Jinns, Freemasons and Magic

Jinns, Freemasons & Magic

In the time of Rasoolallah SAWS and until now, a lot of things has been attributed to saydna Sulayman AS, which are untrue. One of which is magic. There is some of al yahood, the Jews, who attribute magic to saydna Sulayman. And the whole story of the Temple also is attributed to saydna Sulayman AS. For example, the Jews or the People of the Book they associate Sulayman AS with someone called Asmodeus, and this Asmodeus was the chief of the devils. And they associate him with Sulayman AS and they say that this chief of the devils was the one who assisted Sulayman AS in building and constructing, and he is the one who used to tutor and teach Sulayman magic, and to teach him many of the skills that  they say Sulayman AS had. And you would find that many cults and movements, they attach themselves to Sulayman. Many of these secret orders, they claim that they go back to Sulayman. And the most famous of them is the Masonic movement. Al Masonya, the Freemasons. You would find that the concept of the Temple, the Temple of Solomon, is something that is central or it is very influential on the ideology of the freemasons. Also a movement like the Kabala and some of these other mystical Jewish cults, they practice magic which they claim they have learned from Sulayman and it goes back, they claim that the lineage goes back to Sulayman. Now that is, there is some truth that there is magic that goes back in lineage to some very early Jews, but it does not go back to saydna Sulayman AS. It all goes back to where? Where did the Jews learn this magic? That some of which it still exist until now, and it’s very powerful magic. We’re not talking about tricks, where you hide a coin and you bring it out from somewhere or you bring something out of a hat. We’re not talking about those tricks which they fool the kids with. We’re talking about some serious magic that could do some serious harm. Where was that learned from? We know that Fir’awn, in the time of Fir’awn there was some magic, but Allahu alem, even though it was very powerful magic, but it was limited to the field of optical illusion. Because Allah SAWT says: ‘Wa sahru ‘ayn an nas’, they have committed magic to the eyes of people. But we’re talking about some other kind of magic that could influence the psychology and the spirit of people. Where was that learned? In Babel. And how did they get it from Babel? We know from the history that the kingdom of the Jews was destroyed by who? Nebukhadnasr. The Babylonian kingdom they defeated the Jews in the Holy Land, and they broke up their kingdom. Not only that, they took them as slaves back to Iraq in Babel, in Babylon. They took them back to Babel. And the Jews were cut off from the true religion of Allah SWT. They were cut off from the scripture for quite a while. And they were under the influence and the dictatorship and the oppression and the tyranny of the Babylonians. And that is where a lot of the distortion that happened to the religion of the Jews, that is where it occurred, in Babel. Where was the Talmud written? And who wrote it? It was written by the seventy rabbis who were in Babylon. And now that is the central law and the central focus of the yahood now, they have left the Tawrah and they are following the Talmud, and the Talmud was written by the rabbis who were influenced by the regime and the environment in Babylon. So if you read about this history, you’ll find that Babylon is associated to it all. The Talmud came out of there, and magic. And these secret orders, they came from Babylon, rather than from saydna Sulayman, even though they attributed it to Sulayman. Now the issue of the temple. This temple of Sulayman is a myth. There is no such thing called the temple of Sulayman. The one who built the masjid was who? Ya‘qoob AS. By the hadith of the Rasool SAWS, when Abu Dharr came to the Prophet and asked: ‘What was the first house established for the worship of Allah?’ Rasool Allah SAWS said: ‘The Masjid al Haram.’ Al Ka‘ba. And then he said: ‘And then what?’ Rasool Allah SAWS said: ‘Al masjid Al Aqsa, wa baynahum 40 ‘aama.’ Then the masjid of Al Aqsa, Jerusalem, and between them was fourty years. Fourty years is the time between Ibrahim and Ya‘qoob AS. So Ya‘qoob is one of those messengers, or established it. What was the role of Sulayman AS? He is the one who expanded the masjid and built it in its great form. Saidna Sulayman is the one who erected the masjid and expanded it during his kingdom. It was not a temple, it was a masjid. It was established for the worship of Allah SWT. It’s a masjid, a mosque. So this myth of the temple of Sulayman and all of this mythology that is attached to it and superstition, and power, it’s unreal. There was a masjid. Now let’s read from Surat Al Baqarah ayah 101. Allah SWT says: ‘And when there came to them a Messenger from Allah, (came to who? To the Jews) confirming what was sent to them, a party of the People of the Book threw away the Book of Allah behind their backs as if they did not know.’ So they threw away the Book of Allah. When Rasool Allah SAWS came, because they didn’t want to follow him, and what did they follow? (Verse 102): ‘And they followed what the devils gave out in the lifetime of Sulayman.’ That’s what it is talking about. The devils were teaching the people magic. As-shayateen, the devils were teaching the people magic, before the time of Sulayman and during the kingdom of Sulayman. As-Suddi he says in the tafseer of this ayah, he says that Sulayman came to know that the devils are teaching the people magic. They gathered all of their manuals and all of their books. He took them away from the devils and from the people, because the people used to record what they learned from the devils. Sulayman took away all of those manuals and books, and he made a law that whoever learns magic or practices magic or teaches magic will be executed. And he took away all these books and manuals and he buried them as the story goes, under his throne. He buried them. He got rid of them. And he made a law in his time, that nobody should learn, or teach or practice magic. This is from the shayateen. What happened is when Sulayman passed away, a shaytaan Iblees came to the people in the form of a human being and he said: ‘Do you know where Sulayman used to get his power from? The devils are the ones that used to teach him. And I’ll show you the proof. Go and dig under his throne and see what you will find.’ They dug under the throne and found the books of magic. So they made a rumor and they said that Sulayman, this is how he used to control the jinn, and this is how he achieved all this power, through magic. That’s how they propagated this false rumor against saydna Sulayman. So Allah SWT responds to this claim and says: (ayah 102) ‘Sulayman has not committed kufr (unbelief). This part of the ayah tells us two things. First of all it tells us that Sulayman did not commit disbelief, and it tells us that sihr (magic), what is it considered? It’s considered to be kufr. It’s considered to be disbelief. So Allah says that Sulayman did not commit disbelief. This magic came not from him, because this magic is disbelief, and Sulayman did not disbelief. ‘But the devils are the ones who disbelieved, teaching men magic.’ Who are the ones teaching magic? The devils. ‘And what was revealed to the two angels.’ And we will get to this in sha Allah. Now, in Qur’an Allah SWT rarely mentions places, unless there is a reason for mentioning a locality or a place. The Book of Allah is a Book of guidance. So you don’t find a lot of dates and numbers, chronological order of events, and places like you would find in the Old Testament or the New Testament. Allah SWT says: ‘And what was revealed to the two angels’, where? In Babel. Allah SWT mentions the place over here in the ayah. And Allahu alem, the reason is because all of this magic or the secret orders or distorted teachings came out of Babel and we know that through history, and Allah SWT wants to record that in Qur’an so that we would learn where the source of all of this came from. It came from Babel. Because without reading Qur’an, by just reading the history and books that deal with this, you wouldn’t be able to see the association with Babel. So when you read this in the Qur’an it is an amazing thing, to see how Allah SWT ties this into Babel and then that gives us a complete picture of what happened. Because you could do readings, the secular reading on one side and history on what was happening. And then when you read Qur’an it would put everything in perspective for you, because Allah SWT says: ‘What was revealed to the angels in Babel, Harut and Marut.’ Harut and Marut, the mufassireen have a few opinions, and they can be contradictory to each other. I will mention one that was mentioned by a few of the mufassireen and it seems to fit the ayah most, and that is that Harut and Marut were two angels who descended to Babel and they were teaching people magic, these two angels were teaching people magic. And they were doing it with the permission of Allah SWT, by the will of Allah. I’ll read the ayah and then we elaborate on this a little bit. Allah SWT says: ‘But the devils disbelieved, teaching men magic, and such things that came down at Babylon, to the two angels Harut and Marut. But neither of these two angels taught anyone such things until they said: ‘We are only for a trial, so disbelief not.’ These two angels descended to Babel and they knew about magic, they knew this knowledge of magic, and people would come to them to learn. The angels would tell them: ‘this knowledge that we are offering is kufr, so do not learn it, because this is fitnah.’ Allah SWT wanted this to be a test. Knowledge that is offered to you, but you shouldn’t learn it. That’s what it is about. It is a test from Allah SWT. Here is knowledge you’re not supposed to learn. And this is knowledge that will make you disbelief in Allah SWT. And it’s offered, this is the address if you want to go and learn it. But the angels will not offer it to anyone until they would tell them: ‘this is a fitnah, so do not disbelief.’ The other story is that is mentioned in the books of tafseer is that the two angels, the test was actually for them, they say that these two angels said: ‘How come that these people are sinning?’ So Allah SWT sent them down to earth and Allah put them in the shahawaat of the human being, the desires of the human being. And when Allah put in them the desires of a human being they committed sins and they started practicing magic, but this seems not to make sense, because we know that the angels do not disobey the orders of Allah and they do as Allah has ordered them. It doesn’t seem to make sense, especially there is no evidence to support it. If we would go with the literal meaning of the ayah it would mean that these are two angels who came down with the permission of Allah to test the people. And to offer them something that is kufr, and they should not learn it. This knowledge was learned by a faction of al yahood, the Jews, and it has been inherited from generation to generation through secret orders and part of that magic still exists until now. Allah SWT has told us one effect of such type of magic. Allah SWT says: ‘They learned from these angels what could cause separation between a man and his wife.’ This is the kind of magic, it’s a magic spell that is cast on the husband or the wife, and it would cause hatred in the heart of the husband or the wife and it would make it unbearable and eventually it would cause divorce, separation. And this exists and I personally happen to know a few cases, firsthand knowledge of some cases where this happened. It is true that this exists, but also it is true that many people take it out of context and whenever there’s a problem between a husband and wife they hang it on the magic, they say there’s magic between them, and that’s not true. There are a few cases, and we should not always say that there is magic between them when there’s a problem, no. Sometimes it’s magic and sometimes it’s incompatibility between persons. But this kind of magic is not only limited to putting these differences between husband and wife, it can cause some other harm. And the way it’s done, they have to have a part of your body. A hair, a nail, with the assistance of the jinn they wrap it in what is called ‘oqdah and they will wrap it with that part of your body in it, and that is what would cause this problem or magic to take effect. And they would throw it somewhere. And when this type of magic was done on RasoolAllah SAWS according to authentic ahadeeth, one of the yahood had done a magic spell on RasoolAllah SAWS, he threw it in a well. So RasoolAllah SAWS was suffering from that magic, Jibreel AS came to RasoolAllah SAWS and said that it is in that well, so they would retrieve it out of that well and they opened it up and the magic was released. So that ‘oqdah, ‘oqdah means knot, that knot has to be released for the magic to be released. Sometimes they throw it in the ocean. Or they bury it in the desert. That’s how difficult it could be. But because this seems to be a power that is in the hands of the magician, and it seems to be supernatural abilities. Allah SWT is telling us ‘And they would not harm anyone except by Allah’s leave.’ So Allah is telling us that this is not power in the hands of the magicians that Allah is not able to control. Allah is telling us that everything that is happening is by His mashya, by His will. And for us this is a test. Because we need to read the mu‘auwidhat, we need to read ayat al Kursi and we need to read that what will save us from such things. So it is just like any other disease that exists. Allah SWT has created a daa, and Allah created ad-dawaa. Allah SWT created the illness and Allah SWT created the cure. RasoolAllah SAWS said every illness Allah SWT has created a cure for. So there’s a cure for cancer, there’s a cure for AIDS, there’s a cure for everything. Some people will know it and some people won’t. It’s knowledge that needs to be investigated. This is a disease or an illness, this issue of magic, and there’s a cure for it, and the cure is qul a‘oodhu bi rab al falaq, qul a‘oodhu bi rab an nas and the other types of isti‘aadha that RasoolAllah SAWS would do and ayat al Kursi. And that’s why we need to always practice repeating these edd‘eya. Allah SWT says: ‘The magician would think that by learning this knowledge, they could benefit.’ The person that goes to the magician thinks that the magician could benefit them. And Allah SWT says: ‘And they learn what harms them and profits them not.’ So Allah SWT tells us that magic is purely harm and there’s no benefit in it whatsoever. And when Ibn Taymiyyah talks about the suffering and the misery that magicians go through when they follow this path, you would be amazed. Don’t think that the devil teach them this knowledge for free. They pay for it. And they pay for it in the worst ways. And when Ibn Taymiyyah talks about the rituals the magicians go through before they are accepted in the ranks of the magicians, it are things that make the hair on your body stand. They will make them drink menstrual blood. They will make them eat frogs and snakes and insects. They will make them write ayat of Qur’an with blood and step over it. They would clean theirselves with pages of Qur’an (wipe their butt with it), they will make sujood to the devils (kneel for them), they will make them make sujood to idols. These are rituals that magicians have to go through, before they get the assistance of the jinn. They do not offer their services for free. Jinn do not offer their services for free. The right way to heal is by reading Qur’an, by shuyookh who read Qur’an, because that is a valid way, because feeh shifa. Allah SWT says in Qur’an is healing. Allah ST says: ‘And indeed, they knew that the buyers of the magic would have no share in the Hereafter, and how bad indeed is that for which they sold their own selves.’ Because the magician sells himself. If they but knew, and if they had believed and guarded themselves from evil and kept their duty to Allah, far better would have been the reward from their Lord, if they but knew.’ So from these ayat, the Sahaba RA, and also from the hadith of RasoolAllah, the Sahaba they reached the conclusion that magic is an act that takes a person out of the fold of Islam. And that is why ‘Umar ibn Al Khattab RA he sent out a message to the Islamic States: ‘Kill any magician’, and one of the Sahaba said, we found three magicians and they executed them. So the scholars say, this is the hadd of the magicians, execution, because of the, Wallahi if you know stories, of how magicians harm people, you’d say this is a little punishment for them. They have destroyed, they have broken households and they have caused harm. The amazing thing that nowadays this particular type of knowledge where is it most widespread? In the Muslim world. It does exist everywhere else, but it is quite widespread in the Muslim world. And obviously the reason is: the work of shaytaan. That is where he wants to break up families because we know from the hadith of RasoolAllah SAWS that shaytaan sets his thrown on water, and then the devils come and report to him, and everyone brings in a report and shaytaan tells them: ‘sit down, sit down’, and then eventually one would come and say: ‘I have good news for you. I did not leave the husband and wife until I separated them.’ Shaytaan would say: ‘You are the one. Come and sit next to me.’ Breaking up a family is the work of shaytaan and that is why shaytaan tries to cause all this fitan (trials) amongst Muslims in general. Allah SWT says: ‘Tell My servants, the Muslims, to say a good word.’ Why? Because shaytaan tries to plant disunity among them. So one of the solutions to conquer that is to say a good word. Because our words are weapons in the hands of shaytaan. He takes that word and he makes ‘soo edhdhan’ in the heart of the other person (bad suspicion) and that sparks, usually sparks problems in the hearts. Allah SWT says, tell My servants to say a good word. If we would just monitor our words, our problems would be solved. Allah SWT has fulfilled his du‘a (Sulayman’s du‘a) when he said: ‘Oh Allah, give me a kingdom that will occur to no one have after me. Allah SWT gave him a unique kingdom, and part of the uniqueness of the kingdom of Sulayman was that he had control over the shayateen. And Sulayman AS would put the shayateen under slave labor. They would work for him in what Allah SWT called to work and serve him. And he would command them to do very difficult tasks. This is what Allah SWT has given to Sulayman as an ability to do. So as a service to Sulayman and at the same time as a punishment for the shayateen. They had to do this slave labor for him. But al yahood, they accused saydna Sulayman of being influenced by the shayateen and being controlled by the shayateen, and saydna Sulayman, he had this control over al jinn. Saydna Sulayman AS, when he passed away, the jinn continued working for him, even though he was already dead. Because he was leaning on his cane, and he was dead. But the shayateen thought he was still alive, even though he already had passed away. And termites were eating from his cane, from the inside, and the cane was going hollow. But he was still supported by his cane, sitting on his throne. Then the termites kept on drilling through the cane, and the cane broke down, then Sulayman AS fell down. Only then did the jinn and shayateen realize that saydna Sulayman was dead, but before that they continued serving him and going through that slave labor, because they were still seeing saydna Sulayman on his ‘arsh, his throne. And Allah SWT has mentioned this in the Qur’an, to refute the claims of al yahood that saydna Sulayman was controlled by jinn. Allah SWT says: ‘Then when we decreed death for him, (Sulayman), nothing informed them, (the jinn), of his death, except a little worm of the earth which kept slowly gnawing away at his stick. So when he fell down, the jinn saw clearly that if they had known the unseen, they would not have stayed in the humiliating torment. This ayah is first of all a response to the claim that the jinn were influencing saydna Sulayman, and number two, it responds to the claim that al jinn know al ghayb (the unseen). The jinn do not know the ghayb. And al kahna, and the sahara, the magicians and the fortunetellers, they depend on the jinn. And they claim that the jinn knows the future. And when they connect with the jinn we can know and tell what will happen in the future. But Allah SWT says the jinn, if they knew al ghayb, they wouldn’t have remained in this punishment. Because it was a kind of test that Sulayman was putting them through with the form of punishment and humiliation for the shayateen and the jinn. And they kept on doing it even though saydna Sulayman was already dead. And this is the proof that al jinn and the shayateen they do not know al ghayb. They do not know the unseen. The jinn, they do not have any knowledge whatsoever about the unseen except what they steal from the conversations when they eavesdrop on the angels, that’s the only information that they have, and they mix one piece of truth with 99 lies. Saydna Sulayman AS when he passed away, the jinn realized they had been working overtime. And they know he was the only human being who had control over them. So as soon as Sulayman passed away they went to their normal jobs of the pre-Sulaymanic era, and that is to deviate people. Saydna Sulayman AS did not have control over all of the jinn and shayateen. Allah SWT put under his control some of al jinn and ash-shayateen. This is the story of saydna Sulayman AS. 

