Makkah was Quba. So the people of Quba met the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬first. When in Quba, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬stayed at the house of Kulthum ibn al-Hidm (‫كلثوم بن‬ ‫)الهدم‬, who was an elderly man from the tribe of Amr ibn Awf (‫)بنو عمرو بن عوف‬, and he was the first sahabi to die in Madinah after the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬arrived. So subhan'Allah, Allah allowed him to live until the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬came, hosted the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, and then died. What an honor. It is also said that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬stayed in the house of Sa'd ibn Khaythama (‫سعد بن‬ ‫)خيثمة‬. But some reports say, no, rather, he would spend the night at the house of Kulthum, and then go to the house of Sa'd ibn Khaythama during the day — Kulthum was a married man with children, and Sa'd was a bachelor, so the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬would spend the day in the house of Sa'd so that guests could come without any problem. Abu Bakr RA stayed in the house of another of the Ansar. 363  ______________ Building Masjid Quba & the Blessing of Masjid Quba The next day, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬began building the first masjid in Madinah, which is Masjid Quba (‫)مسجد قباء‬. He ‫ ﷺ‬began building it when Ali RA arrived, i.e., 2-3 days after staying in Quba. And then, according to Ibn Ishaq, they set out for the city of Madinah (central Madinah) on Friday morning. So Masjid Quba was begun to be built on Wednesday or Thursday. The first stone / pillar was put by the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, then Ali and Abu Bakr RA continued, and then the Ansar took over from there. Technically, Masjid Quba was the first masjid the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬built — but it's worth mentioning that he did not witness its completion. The first masjid he completed himself and prayed in was his own masjid, Masjid al-Nabawi. Of course, there's a "first" element to both of them. There is a little bit of controversy in the books of tafsir about the reference in verse [9:108] of the Quran — which masjid is being referred to when Allah SWT says, "A mosque founded on taqwa from the first day"? Is it Masjid Quba or Masjid al-Nabawi? There are two opinions (obviously): 1) The majority opinion is that it is Masjid Quba, since it is in the same vicinity as the other masjid being referenced in the same verse, which is the masjid built by the munafiqun (Masjid al-Dirar): "Do not [O Prophet] ever pray in it" [Quran, 9:108]. And in one hadith in Abu Dawud, we are specifically told that the reference to the "mosque founded upon taqwa" in the verse is to Masjid Quba: When verse [9:108] was revealed, the people of Quba were asked, "Why did Allah praise you in a manner that He doesn't praise us: 'In it are men who wish to purify themselves' [9:108]?" And the people of Quba said with regards to purifying themselves after using the restroom: They have a practice that they would wipe themselves, and then wash with water. So from this hadith, we learn that the reference is to Masjid Quba. 2) But one day, when a sahabi came to the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and asked him, "Which is the masjid referred to by Allah in... (basically [9:108])?", the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "Indeed, wallahi, it is this masjid of mine (i.e., Masjid al-Nabawi)" [Tirmidhi] — this hadith is also authentic. 1 And there was already a makeshift masjid that the Ansar would use to pray Jumu'ah in, which was most likely the house of As'ad ibn Zurarah. 2 For a more detailed discussion on Masjid al-Dirar, see episode 90. 3 Whereas most of the people at the time would only wipe themselves and they would not use water. 4 Trivia on the blessing of Masjid Quba: The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "Whoever does wudu from his house and then prays 2 rak'at in Masjid Quba will get the reward of a full Umrah." And the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬would always at least once a week ride to Quba and pray in there — normally on a Monday. 364  Q: So which one? A: It's both. The verse applies to both. Both masjids were built upon taqwa from the first day. And the reason the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said "my masjid" was so that no one thinks Masjid Quba has a higher blessing than his mosque — because it doesn't. And Allah knows best. ______________ The Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬First Salat al-Jumu'ah Recall Salat al-Jumu'ah had already begun and taken place even before the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬came — because they had Mus'ab ibn Umayr RA with them [see episode 25]. And up until this point, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬had not prayed Jumu'ah once yet. After spending a few days in Quba, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬announced on Thursday night that he would enter [central] Madinah the next morning. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, he was in Quba helping build the masjid. And on Friday morning, he left Quba, and Salat al-Jumu'ah occurred in the middle. So the first Jumu'ah that the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬ prayed was neither in Masjid Quba, nor was it in Masjid al-Nabawi; rather, he prayed it in the area of Banu Salama (‫)بنو سلمة‬. He just stops over there and gives his first Jumu'ah khutbah. And this khutbah has been recorded by Ibn Ishaq and al-Bayhaqi with a slightly weak chain — but there is no haraj / problem in narrating it. What is really amazing is that all of the khutbahs of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬that are recorded —and we only have a few of them— they do not last more than 3-5 minutes. The khutbahs of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬were extremely short. As to his first Friday khutbah ‫ﷺ‬, it comprised of a few things: In the first khutbah, he encouraged the Muslims to be generous, reminded them of the certainty of death and of meeting Allah SWT, and that Allah will ask every one of them what he had been given and how he spent it; and then he said —and this part is recorded in Bukhari—: "Whoever is able to save himself from the Fire even with the seed of a date, let him do so. And if he doesn't even have this, then with a good word. Because every [good] deed is multiplied 10 times." Then he sat down. That's the first khutbah: Charity, death, meeting Allah, hisab, and speaking good. 5 And this, by the way, shows us the importance of the commandment of Jumu'ah — it is so important that the sahaba had to establish it even without the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. 6 Because there was no Masjid al-Nabawi yet at the time. 7 In one hadith, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "It is from the fiqh (intelligence / understanding) of a man that he shortens the khutbah, and lengthens the salah." So his ‫ ﷺ‬salah was longer than his khutbah. But in our times, it's the other way around. Why? Because in our times, Jumu'ah is the only time 90% of the ummah ever comes to masjid. Whereas at the time of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, he was speaking to people whose Iman was at a different level, and they did not need the reminders that we need. So this is one of those things that the ummah has had to change. But still, we try to keep it reasonable: 20-25 minutes is reasonable. An hour is clearly too long. 8 Hisab (‫ )حساب‬- accountability. 365  Then he stood up, and began the second khutbah with khutbat al-hajah. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬then said, "The successful one is he whom Allah has beautified his heart, and has caused him to enter Islam after leaving kufr, and has chosen him above the rest of the people for the best of all matters (i.e., you who have accepted Islam have been blessed like no one else on earth)." He then said, "Love what Allah SWT loves, and love Allah with your entire heart, and never tire of the Speech of Allah and of the dhikr of Allah. And never let your heart become hard. Allah chooses what He wishes and what He blesses, and He blessed this (i.e., the Quran and dhikr) to be the best deed. So worship Allah, and do not associate partners with Him. And have taqwa of Him as He said you should, and be sincere to Allah in all that you say. Love one another with the spirit of Allah between you. And remember, Allah hates His promise be broken. Wassalamu'alaykum." Subhan'Allah, look at how comprehensive the khutbah is, and how pertinent it is. In the first khutbah, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬stressed charity because Islam needed money and sacrifice at that time. Indeed, if there was any time people needed to donate for the cause of Allah, it was right at the beginning of Islam. He further reminded them of the reality of life and the certainty of death. This short khutbah has both threats and rewards. This is the way of Islam. We tell people the rewards of Allah to make them feel happy and joyful, but we also make them scared of the fearful punishment of Allah. This concept is called targhib and tarhib (‫الترغيب والترهيب‬‎) in Arabic. Note the first khutbah is action-based, and the second is purely spiritual. Subhan'Allah, this is the perfection of Islam. Further, he tells them to never get tired of reading the Quran or doing dhikr — as these two can make your heart soft. And he concludes by reminding them to love one another with the help of Allah, for His sake, and he reminds them that they have a promise to Allah to fulfill His religion. He then entered [central] Madinah after this, and the events went as we discussed previously [see episode 30]. The camel sat down, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬asked whose house was the closest, and he stayed with Abu Ayyub. ______________ Tangent: The Khutbat al-Hajah The khutbat al-hajah: ‫ ومن يضلل فال‬، ‫ من يهده هللا فال مضل له‬، ‫ ونعوذ باهلل من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا‬، ‫إن الحمد هلل نحمده ونستعينه‬ ‫ وأشهد أن محمدا عبده ورسوله‬، ‫ وأشهد أن ال إله إال هللا وحده ال شريك له‬، ‫هادي له‬ "Verily, all praise is due to Allah, therefore, we praise Him, and we ask for His help. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our deeds and the consequences of our souls. Verily, whomever Allah guides, no one can misguide. Whomever Allah misguides, no one can guide him [back to the Straight Path]. I testify that there is no deity worthy of worship 9 Note 1: This is contrary to what we do today, of reciting khutbat al-hajah in the first khutbah. 10 Note 2: However, from other narrations, we learn that he would usually recite the khutbat al-hajah in the first khutbah. (So it's just possible he changed over later.) 11 Wassalamu'alaykum (‫ )والسالم عليكم‬- and may peace be upon you. 12 Khutbat al-hajah (‫ )خطبة الحاجة‬- sermon of necessities. 