eDawah

Acting Professor at Madinah University

Translated by Tahir Wytt
Transcribed by: Amir Rushdan and Ahmed Al-Afghanee 

The Shaykh begins by starting with the name of Allah, Praising of Allah, and Introduction based on the Sunnah.

Khutbat-ul Hajjah (Ceremony of Need)

As to proceed, he Welcomed the Beloved Brothers to “Taibat-ul Taiba” (City of our Beloved Prophet).

He said we study the Biography of the Prophet by being in his city. It is the greatest cause of knowledge to gain from the Seerah in the actual city of the Prophet.

And this is because if we talk about the Masjid of the Prophet, then we see it with our eyes right in front of our eyes. Likewise with the Roudha (That which is between his house and his mimbar is of the gardens of Jannah). There it is right there, we pray in it and we see it.

As the prophet sallahu alayhi wa sallam said: “that which is between my house and my mimbar is a garden from the gardens of Jannah

Likewise if we start to talk about the Baqi (Graveyard) right next to the masjid, likewise, the wives of the Prophets (Mothers of the Believers) then it is right there. We can visit it the “legislated visit” and see it in front of us. Likewise Mount Uhud (Location of the Battle of Uhud). This mountain where the battle of Uhud took place. It is a mountain of Jannah and it loves us and we love it.

From the Seerah of the Prophet, much of it happened here in this city, so when we can see these things and talk about them while seeing them then it becomes firmly established as to what we learn insha’Allah.

The first question is “Why do we study the Seerah of the Prophet”?

We study it because it is the deen in its entirety. And that is because the study of the Seerah of the Prophet brings forth for us the example, the real life hands on example of that which has been revealed to us in the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet. Likewise we study the Seerah because in it, there is a manifestation of what we find in the Shahadatayn. There is none worthy of worship except for Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. How can you claim this if you haven’t studied the Seerah? The more we study the Seerah the more knowledge we will have of the Prophet and the more we will have of the testimony that he is the Messenger of Allah.

Likewise, we learn about the correct Aqeedah that the Muslims should have, and how to pray correctly. As He said ‘Pray as you see me pray.” We learn everything related to the deen this way insha’Allah. Likewise, from the reasons as to why we study the Seerah, is that we learn the true implementation of how to follow Islam. There is no human being that has practiced Islam without adding to it or deleting from it EXCEPT for the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. From the angles of seeing the field of Rahmah Mercy, there was none like the Prophet, or from Fairness or Just, there was none like the Prophet.

We study the Seerah so that we can truly implement that which is upon us; the right that he has upon us from belief in him, love in him, and spreading the characteristics of the Prophet. There is no way to do this without the study of his Seerah. And if there was nothing that would make obligatory upon us the study of the Seerah, except the following ayah “Indeed you have in the Prophet a great example for those who hope in Allah and the Last Day.” If we didn’t have anything except this ayah then we would still be very diligent in studying the Seerah.

The second question is “What are the resources that we use or turn back to study the Seerah”?

The Shaykh said the Seerah is the ONLY biography in history that has been narrated to us with authentic and established narrations in such an extremely detailed manner, to the point that we know EVERYTHING of the life of the Prophet from birth to death. Rather we even know about the condition of the Prophet after his death. We also know the condition of the “BARZA” (will be explained later insha’Allah in detail). Likewise, we know of the condition of the Prophet on the Day of Judgment, the day that the like of it is 50,000 years, as well as to the point where the Prophet enters the Jannah. We know of all these things, and you will not find about any other human being.

So here we have Mecca, the city that the Prophet was born in and right now we are in Madinah, the city he migrated to and there we have the grave that contains his Noble body and it is the only grave of a prophet where we know for certain that his body is located in that location.

So if we know all of these things then we have to look at the first reference which is the Noble Quran which was revealed to the Prophet. This Quran includes much of the Prophet as it relates to the things he used to do as well as his characteristics and as well as the reality of the deen he was sent with. It also contains many of the prohibitions and commands that he informed the people about.