Now available as a complete e-book!

Salam alaykum dear visitors!

As I saw there's a lot of appreciation for the Imam's lectures, I decided to make an e-book of the Hereafter Series. It took quite some time, but it has become a quite professional book, with many illustrations, a wordlist with translation of the many Arabic words the Imam used in his lecture, and also clickable hyperlinks in the contents list to all the subjects.

The book has 318 pages.

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Jazakum Allah khayr!

The Life of Muhammad SAWS (Makkan Period) CD1

THE LIFE OF

MUHAMMAD

(Sallalahu Alayhe Wassalam)

THE MAKKAN PERIOD

IMAM ANWAR AL AWLAKI

CD -1: Transcribed by Javeria Aqeel

Recitation of Surah Al-Fatiha

The Holy Quran:Chapter 1

The Holy Quran:  Surah Al Ahzab

Chapter 33: Verse 33 & 34

            

O Prophet (MuhammadSAW )! Verily, We have sent you as witness, and a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner. And as one who invites to Allâh  by His Leave, and as a lamp spreading light.(through your instructions from the Qur'ân and the Sunnah the legal ways of the Prophet saw ).

PREFACE

The life of Muhammad Sallalahu Alayhe Wassalam (saw) introduces the Makkan Period of the Seerah of the Prophet Muhammad saw, the final Messenger of Allah and the greatest human being to walk on the face of the earth.

In this series, Imam Anwar Al Awlaki , author of the best selling series The Lives of the Prophets, eloquently presents the Makkan Period of the life of Muhammad (saw) in a detailed manner, deriving valuable lessons from it, thus making it relevant to our modern times.

This series is primarily based on Ibn Kathir’s book on Seerah. Imam Al Awlaki describes the stories of the golden era of Islam in a dynamic style and installs in the listeners the deep love for the beloved of Allah Subhana Wataalaa.

Imam Anwar Al Awlaki was born in New Mexico in USA. His parents are from Yemen, where he lived for 11 years and received the early part of his Islamic Education.

Imam Anwar Al Awlaki has served as in Imam in Colorado, California and Washington DC. Currently he resides in Yemen.

INTRODUCTION

Duas

In the Name of Allah, the Companionate, the Merciful.

O Allah Open my heart, ease my task and remove the impediments from my speech so that they may understand what I say.

We ask Allah Subhana Watala to bless this gathering, We ask Allah Subhana Watala to benefit us from what we learn, we ask Allah Subhana Watala to teach us that which will benefit us, we ask Allah Subhana Watala to make us of those who follow the way of Rasool Allah saw and love him and we ask Allah Subhana Watala to make us of those who will be with him in Jannah.(Ameen)

Definition of Seerah

The word Seerah has a linguistic meaning which means a path. Walking is called Sair, when you walk from one place to another it is called sairtu Ful an  is walking.

So it is a path which a person takes during his life time. The  hans dictionary Gives the translation of Seerah as conduct, comportment, demeanor, attitude, behavior, way of life, attitude, position, reaction,. way of acting and biography, All of these are meanings of Seerah. Seerah could be the biography of any person, not just prophet Muhammad (saw), however we have used the word so much with Muhammad (saw), that when we say Seerah, we almost all the time are referring to the life of Muhammad saw. However, we can say the seerah of Abu Bakar , Seerah of

Omar (ra) and so and so. So Seerah is a biography of a person, their life.

In this situation we are studying the life of the greatest, Muhammad (saw)

 

Importance of Studying Seerah

What is the importance of studying Seerah?

No 1: History of Islam

The life of Muhammad (saw)is the history of Islam. You are studying the concise history Islam. By studying the life of Muhammad (saw). In his Seerah you would find situations and incidences that would help us in everything that we would need to know in our life of dawah. So we are not just  studying the biography of a person, we are studying the history of our religion.