366 except Allah —alone and with no partner— and I testify that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger." This is so eloquent. It is such a beautiful and concise speech. This khutbah is so powerful that some people accepted Islam just because of this khutbah. The most famous example is that of Dimad al-Azdi (‫[ )ضماد األزدي‬during Makkan dawah]. He was from the leaders of the tribes of Yemen. And he was a medicine man. When he came to Makkah, the people of Makkah told him, "Beware of this man [Muhammad]. He is a magician, he is a crazy man," etc. So Dimad put cotton in his ears to make sure he didn't hear what the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said — they warned him so much that he became terrified. But then he said to himself, "I am an intelligent man. How powerful can his speech be? If he is wrong, I will guide him. If he is sick, I'm a medicine man — I will cure him." So he took the cotton out, and walked up to the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, and said, "Your people have warned me about you. But I want to listen to what you have to say." So the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬recited khutbat al-hajah, and said, "Amma ba'd..." — and he was going to begin the actual speech. But Dimad said, "Stop. Repeat this word that you have just said." So the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬repeated the entire khutbat al-hajah. And Dimad said, "I have memorized the poetry of everyone out there, and I consider myself an intelligent and educated man. But wallahi, I have never heard anything as eloquent as this. By Allah, you must be a man Allah inspires." And khalas, he accepted Islam right then and there. This is how eloquent khutbat al-hajah is, and it deserves its own lecture. And people have written books about it. Ibn Taymiyyah has a treatise explaining khutbat al-hajah. Ibn al-Qayyim has many pages about khutbat al-hajah in his explanation of Sunan Abi Dawud. In our times, Sheikh al-Albani has written an entire booklet about khutbat al-hajah and its reports. ______________ Status of the Masjid in Islam The first thing the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬did in Madinah was turn his attention to building the masjid. Notice in the span of 5 days, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬has built two masjids, and he doesn't even have a roof over his head yet. We see therefore the importance of the masjid. The masjid was built even before his house. — It shows us the status of the House of Allah AWJ; Allah literally calls masjids His Houses, and He praises them in the Quran [24:36]. — The masjid was the place of ilm (knowledge) and shura (discussion / consultation). 13 Amma ba'd (‫ )أما بعد‬- as to what follows. 14 Side note: The people also built a third masjid where the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬stopped and did khutbah. 15 On this note, there were many masjids in Madinah at the time of the Prophet ‫ — ﷺ‬not just Masjid Quba and Masjid al-Nabawi. There were at least a dozen masjids — but the Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬Mosque was the central and the largest, and it also appears that, after its completion, it was the only masjid where Jumu'ah was done. 367  — It was the place where people decided affairs and socialized. They would laugh and joke in the masjid. — The masjid was the place of celebration, e.g., nikahs. — And subhan'Allah, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬was in his Masjid more than he was in his own house. — From the masjid, ilm, Quran, and the armies of Islam spread. — And in it, those who had no house would sleep: as soon as Muslims came, they would be housed in the masjid if they had no house. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said in a sahih hadith, "Masjid is the house of every muttaqi." Of course, the scholars have discussed whether it is wajib to house every Muslim who has no shelter — but basically, the general rule of Islam is that for a Muslim who needs a place to sleep, the masjid will become his place to sleep. — And of course, the Masjid of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬literally became a university, a house, and a masjid, all in one, for Ahl al-Suffa — and we will talk about Ahl al-Suffa in episode 34, insha'Allah. ______________ Poem That the Sahaba Versified While Building Masjid al-Nabawi We mentioned that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬himself participated in building the masjid [see episode 30]. When the sahaba saw him, they versified a poem: ‫لئن قعدنا والنبي يعمل لذاك منا العمل المضلل‬ "Wallahi, if we sit down and the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is working, then this from us is a very astray / shameful matter." ______________ Ammar ibn Yasir's Light-Hearted Exchange With the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬While Building Masjid al-Nabawi One incident is narrated, which has deep theological and historical implications. Ammar ibn Yasir was carrying two large bricks (quarry stones), and his entire body was dusted in full — and he is struggling with them; he says (jokingly), "O Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, they are 16 The armies would be arranged inside the masjid, and then they would go out from there. 17 Muttaqi (‫ )متقي‬- can loosely be translated as 'believer.' 18 Side note: This hadith has a secondary meaning as well, which is, "The muttaqi will want to be in the masjid" — i.e., they will feel comfortable being in the masjid as they will in their house. 19 Ahl al-Suffa (‫ )أهل الصفة‬- the People of the Suffa. 20 Both his parents were the first shaheeds. 368 killing me by giving me two stones and they are only carrying one stone." The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬smiled and said, "No, O Son of Sumayyah, they are not killing you. Rather, the people who shall kill you will be al-Fiat al-Baghiyah." The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬also said, "Everyone is getting one reward and you are getting two. And the last thing you shall drink in this world will be a glass of milk." Subhan'Allah. Ammar only joked with the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, and the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬ responded with a hadith that would carry such deep theological and historical implications. Ammar ibn Yasir's death would become a very important death in Islam. Why? Because during the time of fitna (37 AH, in Ali's khilafa), Ammar would choose to be on the side of Ali RA against the forces of Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan RA (‫)معاوية بن أبي سفيان‬. Thus as Sunni, we believe that Ali was closer to the truth than Muawiyah, based on this hadith of Ammar. But also as Sunni, we respect all of the sahaba, so we don't say anything bad about Muawiyah. We say Muawiyah was sincere too — it's just that Ali was closer to the truth — radi-Allahu-anhum ajma'in. And indeed, as the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬prophesied, Ammar ibn Yasir drank some milk, went to fight in the battle against the forces of Muawiyah, and he died from an arrow shot. ______________ Changing of the Rak'at & the Legislation of Adhan Moving on to the prayers in the masjid. We don't know exactly when the changing of the rak'at of the 5 salahs occurred. Recall the 5 salahs were given during al-Isra wal-Mi'raj. However, at that time, every single salah was two rak'at. In Sahih Bukhari, Aisha RA tells us, "When we came to Madinah, the salahs were placed as you know them; and the two rak'at were kept for the traveler." This shows us, therefore, that at some point in the early Madinan phase, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and the sahaba started praying as we now know it: 2-4-4-3-4. Before this, every salah was just two rak'at. And then the sunan and the nawafil were added. As to the call of prayer: The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬called the sahaba and asked them, "How should we call the people at the time of the salah?" One said, "Let us use a bell like the 21 Side notes: This shows us the sahaba had a sense of humor with the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. It also shows a fiqhi point: When it comes to these types of jokes, it is not considered 'lying' as long as the person you are speaking to understands that it is a joke. 22 Notice the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬called him "Son of Sumayyah" to give honor to his mother Sumayyah, the first shaheed in our religion. Forever afterwards the sahaba would call him "Son of Sumayyah" because the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬called him this. 23 Al-Fiat al-Baghiyah (‫ )الفئة الباغية‬- the Group That Has Gone Beyond the Bounds. 24 As a footnote: There were three groups of sahaba during the time of fitna: The group of Ali. The group of Muawiyah. The group that didn't fight, i.e., the abadilah: Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, Abdullah ibn Umar, and Abdullah ibn Abbas — they were asked multiple times to take part, but they said no. And Ibn Taymiyyah says, "This group of sahaba [who didn't pick sides] was ON the truth; Ali was *closer* to the truth; and Muawiyah was *not as close* as Ali." 25 Radi-Allahu-anhum ajma'in (‫ )رضي هللا عنهم أجمعين‬- may Allah be pleased with them all. 369 Christians." But this was discarded. Others say, "Let us use a shofar (i.e., a horn)." But this was discarded too. And others gave other ideas, but no idea basically made sense, so the meeting finished without any idea being chosen. That night, two people saw a dream: Umar RA and Abdullah ibn Zayd (‫ )عبد هللا بن زيد‬RA. Their dreams were the same. Abdullah ibn Zayd saw in his dream a man selling some items (either the horn or the bell or something). So he went up to him and said, "Can I buy these items?" The man said, "Why?" He said, "Because the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬wants to decide how to call the people to prayer, so I'm thinking one of these will do the job." The man said, "Should I not tell you something better than that?" Abdullah said, "Of course." The man said, "When you want to call the people to prayer, say, 'Allahu'akbar, Allahu'akbar (and all the way to the end — basically adhan as we know it now).'" And then he woke up — this dream was so vivid he rushed to the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬to tell him. And the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "This is a true dream, insha'Allah." And it's clear from the report that Abdullah ibn Zayd was hoping to be the muezzin — but the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬had other plans. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "Stand up, O Bilal, because you have the loudest voice." And the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬told Abdullah ibn Zayd to stand with Bilal to tell him the adhan. So Abdullah ibn Zayd told him every phrase, and Bilal repeated it in a loud voice. And as Bilal is saying the adhan, Umar RA comes rushing into the masjid without having fully tied his lower garment, and says to the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, "O Messenger of Allah, I saw these phrases in my dream [too]." So it appears Allah AWJ had shown the dream to multiple of the sahaba — and He had willed that Abdullah ibn Zayd is the one who gets the honor of telling it to the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. It is important to note that this is *the only* aspect of our shariah legislated by the dream of a sahabi. It is also important to note that technically, the dream itself was not the source of the legislation, but rather, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬saying "it is true." We DO NOT base our shariah on dreams — if the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬had not said "it is true," we would not have based our shariah on it. Why was the adhan legislated in this manner? Allah knows best. Sh. YQ hasn't found anybody commenting on this. And Sh. YQ also tried to look up about Abdullah ibn Zayd, but all he could find was a statement from Ibn Hajar who said, "This is the sahabi who is famous for the story of the dream." That's it. So why did Allah choose him for the dream? We do not know. ______________ Houses of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬ So the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬spent around 2-3 weeks building his mosque, and thereafter, started building his houses. At the time, he had 2 wives: Sawda RA and Aisha RA. And both of their houses were built next to the masjid. These were the only two houses of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬that were connected to the masjid. Note Sawda RA was an elderly lady and senior to 26 And there are authentic hadiths that mention the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬did not like bells, and that he also said, "The angels do not accompany any caravan that has a bell." 27 So technically, Abdullah ibn Zayd did give the first adhan. 28 Other wives were married later on by a number of years; and by that time, people had moved in and connected other houses to the masjid, so the Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬other wives' houses were in a separate block, i.e., they didn't have direct entrances to the masjid. 370 the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in age. She wanted to please the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬so much that she told him one year, "Ya Rasulullah, I am an elderly lady, and I know that you prefer the company of Aisha, so I will gift my night to her." This means Aisha's RA house was the only house the Prophet ‫* ﷺ‬lived in* that was connected to the masjid. Sawda's RA house was connected as well, but the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬didn't spend the night there. He would visit Sawda and spend time with her during the day, but he would not spend the night in her house, because she gifted her night to Aisha. ______________ Next time, we will discuss the pairing up of the Muhajirun and the Ansar [episode 32], and the constitution that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬drew up between the Ansar, the Muhajirun, the pagans, and the Jews, of Madinah [episode 33]. This was an unprecedented constitution. ______________ Q&A Sunnah prayer. The regular sunan can be divided into two categories: 1) Sunan al-Ratibah = prayers that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬would do as a habit, i.e., the 10 or 12 rak'at that are linked to the 5 daily salawat. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said in a hadith, "Whoever prays for the sake of Allah 10 rak'at a day, Allah will build a palace for him in Jannah." 12 has also been reported. These 10 or 12 rak'at are: Fajr: 2 sunnah before Fajr Zuhr: 4 before Zuhr, 2 after (some say 2 before, and 2 after) Maghrib: 2 after Maghrib Isha: 2 after Isha These are the Sunan al-Rawatib (or Sunan al-Ratibah) which the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬always prayed when he wasn't traveling. Except for the sunnah of Fajr, he would pray it even when he was traveling. 2) Witr prayer. In the terminology of hadith, witr prayer is basically tahajjud and is basically qiyam al-layl. Witr = tahajjud = qiyam al-layl. (It's basically the same concept: "the night prayer.") Witr can be said any time after Isha until Fajr. If you can't get to the level of excellence of waking up at 3 AM, you can pray it before going to sleep — but it's the least rewarding to do so. Witr is basically praying an odd number of rak'at — the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬ would usually pray 11 or 13. This the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬would never miss even when he was traveling. Ibn Taymiyyah and others say witr was wajib upon the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬no matter what (but not upon his ummah), based on verse [17:79] in the Quran. There is also nafl prayer which is unlimited in its scope. You may pray it at any time of the day and night, as long as it's not in the times of prohibition. 371  032. The People of As-Suffa Note: The episode is mistakenly titled "The People of As-Suffa." A more fitting title would be "The Muakha." If you want to learn about the People of As-Suffa, jump to episode 34. Tangent: Establishment of Hijri Calendar During the Reign of Umar RA Before we move on — there is an interesting important milestone in our history that is not related directly to the incident of the Hijrah, but it is very important for our history, and that is the establishment of the Islamic calendar based upon the Hijrah. A sign of civilization is to have a calendar, script, architecture, etc. And the Arabs did not have a calendar that they relied upon. The whole miracle of Islam is that it came and transformed this backward society to become the rulers of the entire world — and Allah says this in the Quran [21:10]: "We have revealed a Book, in it will be your remembrance / legacy." The Arabs had many problems: 1. They didn't have a unified calendar; rather, each tribe had its own calendar system. And it's based upon important incidents, e.g., when someone important in their tribe dies, they call the whole year "the year of the death of the chieftain" — and they would use these as demarcations, e.g., "two years after the death of the chieftain," "three years before the incident of the elephant," etc. Any important incident becomes a milestone — and every few years, some milestone happens, and they would just calculate their calendar and sense of time around this. But of course, this was just a local decentralized calendar to each tribe. 2. There was also a very confusing practice that the jahili Arabs had: al-Nasi (‫)النسيء‬ [see Quran, 9:37]. In the time of Ibrahim AS, Allah revealed down the shariah that 4 months of the year will be sacred. Allah tells this in the Quran, "Indeed, the number of months with Allah is 12 [lunar] months in the register of Allah [from] the day He created the heavens and the earth; of these, four are sacred" [Quran, 9:36]. The concept of keeping four months sacred is from the time of Ibrahim AS, and the Arabs knew and followed this. But the issue was that the powerful tribes (e.g., the Quraysh) would flaunt these four months. Suppose they wanted to declare a war and it just so happened it's in the Sacred Month (and of course you can't have any fighting during a Sacred Month), so they would just swap the current month around — e.g., they would change Muharram to Safar. This is called al-Nasi, and it's a type of kufr. Literally, they would swap months around at their desire, announce this, and the other tribes would pay heed to this and follow them. 29 Allah decreed there is 12 months from the beginning of time. And notice that every significant calendar on the face of this world has had 12 months. It's in the shariah of the earliest prophets. Where did the Romans, Persians, etc., get 12? All of this goes back to the original shariah that Allah revealed down. And 7 days of the week is also in the shariah — Allah decreed this. 30 See Quran, 9:37. 372  Now imagine what would happen after decades and centuries of swapping months around. The entire months are going to be jumbled up like a jigsaw puzzle, and nobody has any idea what month should it actually be. So the months lost the significance of their order that they used to have. But the year the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬performed the Hajjat al-Wada' [episode 100], he announced that, "This year, the months have fallen in order the way that they were when Allah created the heavens and the earth." Allah willed that in the year of Hajjat al-Wada', the months go in their proper order. And the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "From now on, no swapping." So from that time up until our time, the [Hijri] months have been repeating correctly. And so the problem with the order of the months is taken care of. 3. The other issue is the year. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬did not directly institute a calendar. What happened was, one year —most likely in the 17th year of the Hijrah— one or two things happened: (1) Umar RA was presented with a case of two people fighting. One of them said, "He was supposed to pay me back money by Sha'ban, and it's already Ramadan." The other said, "No, I meant Sha'ban of next year. Not this year." So Umar RA said, "How are we going to decide this dispute?" — Each had a valid point because the contract just said "Sha'ban." Allah knows best — maybe both of them were honest; but this, of course, caused a problem. (2) Umar RA then got a letter from Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (‫أبو‬ ‫ )موسى األشعري‬or one of his governors, who said basically a similar thing, "O Umar, sometimes you tell us to do something by a particular month, but we don't know if you mean the same year's or the next year's month. So find a way to tell us." So Umar RA called a gathering of the sahaba to sort this out. One or two suggested, "We will follow the calendar of the Romans or the Persians," but this was immediately rejected because the Muslims realized they had their own civilization now — you don't need to be following others. So they decided to have their own calendar; and Umar RA asked, "Which year should we begin with?" The sahaba differed. One of them said: with the death of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. Another said: with the birth of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. Another said the Battle of Badr. Ali ibn Abi Talib said, "The year of the Hijrah shall be the first year of the calendar because this was the one decisive thing that changed the Muslims from being humiliated to being honored." The sahaba all agreed to this. Umar RA said, "This is the wisest opinion." The second issue is: Which month should be taken as the first month? People differed again. Some said Ramadan as it's the holiest month; others said Dhu al-Hijjah, Rajab, etc., until Uthman ibn Affan said, "It shall be Muharram." Why Muharram? Scholars have differed. Two reasons have been given by our classical scholars: i. It's linked to Ali's announcement of the year of the Hijrah being the first year. Which month did the Hijrah occur in? Yes, the month the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬Migrated was Safar — so why not choose Safar then? Because the announcement came for people to do Hijrah in Muharram, and the bulk of Muslims Emigrated then. So Muharram was taken as the first month. 31 Side note 1: Later scholars tried to read in a Quranic evidence for this (from verse [9:108]), but Allah knows best. 32 Side note 2: Hijri calendar starts with 1 AH; there is no 0 AH. 33 Late Safar to early Rabi' al-Awwal. 34 And only the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and a few other people Emigrated right at the end of Safar. 