The second resource we turn back to is the authentic ahadeeth narrated about he Prophet and we know this as “As-Sunnah”. It is everything narrated of his statements, his actions, and that which he approved or any description whether that of his physical description or character himself.

These ahadeeth we will talk about can be found mostly in the 6 famous collections of hadith.

Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, An-Nisaaee.

So if you want to know some of the Seerah of the Prophet or a great portion of it, then return back to these 6 books especially the book of Imam Al-Bukhari .

Likewise, from the resources that deal with the Seerah are the books of the Salaf that had a great concern with the athar. Like the books of Tafsir ect. Tabari, Ibn Kathir, Abdur Razzak. All of these books are Salafi books of Tafsir and have great concern with authenticity in narrations with the Seerah of the Prophet.

The fourth source are the books of the historians. (Ibn Isaac, Al-Waqidi, Ibn Hisham, At-Tabari Book of History, or Al Bidaya wal Nihaya - Beginning to the End).

We have to be careful and not accept EVERYTHING from these books, rather we study them with the knowledge of the Muhaditheen. That which we find to be authentic we accept it, and that which we don’t find authentic we leave it so that we don’t say that about Allah which we have no knowledge about.

In reality, we will not be able to study the details of the Seerah due to time, and that is because the things that happened during his life which was 63 years. Those things over a period of time were very many and even changed the course of history. However we will try our best to mention some of these great things which happened in an abridged manner. We will also mention some of the benefits related to these occurrences.

The lineage of the Prophet is something well known. Muhammad son of Abdulla,h, the son of Adul Muttalib, the son of Hashim the son of Abdul Mannaf. The Arabs all of them go back to Adnan, the children of Ismael, son of Ibrahim the friend of Allah (May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon the Prophets of Allah).

The Shaykh went on to say that in Islam, there is no difference between an Arab and a non-Arab. Allah created his creation in different tribes and nations so that they get to know one another. The Quraish are one of the best tribes of the Arabs and trace back to Ibrahim. But the Ibrahim himself was not arab and being Arab is not actually a nationality but rather the language he speaks. Ishmael did not speak arab, rather he learned it after he made hijrah to Makkah. He learned it from the tribes in Makkah at the time. Hajar learned Arabic and it was not her native tongue, and rather she was the mother of the Prophet and not a free woman. (A Slave given to the wife of Ibrahim named Sarah. Given as a gift from the king of Egypt at that time. Sarah gave her as a gift to Ibrahim and he took her as a wife and with her had Ismael, the father of the Arabs).

Here we find people of different colors, backgrounds, etc.. but all of them are of one group now. “To get to know one another” (Quranic ayat). Not to war with one another, not to look down at one another, but rather to get to know one another.

What was the condition of the people before the Prophet was sent to them?

So the Prophet was sent to all of the people as evidenced in the statement of Allah “And we have not sent you except as a mercy to all of mankind”. (Romans Persians, Africans, Indians, ect..) We find them all to have been in a bad condition prior to the coming of the Prophet. There was a period of over 500 years that the people had not received any revelation from Allah so there was a type of confusion as to the system of belief in people, socio-economic, and political confusion as well.

It has come in Sahih Muslim that the Prophet said “Indeed Allah looked at the people of the earth and despised them except for a small group that remained from the People of the Book” and this is because these people of the earth left the way of the previous messengers and they began to make their own ways of life so they began to worship idols,, oppressed one another, killed one another, et… So the blessed people of Allah were very few to the point that you can count them on your fingers.

The father of the Prophet whose name was Abdullah married Amina  who was the mother of our Prophet in Mecca . As a result of this marriage Amina became pregnant with our Prophet while in Mecca . And as the prophet reached his 7th month in the womb of his mother, the trials began for the Prophet at that very early stage in order by Allah to increase him in His reward. The trial was the death of his father Abdullah. The historians mention that the Prophets father died in Madinah. That is because the tribe which was in Madinah  the time Bani an-Naja were maternal relatives of the Prophets Grandfather. His Father has uncles and aunts in the city of Madinah . And the grave of the Prophets father is not normal. As it relates to the birth date of the Prophet, then the historians have different opinions in this matter. Even though they differed, most agreed the Prophet was born in the Year of the Elephant. Rabi al-Awal (third month of the Islamic calendar on a Monday). However which Monday is not known. Some of them seem to believe it corresponded to the 8th of rabial – awal. Some of them believed it was on the 12th of rabial-awal.