Muhammad ibn saad ibn waqas,  -Saad ibn Waqas  is one of the ashra-e-mubasharah, he is one of the 10 given glad tidings of paradise. His son Muhammad would say that our father would teach us the battles of Rasool Allah, he would teach us the seerah of Rasool Allah and he would tell us that these are the traditions of your fathers, so study them. They used to refer to Seerah as maghazi. Maghazi means battles. The latter part of life of Rasool Allah were spent in maghazi. So they would use the word maghazi to refer to the whole life of Rasool Allah.

Ali bin Hussain ibn Ali bin Abi Talib-   the grandson of Ali ibn Abi Talib would say we were taught the Seerah of Rasool Allah like we were taught  Quran. That is how important Seerah was for them. They would study it like they studied Quran.

And that makes sense, because if you want to study the life of Musa (as) where do we go, where do we study It from? From Quran! If we want to study the life of Isa (as) we  go to  Quran, but if we want to study the life of Muhammad (saw), his life, even though there are bits and pieces of it mentioned in the Quran, but we don’t have that many details about Muhammad (saw) in the Quran as we have about Musa (as). So the life of Rasool Allah saw ,for us,  to study it we go to Seerah. All of the anbiya, their lives were recorded in the Quran  with the exception of  Muhammad (saw). So to study the life of Muhammad (saw) we go to Seerah. When we want to learn about the anbiya, we go to the Quran. But when we want to learn about Muhammad saw, we go to Seerah, again even though there are some references about him in the Quran.

No 2: Love

The second reason to study Seerah is to develop the proper love of Muhammad saw in our hearts. Loving  Muhammad saw is Ibadah. Its part of our religion to love Muhammad (saw)

Love for Muhammad saw

Muhammad saw says: “None of you will attain true faith until you love me more than your parents, your children and the whole world”   (Bukhari, Book of Belif, Hadith 14)

We don’t really become true believers until we love Muhammad saw more than any thing else. So it is part of Islam to love Muhammad (saw).

Omar bin Khattab (ra) he came to Rasool Allah saw and said…. He was a very honest and a straight forward person. So went to Rasool Allah saw and said O Rasool Allah I love more than everything except my self” I love you more than anyone except my self”

Rasool Allah saw told him “until you love me”, meaning you don’t really attain the complete faith until you love me more than your own self. So Omar bin Khattab came back and said” O Rasool Allah, Now I love you more than my own self” Rasool Allah saw said “Al aan eman ” “ Now you have attained the complete faith”

The Ummah today loves Muhammad saw. If you ask any Muslims Do you love Muhammad saw, they would say yes.

But the love can not be very deep and sincere unless you know the person. If you have shallow information about someone, you can’t really love them a lot. To love a person you need to know them more. And this is especially true with Muhammad saw. Because the more you know him, the more you would be impressed with his personality, the more you would love him. So even though Muhammad saw, among the Ummah today with the shallow information that the masses of Muslims have about him, even though they still love him, but we can not truly have deep love for Muhammad saw unless we know him. You know the Sahaba ra, the more they knew him, the closer they were  to him, the more they would love him.

Amr bin Al As, for example- He was one of the staunchest enemies of Muhammad saw. He was one of the top plotters against Islam. Amr bin Al As, he later become a Muslim, and when he was passing away, Amr bin Al As started weeping, he was crying on his death bed, so his son Abdullah bin Amr told him Oh My Father, Dint Rasool Allah saw give you the glad tidings of this, didn’t he give you glad tidings of that. It is reported in the hadith that Rasool saw said “Aamana amr” That Amr bin Al As has attained faith. So this is a witness from Rasool saw that Amr bin Al As is a momin. Not only a Muslim, but he is at the higher level of Momin. So his son was trying to give his father the glad tidings that you are a true believer. Rasool Allah saw has given you all of these glad tidings, how come you are crying now before your death.

 Amr bin Al As- he turned around and said: I have went through  3 stages in my life. At the first stage, the most despised man to me was Muhammad saw. And my desire was that I could get hold of him and kill him. That was my desire. That was my wish, my aspiration- to kill Muhammad saw. He said that if I had died at that time, I would definitely would have been in the hell fire. He said that then Allah put the love of  Islam in my heart and I went to Muhammad saw and said O Muhammad , I want to become Muslim. Extend your hand so I can pledge allegiance to you. Amr bin Al As says Muhammad saw extended his hand forward and I pulled my hand away. So Amr bin As, he had Rasool saw extend his hand and when Rasool saw was ready to put his hand in his, Amr bin Al As pulled his hand away. Rasool Allah saw told him “Whats wrong” Amr bin Al as said, I have a condition to make. Rasool Allah saw asked him,what is your condition? . He said, my condition is that you pardon me, you give me clemency. Because Amr bin Al as knew, the things he had done in the past, the great crimes he had committed against the Muslims, is sufficient for his execution. So he wanted to make sure that Rasool saw would not hold him accountable for what he did in the past.

So Rasool Allah saw smiled and he said: Ya Amr “ Arabic”  Don’t you know that Islam erases everything before it and Hijrah erases everything before it and Hajj erases everything before it.”

Amr bin Al said so I became a Muslim. He said that at that stage, Muhammad saw, who was my worst enemy, became the most beloved person to me in this world. He said that I loved him so much, I respected him so much, I couldn’t even get a full glimpse of his face. When ever I would see him, I would stare downwards. He said I had so much love and respect for him that I couldn’t even get a full glimpse of his face. And if you would ask me today to describe him to you…I couldn’t. He said that if I had died during that stage, I would have hoped to be in Jannah.…There are other parts of this hadith, but what concerns us now is that Amr bin As, when he got to know Muhamamd saw, when he became close to him, Muhammad saw, who was his worst enemy became his most beloved friend.