373  ii. In some reports, we find Uthman RA expressed a reason. In those days, the sahaba did Hajj pretty much every year. And for them, returning back from Hajj represented a new life and a fresh beginning. And when do you come back from Hajj? The end of Dhu al-Hijjah. So what month represents the new beginning? The following month, which is Muharram. So they took Muharram as the first month. The reason we are mentioning this tangent now is to show that the sahaba understood the significance of the Hijrah. ______________ Summary of the Madani Seerah The Makkan period lasted 13 years; the Madani period lasted 10 years — and this period can be split up into three distinct categories: 1. Era of consolidation: This was an era of internal dissent being eliminated. There were internal dissents from the hypocrites and the Jews — these were the two major points of weakness for the Muslims at the beginning, and the threats from the hypocrites were minimized, and those from the Jews were eliminated in the end. And there were also external threats from the Quraysh. This era of consolidation spanned from the beginning of the Hijrah up until the Battle of Ahzab [5 AH]. During this time, any opposition —internal and external— was either eliminated, or minimized to the extent that the existence of the Islamic state was no longer in threat. After this, the Muslim republic could stand confidently independent of any serious threats. In the beginning, the very existence of the ummah was at stake — the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬ himself said during the Battle of Badr, "O Allah, if this group [of Muslims] is destroyed, You will not be worshiped on earth," which shows how serious of a threat the Muslims were in. The Battle of Uhud was also the same. In the Battle of Ahzab, the Muslims were almost about to be eliminated — but of course, Allah protected them and destroyed the enemies — and this was when the tide began to shift. 2. Era of truce: This lasted two and a half years — from the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah [6 AH] up until the Conquest of Makkah [8 AH]. In this era, the Muslims witnessed peace along with the coexistence of non-Muslims. And the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬was sending out letters, emissaries, and envoys. During this era, the Muslim republic expanded fivefold. 3. Era of establishment: This is post-Conquest of Makkah [8 AH] up until the death of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in Rabi' al-Awwal in the 11th Hijrah. This is when Allah revealed the verses of Surah al-Nasr, "This is the ultimate victory" — i.e., that the entire Arabian Peninsula embraced Islam. 35 And there were pagans as well, but these were eventually eliminated. 36 So it expanded much more than in the era of war. 374  Note that even though we have discussed 53 years of the Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬life, the Madani seerah is three times as large as the Makkan seerah —because we have three times the information— so, there is still much more to go, insha'Allah. ______________ Loving Madinah Now, how did the Muhajirun like Madinah? The fact of the matter is, they did not like it. Not because of anything problematic, but because they missed home. There is truly no place like home. It doesn't matter how well you are treated at someone's house, or if you visit a fancy hotel, there is no place like home. The Muhajirun missed the environment, the city, and the people of Makkah, so much so that they literally fell sick. Aisha RA narrates that she visited Abu Bakr and Bilal RA after she arrived in Madinah and asked them, "How are you?" And she said both of them were moaning, and Abu Bakr was in a severe fever, and he said, "We wake up with our family, but death is closer to us than our shoelaces / sandal-straps" — he was so sick he was thinking of death. Aisha RA then asks Bilal and he also says some poetry, "How I wish that I would spend the night in a valley full of lemongrass and jalil," i.e., he is missing the thorny plants and dryness of Makkah. And Bilal said to Aisha, "May Allah's curse be on..." and he started listing the Quraysh leaders. Why? Because — he says, "They kicked us out of our houses" — and he is venting his anger out on them. And Aisha RA says she goes back to the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and tells him what had transpired. And so the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬made a special du'a for all of the Muhajirun (and Muslims in general), "O Allah, make Madinah beloved to us like we used to love Makkah, or even more." And, "O Allah, bless us in our food measurements; O Allah, remove the bad weather and diseases / plagues and throw it outside of Madinah in the barren land of Juhfah (‫)جحفة‬." And so slowly but surely, the love of Madinah entered their hearts, so much so that when the Muslims would go away from Madinah, they would count the days they were going to come back to the city. And when the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬would see Madinah in the distance, he would fasten his camel / horse to reach home quicker. And indeed, even today, when we visit Madinah, it is truly peaceful, and there is a sense of love for Madinah that is not felt elsewhere. ______________ The Hadith of Salam The famous first hadith that is narrated from Madinah was by Abdullah ibn Salam (‫عبد‬ ‫ — )هللا بن سالم‬the big Jewish rabbi who converted to Islam; one of the few who did. He said when he heard the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬arrived in Quba, he rushed to take a look at him. And he was of the first who arrived. And when he saw the face of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, he knew that, "This face is not the face of a liar" — Allah AWJ allows righteousness and piety to show in a way that we will never understand. This is called firasa (‫)فراسة‬: pure people can sense pure 37 Madinah had more plagues than Makkah. 375 people. (And in one hadith, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬affirmed the reality of firasa.) And Abdullah ibn Salam says the first thing he heard the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬say was, "Spread the greetings of salam; feed the people; be good to your relatives; and pray during the night when everybody is asleep. You will enter Jannah in salam (peace)." So the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is encouraging being brotherly, kind, and generous, from day one. And then he went a step further and instituted the concept of muakha: ______________ The Muakha (‫)المؤاخاة‬: The Pairing up of the Muhajirun and the Ansar Of the early things the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬did —so much so that one of the earlier scholars said he did this even before the masjid was built— was he made a muakha between the Muhajirun and the Ansar, despite the fact that he had already encouraged the Ansar to be generous to the Muhajirun (and they were indeed generous). ______________ Tangent: Generosity of the Ansar Allah SWT mentions the generosity of the Ansar in the Quran [59:9]: ‫ُون َع َل ٰ ٓى َأنفُسِ ِه ْم‬ ۟ ‫اج ۭ ًة ِّممَّٓا ُأو ُت‬ َ ‫اج َر ِإ َلي ِْه ْم َواَل َي ِج ُد‬ َ ‫َّار َوٱِإْلي َم ٰـ َن مِن َق ْبل ِِه ْم ُي ِحب‬ َ ‫َوٱلَّذ‬ َ ‫ِين َت َبوَّ ءُو ٱلد‬ َ ‫وا َويُْؤ ِثر‬ ِ ‫ص ُد‬ َ ‫ور ِه ْم َح‬ ُ ‫ون فِى‬ َ ‫ُّون َمنْ َه‬ ْ ْ َ ‫ِئك ُه ُم ٱل ُمفلِح‬ ‫ُون‬ َ ۟ ‫ُأ‬ َ ْ َ ُ َ ٓ‫ُوق ش َّح نفسِ هِۦ ف ول ٰـ‬ َ ‫اص ۭة ۚ َو َمن ي‬ٌ َ ‫ص‬ َ َ ‫ان ِب ِه ْم خ‬ َ ‫َو َل ْو َك‬ "And those who prepared the abode (‫ )الدار‬and [adopted] the faith before them. They love those who Emigrated to them and found no hesitancy to give everything. And they preferred others over themselves, even if they themselves were in poverty." The Ansar gave the Muhajirun everything they needed, from home, to food, to animals, etc. It is even reported in Sahih Bukhari that the Ansar came to the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and said, "O Messenger of Allah, we shall give half of our land over to the Muhajirun." And the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬made du'a for them, but he refused to accept such a generous gift. He said, "They (the Muhajirun) will take care of the manual labor, and you will share in the produce," i.e., let them do work for the dates and for the privilege. Subhan'Allah, this shows us the spirit of Islam — that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬did not want these free handouts; he wanted the Muhajirun to work. And he also didn't want shaytan to maybe bring animosity between the Muslims 5 generations or 5 decades later; the descendants of the Ansar might say, "Oh, we gave you all of this for free," etc. You never know. The Ansar of course had pure hearts, but how about their descendants? Or the munafiqun who were forced to give? So this is the long-term 38 Salam (‫ )سالم‬- peace. 39 Al-Muakha (‫ )المؤاخاة‬- making people 'akhi,' i.e., 'brothers' 40 The Ansar (‫ )األنصار‬- the Helpers. 41 Side note: Notice Allah called Madinah "the abode / home / house" — this is an interesting noun to use. And also note He said THE house, instead of THEIR house. What's the difference? It is technically the house of the Ansar, so if Allah had said, "Those who had prepared THEIR house," this would have been accurate; but He didn't — Allah called it THE house because the Ansar gave up half of their house to the Muhajirun. So Allah calls Madinah THE house of the Ansar and the Muhajirun. 376 thinking of the Prophet ‫ — ﷺ‬he cut off this possibility; even though it was such a generous gift. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, 'No. They shall do work, and take their wages in dates and in food. And you can take your percentage as well.' So he insisted the Muhajirun to do work, and he insisted the Ansar be generous too. ______________ (Cont.) The Muakha The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬paired every single male Muhajir with an Ansari. In this early stage, the pairing was so complete that they would be considered like full brothers even in inheritance (but this was of course later abrogated). It is mentioned that over 100 such pairs were done — which basically means, for every single male Muhajir, there was a pair done. One of the examples is the muakha between Abu Bakr and Kharijah ibn Zayd (‫)خارجة بن زيد‬. And every time you look at the biographies of the people that are being paired, you find that they have a lot of things in common — they were very similar. Abu Bakr and Kharijah ibn Zayd were both one of the noblemen of their people. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬knows exactly who he is pairing with who. Every one of these names that had been paired together, we also find them mentioned in the seerah many times together. Which means they took this pairing-together very seriously that they literally became like brothers to one another. For example, the famous story about when Salman al-Farisi visited Abu Darda (‫ )أبو الدرداء‬in his house. Another famous story is of Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (Muhajir) and Sa'd ibn al-Rabi' (Ansari). Sa'd wanted to split everything down the middle and give it to Abd al-Rahman: his house, his money, his land, and he even offered one of his two wives. But Abd al-Rahman said, "May Allah bless you even more in your money and your family — but I don't want any of this; just tell me where the marketplace is." And Abd al-Rahman worked hard, bought and sold items, engaged in trade, until he got some money, and built himself up. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬saw him one day walking by in fancy clothing with perfume; and Abd al-Rahman informed him that he got married to a woman of the Ansar. Notice the generosity of the Ansari and the self-honor of the Muhajir. One is offering out of Iman, and the other is declining out of Iman. The Ansar, in fact, helped the Muhajirun so much that the Muhajirun went to the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬worried and said, "O Messenger of Allah, we have never seen a group of people like this: They share everything with us equally at times of difficulty, and are generous with us at times of ease; they have taken care of our needs, and allowed us to share with them in good — so much so that we are worried." They are worried that the Ansar will take all of their ajr away from them; that all of the rewards from enduring the torture in Makkah, leaving behind their wealth for the sake of Allah, etc., will go to the Ansar. Look at the complaint — it's truly amazing! (It's not a complaint against the Ansar, obviously; it's a troubled worriness that they have about their own good deed.) The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "No. They will not get all of your reward as long as you praise them and make du'a for them." 'You have your reward, they have their reward.' So what the Muhajirun did cannot be just taken by the Ansar. This is why the Muhajirun are at a higher level than the Ansar, even after all that the Ansar did. 377  We already mentioned that the pairs would even inherit from one another — until finally, after the Battle of Badr [2 AH], Allah revealed Surah al-Anfal and said, ‫ب هَّللا ِ ۗ ِإنَّ هَّللا َ ِب ُك ِّل‬ ِ ‫ض فِي ِك َتا‬ َ ‫اجرُوا َو َجا َه ُدوا َم َع ُك ْم َفُأو ٰ َل‬ ُ ْ‫ِئك مِن ُك ْم ۚ َوُأولُو اَأْلرْ َح ِام َبع‬ ٍ ْ‫ض ُه ْم َأ ْو َل ٰى ِب َبع‬ َ ‫َوالَّذ‬ َ ‫ِين آ َم ُنوا مِن َبعْ ُد َو َه‬ ‫َشيْ ٍء َعلِي ٌم‬ "And those who believed after [the initial Emigration] and Emigrated and fought with you — they are of you. But those of [blood] relationship are more entitled [to inheritance] in the decree of Allah. Indeed, Allah is Knowing of all things" [8:75], i.e., this abrogated the inheritance clause between each pair. ______________ Points of Benefit From Muakha There are several points regarding the muakha: 1. We need to resurrect this sunnah of muakha. The muakha began in the early Madani phase and continued right until the end, even after the Conquest of Makkah. How do we know? By the names of the people mentioned who were paired together. E.g., Salman al-Farisi and Abu Darda. And Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, he came to Madinah in the 7th year of the Hijrah, and still, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬did muakha between him and Mu'adh ibn Jabal. It's also mentioned that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬did muakha for Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan — and he accepted Islam after the Conquest of Makkah [8 AH]. So, this shows us that the concept of pairing people together was not something that was unique only to the beginning of Islam. It lasted throughout the entire course of the Madani phase. Therefore from this, we extract that this is a neglected sunnah — and up until our time, we should be doing this, especially when people convert to Islam. We need to resurrect this sunnah. 2. It also shows that for any society to grow and develop, there needs to be a strong bond between the people. And the strongest of bonds is a bond of religion. Because the people of a religion, they share many things in common that really define ethics, outlook on life, etc. In fact, the Quran [49:10] tells us that this is indeed the strongest bond. When you look at this early society of Muslims, you find that no society in the history of mankind has been as selfless and as generous to strangers as them. And it's one thing to do it — and then Allah praised the purity of their hearts from above the seventh heaven, saying, "They love whoever Immigrates to them, never having a desire in their hearts for whatever [of the gains] is given to the Muhajirun" [Quran, 59:9]. Never in the history of humanity have we found this type of example of selflessness, of genuinely giving for the sake of the other. And it is impossible for any society to achieve such standards without having these bonds — and that is what the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬established as soon as he moved to Madinah. 3. Also realize that the true leader —the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in this case— cannot just give general advice and leave it at that. Rather, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬implemented this decision [of muakha] himself. How so? He himself chose the two people one after the other — because he knew each one of the Muhajirun better than anybody else, so he knew who was the most qualified to be the brother of each Muhajir. Therefore, we learn that the real leader is not just theory and talk, he is also practice and action. Anas ibn Malik mentions, "The Prophet ‫ﷺ‬ 378 [literally] sat down and did the muakha in our house." And this shows the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬ was a very practical and pragmatic visionary — not just somebody talking theoretically. 4. It also shows us the wisdom of Allah in gradually formulating the laws of the shariah. As we know, the shariah came down bit by bit — it didn't just come down altogether. In the beginning, when the Muhajirun had no family, the Ansar literally became their family — there was even inheritance between the two. Then Allah made it easier, and once the Muhajirun had their own family, He changed the laws of inheritance. For that generation, Allah allowed them to experience the shariah being brought down in a gradual manner. Similarly, the prohibition of wine did not come down overnight: It came down in four steps. First, it was discouraged, until it was forbidden in the end [see episode 54]. Question: If a new convert in our times comes and says, "Why can't I use this four-step program to give up alcohol? Give me one year for each of these stages," etc., the response is, by unanimous consensus of all the scholars of Islam, a new convert is not allowed this privilege that the sahaba had. Why? The sahaba were the first society of Muslims — they had no role model or support. Whereas when a convert comes to Islam, there is a society up and running exemplifying the shariah. Therefore, you cannot give him the laxities the first generation had. So we will say, "You are not going to be given this concession. You are required to stop drinking instantly." Not only this, we know that technically, the convert should start praying immediately, even if he has to hold a paper during prayer to recite al-Fatiha. Technically, the shariah is applicable upon him instantly — but of course, it's a different story that we as a community need to be wise in gradually telling him what to do. 5. It shows the status of the Ansar: Allah praises them in multiple verses, which is why loving the Ansar is a sign of Iman. And in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "The sign of Iman is to love the Ansar; and a sign of hypocrisy is to hate the Ansar." Therefore, we must love the Ansar. In fact, so much is the blessings of the Ansar the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬even said to them, "Were it not for the Hijrah, I would have considered myself one of you. If all of mankind went in one direction and the Ansar went in another direction, I would choose the direction of the Ansar." When did he say this? After the Conquest of Makkah [see episode 83]. The amount of praise he gave to the Ansar is literally unprecedented — but note the Muhajirun still have a degree above them. Subhan'Allah. Whenever Allah praises the Ansar, He praises the Muhajirun before them every time. He SWT says in the Quran: ‫ار‬ َ ‫ين َواَأْل‬ ِ ‫نص‬ َ ُ‫ون اَأْلوَّ ل‬ َ ‫ون م َِن ْال ُم َها ِج ِر‬ َ ُ‫َّابق‬ ِ ‫َوالس‬ "The first people to embrace Islam from the Muhajirin and the Ansar..." [9:100]. ‫ار‬ َ ‫ين َواَأْل‬ ِ ‫نص‬ َ ‫اب هَّللا ُ َع َلى ال َّن ِبيِّ َو ْال ُم َها ِج ِر‬ َ ‫لَّ َقد َّت‬ "Allah has already forgiven the Prophet and the Muhajirin and the Ansar..." [9:117]. And even in the highest praise to the Ansar in verse [59:9], Allah praised the Muhajirun first in verse [59:8] — the verse right before it. 42 Side note: What does it mean "in our house (‫ ?")في دارنا‬Scholars say probably Anas meant in his area of Madinah, because the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬didn't have the masjid yet. 379  033. The Treaty & Constitution of Madinah The Constitution of Madinah The next major incident of the early Madani period is the promulgation of the Constitution of Madinah. What exactly is this constitution? One of the problems we have is this constitution is not mentioned in every classical source of seerah; and those that mention it, sometimes they mention it without a chain of narrators (isnad). When we go back to Ibn Ishaq, he mentions it in full, but says, "It has been narrated to me" — the issue here is there are 150 years between him and the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, so we don't have a direct isnad. Other early books sometimes mention the Constitution as well, but again, without a full chain of narrators. Some books of hadith, e.g., Musnad Imam Ahmad, do mention one phrase of the Constitution — but the problem comes is that there is no early book that mentions the *whole* constitution *with* an isnad. And this has led some people to doubt there ever was a constitution; they say, "There is no evidence for this constitution to have taken place." However, many modern researchers say, even if there is no chain of narrators, when you look at this constitution and its language, you see that it uses a very archaic language — a language that is not common even in the time of Ibn Ishaq; and if somebody were to fabricate it, he wouldn't have fabricated it with such a difficult language. And therefore, the majority of scholars of our times consider this constitution to be an authentic constitution. Note we will not discuss every single clause — because the Constitution takes up 5 pages. What we will do is break up the Constitution into four issues: 1. Everything related to the Muslims 2. Everything related to the Jews 3. Everything related to the pagans 4. Everything related to everyone in general The constitution is written in a very difficult language; and it's composed of sentences, e.g., "The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said this, and he said this, and he said this," and a lot of what is mentioned are the names of tribes that we don't know anymore. It mentions every single 43 Imam al-Dhahabi and others just gloss over the Constitution. It seems many people underestimated the importance of this constitution. Ibn Sa'd and al-Waqidi hardly mention it. And it's mentioned in bits and pieces by others. So it seems the significance of the Constitution is not fully appreciated. For us who live in Muslim minority lands, however, this constitution is very heartening and optimistic. 44 Imam Ahmad says, "The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬wrote a book between the Muhajirun and the Ansar, and this book mention in it: 'Every one of them would take care of their own debts and problems, and there will be islah (‫ )إصالح‬and ma'ruf (‫ )معروف‬between them.'" 45 Recall "the Ansar" means "the Helpers," and they were composed primarily of the Aws and the Khazraj, but there were more than these two; and even within the Aws and the Khazraj, there are at least 40-50 subtribes. And for most of these subtribes, we don't have much details of their names. 