From the things that happened after the birth of the Prophet is that his mother sent him to the tribe of Bani Sa’a. It happens to be to the east of Mecca . So that the Prophet would grow in the dessert as was the custom of the people of that time. A very important thing happened while the Prophet was with the people of Bani Sa’a. His chest was opened by the Angels and his heart was taken out and washed/ Purified / Cleansed. People of the past, when they heard this type of story, it may have caused problems for them in understanding, however for us it shouldn’t cause any problem because we find daily doctors taking peoples hearts out, rectifying them and putting them back in and Allah is Greater then all these doctors. Then the Prophet returned back to his mother at the age of between 5-6. He was then taken to Madinah to visit his maternal uncles and aunts just as his father had done. And this is from the superb intellect of the mother of the Prophet that she would take him to Madinah as to strengthen him for moral support by visiting his uncles and aunts in Banu Najar. A very important thing happened while returning from a visit to Madinah. The mother of the Prophet passed on the way back returning to Mecca from Madinah, in a place known as Ab-waa. The prophet saught permission from Allah to visit his mothers grave and was granted it, also he requested to ask for forgiveness for her, but Allah did not permit this.

From the great wisdom of the death of his father and mother, the Prophet developed a deep dependence on Allah alone. For this reason the Prophet was raised with a deep connection to Allah. He despised the customs and characteristics of the people of Jahilliyah. Allah, out of His wisdom cultivated the Prophet far away from being influenced by these negative characteristics that people would have from their families. Because every child says “My father, my mother” except the Prophet who said “Oh Allah”. The Prophet returned to Mecca and fell under the responsibility of Abu Talib his uncle, blood brother of his father Abdullah. As the Prophet was under his care, Abu Talib began to love the Prophet and became attached to him from that of his beautiful character. Abu Talib used to be a fore man, with a lot of children. However he saw from the barakah which was placed in everything that he had after taking responsibility of the Prophet. And the Prophet indeed came up with true firm dependence on Allah. For that reason, the prophet had a sort of independence that a lot of other children didn’t have and so he stood up himself at the age of 15 and began to be a Sheppard. And the money that he earned from being a Sheppard, and took that which he needed to support himself and gave the rest to his uncle Abu Talib. And Caring for sheep or being a Sheppard was a job of all the Prophets before our Prophet. Because as a person, one becomes a Sheppard and watches over that which he is in charge of. Because sheep, they need to be dealt with, with care, mercy, gentleness, contrary to camels which need to be cared for with strength and aggressiveness. And anyone who has sheep knows what he is talking about.

The Prophet contined to be raised in Mecca and Allah raised him in terms of Character from the people. He did not prostrate to any idol ever, nor did he used to attend the functions of jahiliyyah ever. And his character was a prime example of righteousness. For this reason they used to call him As Sadiqqe al-Yamin. If it is said to us, he never went to the functions of the people of Jahilliyah, then what does Allah’s statement mean when he says “We found you astray and then guided you”? He said and the answer is “dhalalah” here, the misguidance was not acts of falsehoods but that he did not know the truths at that time like the attributes of Allah, how to pray, how to fast et.. AS Allah says “you did not know what the book was, nor what the faith was”. Then the Prophet moved on from being a Sheppard to a field of business and traded with buying and selling in Mecca until Allah made available for him Khadijah. So she sent him in trade to Ash-Sham. She sent along with him a servant of hers where they went to Ash Sham and profited much. However this servant came back with better then news about their profits. He said to her, I have seen from this man that which amazed me. And he began to tell her about the chastity of the Prophet, his trust-worthiness, his honesty, his character. He began to tell her about all these things and Khadijah was a very smart woman and didn’t have a husband at that time. So right away she sent a message to the Prophet inviting him to marry her. The age of the Prophet was 25 at this time and she was 40 at this time.