Sohail bin Amr was sent by Quraish, to negotiate with Muhammad saw before Sulah Hudabiya. Sohail bin Amr was an international negotiator; he had been to the courts of the Persian emperor, the Roman emperor, the emperor of Abyssinia. He was a well connected man. And now Quraish sent him to negotiate with Muhammad saw.

So he went into Madina and he came in and he had first hand experience with how the Sahaba ra treat Muhammad saw. So Sohail bin Amr went back to report to Quraish. He told them, he said I have visited the Roman emperor I have visited the Persian emperor, iv visited najashi(Negus), the king of Abyssinia, but I have never  in my life seen a leader that is so loved by his followers , so much respected  by his followers, like Muhammad saw. I have seen nothing like it in the world. The Roman emperor, the Persian emperor, Najashi of Abyssinia, even though they have all the powers, strength and empires, I have never seen a people love their leader so much like the Sahaba ra loved Muhammad saw. He said I saw amazing things. Muhammad saw would be making wudu, and the Sahaba would be watching, to grab the water dripping from his body. So he told them, do what ever you want, these are the people who would never give up their leader. The Sahaba, they would never give him up. They would give their lives first. They would sacrifice everything for him.

So if we want to love Muhammad saw, we need to learn more about him. I have already said that even though, among the masses of Muslims, we know people don’t have much information about Muhammad saw, they don’t know a lot about his Seerah, coz its not part of the curriculum that schools in the Muslim world teach, never the less even though, we are ignorant about him and his life, he is still the most beloved figure that ever lived in humanity. His name is the most common name in the world. How many people in the world are name Muhammad? There is no other person that ever lived in history who had so many people named after him like Muhammad saw.

When I was in college in the US, we had an imam, he was from Nigeria. And he was a hafiz and he was our imam in the small town in US. His name was Muhammad Al Ashr. The word ashr means the 10^th. So for a long time I assumed that Al- Ashr is his last name. Muhammad Al Ashr. One day I went up to him and asked What is Al Ashr? Is that the name of the tribe or the clan? He said No. He said my father would name every male boy that was born as Muhammad. All of this children, he would name Muhammad. So to distinguish between us he had to number us. So there was Muhammad the first, Muhammad the 2^nd, Muhammad the 3^rd, I am Muhammad the 10^th. So his father doesn’t want to deal with any other name. All of his children are gonna be Muhammad. And in Pakistan and India you would have Muhammad Haroon, Muhammad Suleman…every body Muhammad. There is No one in history that had an Ummah love him so much, like the Ummah loved Muhammad saw. He is the most beloved figure in history.

So what would be the situation if we studied his life. I mean how much love would we have then for Muhammad saw? His name was the most frequently mentioned names. Around the clock, there will be minaret that is calling to prayer and is mentioning the name of Muhammad saw. Around the clock. Coz muslims now are world wide. So in every time zone you have Muslims. So every minute of the day, there will be a Moaazan saying “Ashhadu La ilaha il Allah, Ashhadu ana Muhamamadar rasool Allah” His name is mentioned around the clock.

And by the way, the name Muhammad means the praised one. And there is no one who is praised like Muhammad saw. I mean his name really fulfills its meaning. He is the praised one, he is always praised. When ever we hear his name, what do we say? “Sallalahu Alihe Wassalam”

So we want to develop love for Muhammad saw, and the way we can do it is by studying his life, we will love him more, the more we study about him.

Allah tala saya “Say:If  your fathers, your sons, your  brothers, your wives or your   kindred, the wealth that you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you delight … are dearer to you than Allâh and His Messenger, and striving hard and fighting in His Cause, then wait until Allâh brings about His Decision (torment). And Allâh guides not the people who are Al-Fâsiqûn (the rebellious, disobedient to Allâh) (Surah Taubah: 24)

So the ayah is stating that our love for Allah and his messenger and striving in the cause of Allah and his messenger should be paramount to everything else. Our fathers, Our sons, Our brothers, our mates, our kindred, our wealth, everything. To love our messenger and Islam should be the dearest thing to every one of us.

No 3: To follow the Best Example

Ibn Hajar says who ever seeks the preeminence of the hereafter, the wisdom of this life,just purpose,and the embodiment of morality and character, let him follow Muhammad saw the Prophet of Allah. So Muhammad saw is the embodiment of “Khuluq”- The perfect character. And by studying his Seerah, we will be more able to follow his way.

No 4: Understanding Quran

There are some ayats in the Quran that are independent of the circumstances of revelation. Like for example, the ayats about the Akhira, Ar-raqaik . These are independent of the circumstances. But then there are some ayats that are dealing with events that were happening in the time of Muhammad saw. So you would have some ayats revealed prior to an event, some ayats revealed concurrent with an event and some ayats revealed after an event.

Seerah would give us the explanation of these ayats. Like for example Surah tul Ahzab. Manay ayats of surah tul ahzab were revealed regarding the battle of Al-Ahzab. Many ayats in  surah Al Imran were revealed relating to an event that happened in the time of Rasool saw. So you have a major section of Surah al Imran, which was a dialogue between Muslims and Christians, based on the Christian delegation that came from Najran to visit Rasool Allah. These ayats were revealed to support Rasool saw in his dialogue with the Christians. And the latter part of Ale Imran is dealing with Ghazwa e Uhud. Now the details of the Ghazwa are not mentioned in the Surah. So how can we understand these ayats? By going to the Seerah.

No 5: His life (Muhammad saw) illustrates the methodological steps of the Islamic movement.