380 one of these names and what is required of this subtribe. The same applies for the Jews: There were three large tribes, but within them, there were many subtribes. And the way the Constitution was written was very different from today: sentences were jumbled up (not each in their own section), and it's very difficult to analyze. So we will simplify it: 1. Clauses Related to the Muslims — Of the clauses, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said in the Constitution, "The Muslims from the Quraysh and Yathrib, and those who join them, are one ummah. And this ummah is in and unto itself." — He then mentions 40 subtribes all by name, and says, "Every subtribe will be left with their own responsibilities they had before Islam. They shall take care of their own blood-money disputes, their own prisoners of war, and their own poor." So in this early stage, the welfare system was local — if someone needed help, they would keep it to a tribal level. — Another clause: All of the Muslims shall unite against those who do injustice, even if it be one of their own. So this means if somebody does zulm (oppression), even if he is a Muslim, everyone will unite against him. — The final clause was, "The dhimmah granted by the Muslims is the same, and even the lowliest of them can give protection." What is the concept of dhimmah? In that Islamic state, how did somebody get a 'visa' to enter Dar al-Islam (Madinah)? The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is saying every Muslim has the right to give anybody whom they know this 'visa', even if the person giving this 'visa' is the lowliest of society — he has the permissibility to allow anybody to enter Madinah. So this is the 'visa.' And if somebody comes in with this 'visa,' nobody can harm him. 46 Which is, in fact, a sign of its authenticity. 47 Notice the name "Yathrib" is used, which again shows its authenticity, because right when the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬came, Madinah was still called Yathrib. The fact that it's called Yathrib shows he is talking to people who are not used to the name Madinah yet. 48 Also, notice the term "Muhajirun" and "Ansar" is not used yet. 49 Meaning the ummah is unique to itself to the exclusion of the rest of mankind. This is a unique ummah. You have bonds that nobody else can share 50 And this actually goes back to the Hilf al-Fudul — "Everybody will be united against the zalim even if they are one of our own" [see episode 8]. 51 Dhimmah (‫ )ذمة‬- protection. 52 i.e., protection / dhimmah. 53 Even if they are a slave or a child at the age of tamyiz (‫)تمييز‬. 381  2. Clauses Related to the Jews Again, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬mentioned all of the Jewish tribes by name specifically, and then: — He ‫ ﷺ‬said, "All of these Jews are one ummah, along with the Believers." Meaning they have a type of status that in some ways is equivalent to the Muslim ummah. And the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said they shall take care of their own disputes, affairs, blood money, internal crime, etc. — meaning they are all in charge of it, unless they wish to come to the Muslims for help OR if it involves an event between both the Jews and the Muslims. If there is zulm, murder, etc., between the two ummahs, then it will go to the higher authority. Otherwise, the affairs of the Jews are the business of the Jews. — The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬further said, "Between the two (i.e., the Muslims and the Jews) shall be mutual support against those who fight the subjects / people of this constitution. And the Jews will spend along with the Muslims as long as they are being fought." So notice: Yes, financial obligations for domestic affairs are not the same, but when it comes to dealing with external enemies, financial obligations are the same — the Muslims must spend on defense, and the Jews must equally spend on defense. Both will spend for the sake of the protection of Madinah. Therefore, in times of crisis, the two shall unite and help one another — both the Jews and the Muslims are responsible for the costs. — The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, no Jews can leave Madinah without his permission ‫ﷺ‬. And note that in 7th century Arabia, "leaving [your place of residence]" essentially meant changing your citizenship. It was a very different time. Where you live was where your tribe was where your loyalty was where your 'passport' — it was all the same. So for them to leave Madinah basically meant renouncing their citizenship and joining another camp — and you cannot just leave without permission and become a traitor / neutral. To this day, if you want to give up your US citizenship, you must renounce it. Similarly in the case of Madinah. — Another clause is that if any Jew wishes to convert to Islam, he shall be helped and protected, and no injustice shall be done to him (i.e., nobody can harm him). 3. Clauses Related to the Pagans Note the fact that there were clauses for the pagans shows that there were still pagans in Madinah at this early stage. Their presence in Madinah lasted up until the Battle of Badr [2 AH] — when the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬returned from the battle victorious, that's when every pagan realized that, "We are such a small minority, we can't stay pagan now," and they converted. 54 And there were around 12 different tribes. 55 The Muslims must take care of their poor, and the Jews will take care of their poor; the Muslims sort out their feuds, and the Jews theirs. 56 i.e., if someone attacks Madinah. 57 And consequently, that's also when the phenomenon of nifaq (‫ نفاق‬- hypocrisy) began. 382  — The main clause is that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "No mushrik shall offer protection to the Quraysh even if it is in return for life or money, nor shall he in any way come between the Quraysh and the Believers (i.e., to defend)" — i.e., the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is saying you cannot support the pagans in Makkah or defend them, or come between us and them. In short, to stay out of affairs between Makkah and Madinah. And this, by the way, shows us the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬allowed the pagans to be in Madinah. 4. Clauses Related to Everyone — The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said the interior of Yathrib is a Haram for the subjects of this constitution. Thus it's a sacred land and all the rules of a Haram must be followed (e.g., no weapons that are unsheathed; no plucking leaves or trees; no hunting; no fighting or killing; etc.) — And the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬also demarcated exactly what is Madinah: He mentioned the four points and said, "This is the Haram." At east and west are two labba (volcanic foundations); at south and north are the mountains of Ayr and Thawr. — He also said, "Whatever disagreement occurs between the peoples of this constitution which leads to internal fasad shall be decided by Allah and His Messenger." (E.g., disagreement between Muslims & Jews, Jews & pagans, pagans & Muslims.) — He also said, "It will not be allowed for any Believer who agrees to this constitution —and believes in Allah and the Last Day— to help or support any rebel (anybody who opposes this constitution). Whoever does so will have the curse of Allah, the angels, and all of mankind; and no good deed will be accepted from him." — The final point he mentions is, "Whoever leaves Madinah shall be safe, whoever stays in Madinah shall be safe, except for anyone who does an injustice or sin. And Allah will protect those who are pious and righteous..."—and the Constitution ends with—: "...and Muhammad is His Messenger." So you may come and go as you please as long as you haven't done a crime. 58 Tangent: Later on, the madhahib (‫ مذاهب‬- madhhabs) differed: Can pagans live in the state of Islam? [See also: episode 15.] Some schools of thought say no, but Hanafi school says yes. Of the evidences of the Hanafi thought is that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬allowed the pagans to live in Madinah. 59 And the bulk of people lived inside the Haram. 60 Fasad (‫ )فساد‬- discord. 383  ______________ Misinterpretations of the Constitution Some people exaggerate the importance of this constitution; others disregard it completely. This is the standard case of everything — some people go to one extreme, others go to the other extreme: One extreme: One academic Muslim leader in the 1980s said Thomas Jefferson read this constitution and based the whole American constitution on it. But to Sh. YQ, this type of mentality is a sign of an inferiority complex; that everything that is good somehow has to be linked to Islam and say "we invented it." There is no doubt this constitution was ahead of its time, and the Western civilization took some aspects from it — but to claim the whole constitution is based on that of Madinah's is far-fetched — because they are so different. Another extreme is the non-Muslims who try to read in evil intentions into the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and say he wanted to isolate the Jews by making them a separate ummah. These non-Muslims accuse the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬of treating the Jews unfairly. And for them, this is not an 'accusation' anymore; for them, it's a 'fact.' And they say this constitution is antisemitic. But obviously, this is not the case, because the same obligations on the Jews are on the Muslims. As usual, the truth is in between the two extremes. This constitution was very significant, it had a lot of long-range implications, and it established an overall philosophy of how an Islamic state is run. ______________ Points of Benefit From the Constitution 1. Of the most important concepts that this constitution puts into writing is that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is defining relationships based upon theology. This is completely unique in the history of Arabia. Because he said the Ansar, Muhajirun, etc., are all one ummah. And anyone who converts to the faith will become a part of the ummah. So the old system of lineage, of tribalism, of "you are who your father was" is being broken. Now you are who *you* are. At that time, this was completely unprecedented. Bilal RA was a slave and Abu Bakr RA was a nobleman from a pure lineage — however, this constitution in writing now means they are one and the same, in one ummah. Note the word "ummah" occurs in the Quran [23:52]. The word "ummah (‫ ")أمة‬comes from "umm (‫ ")أم‬which means "mother." And the word "umm" comes from "amma (‫ ")أم‬which means "to strive for." "Amma" is basically the object of attention; and when a child is born, that object is their mother, so a mother is called "umm." And the reason an ummah is called "ummah" is because the bonds between every person in that ummah are so strong that it's as if they have one mother; the people are bonded so strongly it's as if they are one family. 61 Of course, there are many other meanings of ummah — Ibrahim AS is called an ummah because the quality of his Iman is so strong it's as if he is a whole ummah by himself. The word has over 15 derived meanings. 