So here in this marriage there was a great wisdom. That is because the Prophet soon to come will be dealing with a great affair so he needed a woman who was smart and intelligent, more so then a woman who was beautiful. For this reason the Prophet lived a happy life with Khadijah. That is that, Khadijah used to increase the Prophet in any good that he had. The Prophet used to talk to Khadijah about how he despised the people of Jahilliyah, their forms of worship and what they worshipped. The Prophet used to tell her he would like to leave Mecca so that he can think about the Creation of Allah and Khadijah helped him in this. If she was a young woman, she would have said “just do what the people do”, but the Prophet used to leave Khadijah sometimes for more then a month to think in the cave of Al-Hira . If she was a young woman, she would have refused this and would have said how can you leave for so long. These are some of the wisdoms from the marriage of Khadijah to the Prophet.

The Prophet lived in this fashion for a period of 15 years. There was no revelation yet, however he used to hear and see certain things. He used to hear a “Rock” in Mecca which used to give him Salaam. Sometimes he would see a light and didn’t know what the light was. He used to complain about this to Khadijah and say he was scared of these things, and she would say to him “LAA, Allah would NEVER disgrace you”. And so Khadijah would emphasize it and affirm these characteristics of the Prophet. So after 15 years of marriage to Khadijah, Allah wanted good for the people of the earth so He sent Angel Jibreel to the Prophet in the month of Ramadaan in the famous story which is well known.

When Gabriel came to the Prophet and said “Iqra”, the Prophet returned home and was scared. He told Khadijah what happened. The blessing of this woman was that in this time, she took him to the “Ulema” (Scholars) and this is a very important issue. From the scholars of that time was Waraqa ibn Naufal. He used to have knowledge of the books that came down in the past (previous scriptures) and he knew other languages as well. When the Prohpet was taken to him and he was informed of this story, he told the Prophet this was the same angel which used to come to Musa. He told the Prophet he was the Prophet which was foretold and he will see resistance from his people. But Allah will make him victorious over his people.

The Shaykh asks that Allah grants us imaan and love for the Prophet and that Allah raises us with the Prophet on the Day of Judgement.

“Hadeeth”
Khadijah took the stances with the Prophet and assisted him in the way she did, a great hadith came telling of her great virtues. Mentioning this proves Islam never oppressed any woman and that if any woman works good deeds she will find good just like any man.

Book of Tawheed in Sahih al-Bukhari

Gibrael came to the Prophet and said “Here is Khadijah she is coming and she has some food so give her the Salaams from Allah” He said that Allah from above the seven heavens sent Jibreel to the Prophet so that HE can inform Khadijah that Allah sends Salaams to her. So give her Salaam from Allah and from Me (Jibreel) and give her the glad tidings of the Jannah and  of her home made of gold, where there is no tiredness or fatigue in it.

The Shaykh then said. This shows us that anyone who does good will find the reward with Allah and Allah does not oppress anyone. May Allah bless Khadijah, and All the companions of the Messenger and may Allah make us amongst them in the Jannah even if we haven’t done what they have done.

Question “A Questioner asked about one of the Shaykh’s books and to tell us a little about it”

The shaykh said “It is a yellow book” and everyone laughed.

Question “Why do we have to send peace and Salaam on the Prophet, while not doing so on the other Prophets as much”.

This is a legislation and command from Allah, and Allah says “Indeed Allah and His Messengers make Salaat upon the Prophet”. “Oh you who believe send Salaam and Salaat upon the Messenger”. And there is nothing that prevents us from also saying this dua from the remainder of the Prophets as well, because we believe and love all of the Prophets and Messengers.

Question “ What book do we find right now in the market which is comprehensive and better books dealing with the Seerah of the Prophet?”

There are books present right now which have been written upon the methodology of the people of narrations on the Seerah of the Prophet. Ar- Raheequl Makhtoom “The Sealed Nectar”, Seeratul-Nabawiyyah (Prophetic Seerah).