Rasool Allah saw went thru stages; he went through steps started by a secret dawah. And then it became public. And then later on Jihad. So it went through stages. These stages are important for Islamic movement to learn and study.  Name missing  He says.. “And we believe that this methodological progression of the prophet’s life is divinely directed. For Allah has guided his prophet and all of his steps, and it was not a result of a reaction to an emerging circumstances. So these events that happened in the life of Rasool saw were not haphazard. They were planned by Allah Subhana Wataala. So that they would be a guidance for us, in our attempts to establish Islam again. So it is very important for us to see the stages that rasool Allah saw went through and the progression of his dawah.

Rasheed rida says that were it not for the education and training, verbal direction would not suffice. For the Seerah taught them how to be guided by the Quran and trained them to be just and moderate in all matters. So, we have Quran and Sunnah which are verbal teachings, but how do we apply these verbal teachings? It is by looking at the application of Rasool saw and the Sahaba (radiAllahu Anhum). So they took this verbal teaching into action and that is something that only the Muslims have, I mean the followers of all other anbiya have lost ____ of the Seerah of their anbiya, but with us we know  how the Quran was being practiced, we know how the Sunnah of rasool Allah saw was being practiced and applied.

There is an ayah in the Quran which says that you can continue eating and drinking at night time of Ramadan until the white string is distinguished from the black string. One of the Sahaba, he took this literally. What he did was that he had a string under his pillow… and he would eat and then he would uncover the string , he would pick up the pillow, he wouldn’t see the string, so he continued eating … and he would keep on doing that and then he went to Rasool saw and said this is what I have done. Rasool saw laughed and he said that it doesn’t mean you take a string in your room and you take a look at it. It means the white string which is the first emergence of light in the horizon that is what is meant by it. So Rasool saw taught this Sahabi how to apply that ayat, because I could get a dark room with no windows alright and I have a string with me and it would be noon time and I still can not see it and I continue to eat. So the application of the ayats and the hadith of Rasool saw are shown to us in the life of Muhammad (saw) and the life of the Sahaba.(RadiAllahu Anhum)

No 6: Studying Seerah is Ibadah

We are not doing this to entertain our selves. This is ibadat. There is Ajr, there is reward in studying this. We are worshipping Allah by coming together and studying the life of Muhammad saw. This is the halaqa of zikr. This is the session of zikr where we come together and talk about Muhammad saw , we are worshipping Allah Subhana watala. And we expect that this is a gathering which is surrounded by angels, in which Allah subhanawatla will shower us with his mercy and tranquility and we be mentioned in a gathering better than this. So it is ibadat and Allah subhana Watala says “Say if you do  love Allâh then follow me (i.e. Muhammad saw)  Allâh will love you  and forgive you  of your sins. And Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."(Ale Imran 3: 31)

No 7: Developing a Muslim Identity

There is a global culture that is being forced down the throats of everyone on the face of the earth. This global culture is protected and promoted. Thomas Friedman, he is a famous writer in the US, he writes for the New York Times. He says, the hidden hand of the market can not survive without the hidden fist. Mc Donalds will never flourish without Mc Donald Douglas- the designer of F15s.

In other words, we are not really dealing with a global culture that is benign or compassionate. This is a culture that gives you no choice. Either accept Mc Donalds, otherwise Mc Donald Douglas will send their F15s above your head. It is very intolerant culture, that can not co exist with anything else. It uproots every other culture on the face of the earth. Just cuts the roots of it. And you have a quote here by Alexander Sofzen. He is a famous Russian Historian writer. He says To destroy a people, you must sever their roots. So its really a destruction of the people of the earth because every other culture is being demolished. So this is not a global culture that will co exist with others, it will replace others. And the only ideology that is standing up to this global culture is Islam. But still, as Muslims and especially Muslims living in the west, we are suffering from a serious identity crisis. I mean you would find that even though the brother or the sister would be practicing Islam, but the identity it self, the Islamic identity itself is lost. I mean person would have more in common with the rock star or a soccer player then they would have with the companions of Rasool Allah saw. You would find that our youth know more about pop stars than they know about the Sahaba of Rasool saw . Infact even sometimes more than the Anbiya. How many of our youth know the names of all of the Anbiya of Allah? How many of our youth know the names of the Sahaba ra. But ask the same person to name the soccer players on their favorite team or their best basketball players and they would go down the list. So there is a serious identity crisis that is going on among Muslims.

And the way we can counter that, they way we can develop the Muslim identity is:

Steps to Develop Muslim Identity

No 1: By having a strong study of Islamic history. Which is made up of the lives of Prophets of Allah. The life of Muhammad saw, the life of the Sahaba ra and then learning in general, the Muslim history after that. So that’s No 1. You develop an identity, by having an attachment with history. Because our history, is our umbilical cord. This is our life line. We are an extension of an Ummah. We are not separated; we are not severed from our roots. We are a part of a glorious Ummah that we need to study about.

No 2: By being part of the world wide Muslim Ummah. Our local identity should not over ride our Muslim identity. So my identification with Britain or America or Pakistan or Kuwait or any other country should not over ride my Islamic identity. See this “nation/state” concept is something that Islam came to abolish. We have our loyalty to Allah Subhana Watala and to our religion. And we are part of a world wide Ummah. Therefore we need to study; we need to learn about our Muslim brothers all over the world. What happens in Palestine should concern every British Muslim. What happens in Kashmir should concern every American Muslim. What happens in every part of the Muslim world, should concern me as if it is happening within my own house. So these are the two important elements in building an identity.

No 1: Having a deep understanding of your History

No 2: Being part of the Ummah and caring about the Ummah.

And again the saying of Alexander ________ “To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots”

We don’t want our roots to be severed.We want our roots to be deep. Studying the life of Rasool Allah saw is the most important thing we can read in our history.