384  2. This constitution demonstrates the justice of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. Contrary to what the non-Muslims in our time say, he treated the Jews with the utmost respect and gave them their full rights. And, as we will see throughout the upcoming episodes, the Jews were the ones who refused to take these privileges and kept on making things difficult for themselves. As we will see, they were treated the way they were treated because of their actions, not because of who they were. — And this is not antisemitism. Notice the constitution says, "‫اليهود‬ ‫( أمة مع المؤمنين‬The Jews are an ummah along with the Believers)," i.e., 'You are an ummah and we are an ummah — along with each other we are two ummahs.' The word used in Ibn Ishaq is literally "ma'a (‫ ")مع‬which means "along with" — it's an amazing respect given to the Jews. If they had fulfilled and lived up to the Constitution, they would have been shown the utmost honor, and they would have benefited the most. They were tradesmen, jewelers, craftsmen, businessmen, etc., and the success of the Muslims would have meant their success as well — because they were a part of the community. They would have risen along with the Muslims. But they broke these promises. The clause was very clear: Do not side with the pagans against us. But the Banu Qurayza did [see episode 59]. So what came to them was fully deserved. Similarly the Banu Nadir [see episode 53] and the Banu Qaynuqa [see episode 43]. 3. Another benefit of this constitution is that we are seeing that the Prophet's ‫ﷺ‬ political status has now become a de facto leader. His followers are so numerous he can establish a constitution on their behalf. Even the Jews and the pagans — they are told that they do have independence, but if something happens that deals with each other, they must come to the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. Therefore, this constitution made official what was already understood: The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is the de facto and the accepted ruler of Madinah. 4. Notice there is no mention of jizya (‫ )جزية‬in the Constitution. Why? Because Allah AWJ had not revealed the laws of jizya yet. 5. Another benefit is: The reality of Islam —without any political correctness or appeasement— is that freedom of religion is guaranteed by the shariah — not to an unlimited extent, but to a great extent. No doubt, classical Islamic fiqh did not give the types of freedom the modern secular world gives: a non-Muslim does not have the right to preach and convert others; but apart from that, pretty much everything is allowed. The non-Muslims are even allowed to sell alcohol amongst themselves. This is the type of freedom that Islam allowed. The irony is, in our times, we Muslims are accused of being intolerant — but yet, if we compare our track record with the accuser's, it's unbelievable how they can have the audacity to say that we are religiously intolerant. We cannot allow people to say things about Islam when they don't even know their own faith. They have no right to tell us that our faith was intolerant, when, Western powers were frankly the most religiously intolerant in the history of humanity. Even when Constantine converted to Christianity, what did he do? He 62 So much so the books of fiqh discuss the issue if a Muslim is married to a Christian lady, can he prevent her from drinking wine? And the majority of scholars say no. He can enforce the wine not be in the house, but he cannot prevent her from drinking, because wine is 'halal' for her, and the Catholics drink it in their churches as a part of their rituals. 385 adopted a version of Trinitarian Christianity and outlawed all other Christianities — e.g., those who believed that Jesus is al-Masih and not the son of God, and those who believed that Christianity is not a new religion. Constantine came along and banned everyone who didn't follow his version of Christianity. Everyone had to either flee or get killed. Arius, the main opponent of Constantine, did not believe in the Trinity or Divinity of Jesus. He had to run away and go down south. And this is just the beginning. And throughout medieval times, the Catholic church killed millions. And we are not talking about killing Jews or others, we are talking about killing fellow Christians! The Roman Catholic church could not tolerate dissent! And there was a group called the Huguenots — again, tens of thousands were killed. The Anabaptists as well: 20,000-30,000 were killed. And there were wars between Catholics and Protestants. Even Martin Luther had to flee to Switzerland because Roman Catholics wanted to kill him. This is not even intolerance of another religion; this is intolerance within their *own* religion! It's ironic that even John Locke said to look at the Turks. He is putting the Ottomans (Turks) as the role models. John Locke said to the Christians: The Turks allow different faiths to live peacefully — why don't you follow them? 6. Getting back to the Constitution: We notice the semi-independence of every single group of people. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is giving them almost full independence *within* the state of Islam: each group is responsible for their own affairs — the positives and the negatives, including crimes and issues. However, when it comes to the issues of the state, everyone becomes *one* group. E.g., if an external threat comes, they will be united. 7. Another benefit: It doesn't matter if you are a Muslim or a non-Muslim, if you commit a crime, you will be dealt with and not be protected. The Constitution says, "All of the Muslims shall unite against those who do injustice, even if it be one of their own." So simply being a Muslim does not let you off the hook. If someone commits a crime, everyone has to unite against him regardless of his religion. No one can shelter a murderer, a thief, a fraudster, or a criminal. Again, these are novel ideas for the time. 8. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬accepted the legal norms and urf of every tribe, as long as they did not conflict with the shariah. He allowed the tribes to deal with their own internal laws as long as they did not conflict with the laws of the shariah. 63 Al-Masih (‫ )المسيح‬- the Messiah. 64 i.e., that Christianity is just "Judaism + believing in al-Masih." 65 It's said he went down to what is in the time of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬Abyssinia; and it's said therefore the ruler of Abyssinia was aware of the Arian creeds. 66 John Locke — the main founding father of intellectual political science of this country; considered to be the greatest philosopher of the time. 67 Side note: Some people in our time say the system of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is a federalist system. And even though trying to read modern terms back into history is a little bit problematic, there is an element of truth to this. 68 Urf (‫ )عرف‬- custom. 69 And we should be aware that there are five Qawa'id Fiqhiyyah (‫ قواعد فقهية‬- Major Fiqhi Rules that govern all of fiqh) — and one of them is: In the absence of a shar'i ruling, the culture of a people (how people typically interact with one another) will be given precedence. 386  ______________ What Has Occurred in Madinah Since the Arrival of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬ Let us now take a look back and see what exactly has occurred since the arrival of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in Madinah: i) The first thing the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬does is build a masjid — and the masjid is of course the basis of tawhid and the fundamental of religion. ii) He then establishes the bonds between the Muhajirun and the Ansar through the muakha (pairing). iii) He then makes this entire constitution —where he ratifies / affirms the status of the Muslims, the Jews, and every single group— and forms the first Islamic state / the first federation. 387  034. Change of the Qiblah & Abrogation in Qur'an We pointed out that the Constitution of Madinah was unprecedented and forward-thinking. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬gave each religious group nearly complete independence, and then put some bonds between them that were more political in nature. Philosophical Tangent: Bonds of Religion vs. Bonds of Nationality The modern world is divided into nation-states, and we are told to view each other based on our nationality: Americans, Canadians, British, Mexicans, Australians, Nicaraguans, etc., and we are told that this is the strongest bond. But if you really think about it, the bonds of the nation-state are actually pretty imaginary, because there is nothing that combines people of one nationality other than that nationality. E.g., what is the one thing common in all Americans? Is it language? Religion? Skin color? Ethnicity? Food? Hardly anything! In fact, the only thing that is common is the fact that we are American. Which is a circular conundrum. The modern world makes fun of religious people, saying, "You guys still view religion as being the primary factor?!" But wallahi, think about it logically: Religion gives you so many things in common: Ethics, values, philosophy of living, morality, language, qibla (which we are going to discuss today), etc., i.e., that which is genuinely important; not superficial things like skin color, ethnicity, etc. So it makes more sense to divide the system of governance based on religion rather than on nationality. ______________ The point is when the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬came to Madinah, he got rid of the "Aws vs. Khazraj" mentality, and retained the Yahud, Muslim, mushrik identity. And he put the Yahud as an ummah alongside the Muslims. Then he allowed each group to judge according to their own laws. He in fact gave each group semi-independence — even if murder occurs, "you guys deal with it internally" — unless it's the two groups that are fighting one another, then they had to go external. Otherwise, there was, for all practical purposes, complete independence. And this was completely unprecedented. As we have said, after the Battle of Badr [episode 42], the pagans of Madinah fizzled off — so there were two ummahs left after that. And if the Jews had fulfilled their part of the bargain, they certainly would have become the most successful Jewish community in the whole world. But instead, they did not appreciate the freedom — so what happened to them happened, as we will see in the upcoming episodes. And of course, non-Muslims in our time claim that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬was antisemitic. But we completely reject this allegation and will prove (in fact, already have) that this was not the case. 70 Yahud (‫ )يهود‬- the Jews. 71 Even though they had never been given that much freedom — a complete semi-independent state. 388  ______________ The Concept of Naskh (Abrogation) The next major incident took place a few months after the promulgation of the Constitution of Madinah. During these 7-8 months, nothing major occurred. Recall the seerah is like a series of snapshots where only major events are recorded — and in between them, there isn't a running list of events. The next major incident mentioned in the books of seerah is the change of qibla — and it occurred around 15-16 months after the Emigration of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. And it caused a mini-crisis. Why? For many reasons: Perhaps the main reason was that this was the first time Allah had abrogated a ruling. The concept of naskh was new to both Muslims and non-Muslims. What is abrogation? Allah reveals a law, then He reveals a new law to abrogate the first law. This is a detailed topic of Usul al-Fiqh. Classic example that we all know: Allah revealed in the Quran that those women whose husbands die shall wait one year before getting remarried [Quran, 2:240]. A few months / years later, Allah abrogated the year and put in place "4 months and 10 days" [Quran, 2:234]. So there are two verses in the Quran that clash — and it's not a contradiction, but rather, a clear case of abrogation. It's not a contradiction because we no longer implement the abrogated ruling. The first time abrogation occurred was pertaining to the change of qibla: ______________ Change of the Qibla 1. Background Initially, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬was told by Allah SWT to pray facing Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem) and he did so throughout his entire time in Makkah. It is reported in some of the books that whenever the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬prayed in Makkah facing Jerusalem, he would in fact put the Ka'bah in front of him — so he had a 'double qibla' basically. He would situate himself such that the Ka'bah was in front of him and Bayt al-Maqdis was also in that direction. Therefore, it's as if he wanted to pray facing the Ka'bah. And when the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬Emigrated to Madinah, initially, the qibla was still Bayt al-Maqdis —and as we know, Madinah is due north of Makkah; and Bayt al-Maqdis is due north of Madinah; so if you are in Madinah and want to pray facing Bayt al-Maqdis, you have 72 Naskh (‫ )نسخ‬- abrogation. 73 Side note: The Shia denies abrogation, the Mu'tazila denies abrogation, but we Ahl al-Sunnah affirms it. 74 Usul al-Fiqh (‫ )أصول الفقه‬- Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. 75 E.g., Ibn Sa'd's Tabaqat, al-Hakim's Mustadrak. 389 to turn your back to the Ka'bah in Makkah— so when the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬moved to Madinah, he had to turn his back to the Ka'bah when he was praying. But —as we will discuss— eventually, Allah AWJ changed the qibla to the Ka'bah in Makkah. Why? (1) He SWT wanted to show to the Jews that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬was following the real religion of Ibrahim AS; (2) Because Makkah was the first, original qibla. 2. Tensions Between the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and the Jews We will delve into this topic in the upcoming episodes, but for a brief introduction to this concept: The tensions between the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and the Jews began after his Emigration to Madinah. Initially, when the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬Emigrated, he was very optimistic. Why not? After all, he is finally amongst a people who believe in the Abrahamic faith. He is amongst a large group of Jews who believe in the same God and line of prophets. The Quraysh didn't even know what a prophet is, nor did they believe in a Book. The Jews on the other hand believe in everything: Paradise, Hell, Judgment Day, etc. And they have been waiting for a prophet. And they know that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is *the* Prophet — indeed, Allah SWT said, 'They recognize the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬like they recognize their own children' [see Quran, 2:146]. And so, the Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬heart was very optimistic and hopeful. Also, Abdullah ibn Salam, their main rabbi, converted — so this is even more reason to be optimistic. Aisha RA narrates that when the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬first came to Madinah, he wanted to resemble the Jews as much as possible, to show them that "we are the same," i.e., to make 76 By the way, naskh / abrogation doesn't have to be Quran with Quran. All four logical possibilities can occur between the Quran and Sunnah: (i) the Quran can abrogate the Sunnah; (ii) the Sunnah can abrogate the Quran; (iii) the Sunnah can abrogate the Sunnah; and (iv) the Quran can abrogate the Quran. And the ruling to pray towards Bayt al-Maqdis, Allah had revealed it in the Sunnah — it's not in the Quran. 77 As we have previously said, Ibrahim AS was the one who made Makkah the holiest land by the permission of Allah SWT. 78 Remember, "The first House [of worship] ever established for humanity is the one at Bakkah" [Quran, 3:96]. And in one narration, it is said that when the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬was asked what is the first masjid ever built on earth, he said the Ka'bah. And when he was asked what is the next, he said Bayt al-Maqdis. When he was asked what was the time between them, he said 40 years (between the time Ibrahim AS built the Ka'bah and the time either Ishaq AS or Ya'qub AS built some kind of structure in Bayt al-Maqdis). 79 By the way, many of the prophets —over 70 of them— including Musa AS, made hajj to Makkah, but not their followers — we know this because our Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬told us. 80 We will discuss at length these tensions between the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and the Jews in the upcoming episodes. In particular, there are three topics we will discuss in direct response to common attacks on Islam in our times: (1) The Prophet's ‫ ﷺ‬treatment of the Jews; (2) Accusation that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬was always waging war as a military commander; (3) Women's issues and the marriage to Aisha RA. We will discuss these topics in a way that will defend our Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, while being fair to our tradition. 390 them feel comfortable. But as the tensions increased, eventually, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬began commanding the Muslims to dissociate from them, to be different from them. In the beginning, it was the opposite — but when it was clear that the Jews, through their arrogance, had made up their mind to never accept the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬gave completely opposite rulings. So much so that even where you part your hair, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "They part it on this side, [so] you part it on the other side." And in Bukhari, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said, "The Jews don't pray with their shoes on, so you pray with your shoes on." (But if in a mosque for example, of course, you must take your shoes off.) The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬further said the Jews don't touch their women in the menses, so to be different from them, he ‫ ﷺ‬said to the Muslims: Eat with your women, sit with them, and do everything other than the actual act of intimacy. So our shariah came to be totally different from that of the Jews wherever Allah AWJ wanted it to be different. And one of those things to be different came down as the qibla. 3. Revelation of the Verse When the Jews began openly expressing their animosity, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬began wanting to change the direction of the qibla. And of course, he could not change it of his own will. And it's narrated that once, when Jibril AS came down with some Quran, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬expressed his hope to Jibril, saying, "O Jibril, I wish to pray facing Makkah." But Jibril said, "I am a slave just like you, and I only come by the command of Allah. If you want this, make du'a to Allah." So the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬began making du'a earnestly —in tahajjud, at night, in the day— so much so that he was looking up to the sky — and looking up to the sky is only done in du'as at times of extreme distress. Normally, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬would lower his head — but on specific occasions, when the situation called for it, he would raise his head up to the sky. (E.g., before the Battle of Badr [which will happen in a few months], he looked up to the sky and begged Allah for help — and this was the most famous time he did so in public. Very rarely did he look up to the sky — and doing so is a sign of extreme desperation.) Therefore, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬did this; and he did it at night when no one was looking. How do we know he did it? Because Allah revealed it in the Quran, "Indeed, We see you [O Prophet] turning your face towards heaven. Now We will make you turn towards a direction [of prayer] that will please you" [see Quran, 2:144]. Notice the way the verse is phrased — instead of saying, 'Allah had already decreed the qibla is going to change to Makkah,' He SWT said, 'Because you want it, I am giving it to you.' This is to show that the desire of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is indeed one that Allah wants to fulfill and give. Allah says, "We will cause you to turn to a direction that will please you. So from now on, turn your face in the direction of Masjid al-Haram; and wherever you are, turn your face in that direction" [see Quran, 2:144]. And Allah AWJ then revealed multiple verses dealing with the change of the qibla — which are all now in the first two pages of the 2nd juz of the Quran. 81 Juz (‫ )جزء‬- part. 391  4. Wisdoms of the Change of the Qibla When these verses came down —roughly 15-16 months after Hijrah— this command proved to be a great source of confusion for everyone — the Muslims, the Jews, and the mushrikun. Why? Allah mentions in the Quran, "The foolish people will begin questioning, 'Why have they turned away from the qibla that they were upon?'" [Quran, 2:142]. One of the Jews said, "If this man is a prophet, why is he praying one day facing north and the other day south?" Another said, "Isn't our qibla good enough for him?" Of course, the issue of abrogation itself was new. Therefore, Allah revealed the concept of abrogation itself in Surah al-Baqarah : "Whenever We abrogate a ruling or We cause it to be forgotten, We then bring forth something better than it, or [at least] something equivalent" [Quran, 2:106]. So there is a wisdom behind abrogations in Islam. And Allah mentions, "We changed the qibla only to test those who followed the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬versus those who rejected the Prophet ‫[ "ﷺ‬see Quran, 2:143]. So every commandment is a test. 1. For the Muslims, it was a test to see whether they implemented this new ruling from Allah SWT — and of course, they did. 2. For the Jews, there was a clear sign / message: 'This Prophet came in the line of your prophets, so he is facing your qibla; but he shall now supersede your prophethood line, and he shall take it back to the original.' i.e., The purpose primarily was to demonstrate to the Jews that this prophet is from the same tradition as their religion, but he is not just a Jewish prophet; he is more than this (i.e., he is a prophet for mankind). Remember, the Jews think they are the chosen people. But Allah wanted to demonstrate that this status would now cease, primarily through the change of the qibla. The Jews then began saying, "Anyone who faces any direction other than Bayt al-Maqdis, Allah will never be pleased with him, and He will not accept from him." And they said, "It's a part of piety to face Jerusalem." At this, Allah revealed, "Piety is not in which direction you fa