No 8: The Life of Muhammad saw is a Testimony of his Prophet-hood.

The greatest miracle of Muhammad saw is Quran and Muhammad saw had many other miracles. But just studying his life in itself is an evidence of his Prophet hood.

Here we have a man, who for forty years was leading a normal life. The outstanding thing about the life of Muhammad saw in the first 40 years was his morality and character. But Rasool saw did not show any signs of aspiration to power or influence. None of that at all. Rasool saw was leading a normal life and then suddenly after the age of 40, Rasool Allah saw brings about the greatest change that the world has ever seen. That’s an irony. That’s a miracle. Rasool Allah saw was illiterate. He could not read or write. And then he presents the world with the greatest book, ever produced. And we could go on and on… the list of ironies of things that are only explained if Muhammad saw was a messenger of Allah. Who had divine help. Otherwise its impossible. There is no  way to explain the Seerah , except to admit that he was a nabi from Allah. It is impossible for a person to achieve, what Muhammad saw achieved without being assisted by Allah Subhana Watala through revelation. So it’s a testimony of his prophet hood.

There you have Muhammad saw leading a normal life for the first 40 years. Then suddenly he becomes a political leader, military leader, religious leader, head of a large house hold, law maker, teacher, Imam and go on and on the list of the things that Prophet Muhammad saw used to do. All of this was done within a span of 23 years. Impossible!

Which would lead to the next point that

No: 9 We are studying the life of the Greatest

We are studying the life of the greatest man that ever set foot on this earth. Muhammad saw is the greatest. And what ever bench mark you want to use for greatness, he would still come out the greatest. Micheal Hart, he’s a US Author, he wrote a book called the The 100 Most influential People that lived in history. After studying the lives of leaders through out history, it became clear to him that Muhammad saw is the undisputable greatest man that ever lived.

He is the greatest and in his introduction he feels compelled to respond to what the readers of the book might think because he is mostly writing for a non Muslim audience. So many people would question his choice of Muhammad saw , so therefore in his introduction he writes, he says “ My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the worlds most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others. That he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.” And then he goes on to say that it is this unparallel combination of secular and religious influence, which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.”

So Micheal Hart is compelled by the facts. I mean there is no doubt that Muhammad saw is the greatest.

But then he has to apologize to his readers, I mean he has to say that this is out of my hands. I mean there is no way I could put anybody else  in front of him. Muhammad saw is the greatest. In fact, if we take Muhammad saw as a military leader, just that aspect of his personality, he would still come out the greatest. If we only take Muhammad saw, only the religious aspect of his life. He would still be the greatest. Muhammad saw as a political leader, he would still come out to be the greatest. So even if you dissect the different aspects of life of Muhammad saw and take them piece by piece, by just taking one piece alone, he would still be greater than anybody else that ever lived. So we are studying the life of Al-Mustafa. Mustafa means “the one who is chosen” Allah subhanawatala chose him. Al-Mustafa al khalqi He is chosen out of all the creation of Allah.

There might be some other reasons, why studying Seerah is important.

Sources for this Course

Seerah of Ibn Kathir.

 Ibn Kathir, he did not write a book called Seerah. Ibn Kathir wrote an encyclopedia of history. Called bidaya wan niaya. Called The beginning and the End. And it is literally the beginning and the end.

 He started from the beginning of creation and went all the way until people enter Jannah and hell. One of his volumes is about the life of Rasool Allah saw. Another volume is about the Prophets and another is about Khalifa Ar Rashida. Khilafa Muwaya  , Khilafa Abbasia. And he went all the way upto his times. The last volumes is called Al Fitan. Signs of the day of judgment and then the day of judgment and Jannah and hell.

So we are going to be taking his part of Seerah as a primary source. We will talk a little bit on why I have chosen ibn kathir to be our primary source.

Sahiah As Seerah ibn Nabawuya is the second book that I have used in compilation of these notes by Ibrahim Al Ali .

Science of Seerah and Science of Hadith: The Difference

 Traditionally, Seerah was a separate science from hadith. Even though there are some areas where they cross each other, there is over laying, over lapping between them. But traditionally Seerah had a different set of rules compared to hadith.

Scholars of hadith were very stringent, very strict in their rules. While scholars of Seerah, were more liberal, more flexible. The reason is, when they were dealing with hadiths and drawing ahkam and drawing rulings, they wanted to make sure they were basing the rulings on hadiths that were sound. They do not want us to worship Allah based on weak sources. So that’s why they applied very strict rules to hadith.

However, when it came to Seerah, they were more flexible in their rules, because they saw this as history which does not affect ahkam. It does not affect rulings. There is no ahkam based on it. So imam Ahmed bin Hanbal, who is a scholar of hadith, he says when we talk about history we are more flexible. So you would find that writers of Seerah would accept narrations ,they wouldn’t normally accept if they were dealing with  hadith. So that’s one track that was followed by our early scholars.

The Seerah of Ibn Ishaq was written according to these rules. The Seerah of Al Maqraizi, ibn Saad, all of these early scholars of Seerah, they followed these flexible rules in narration.

Recently, there was a new trend among some of our scholars. They wanted to apply the rules of hadith on Seerah. Why?

These scholars said now we are living in a time when the history of Rasool saw is ahkam for us. In time of imam ibn Hanbal, Khilafa was established, so when they studied the life of Rasool saw, they were studying to learn general lessons from it, but it wasn’t to guide them in methodology of a movement. Because Islam was already established.

But now we need to go through the Seerah and learn rules from it. On how to do dawah and how to establish Islam again. So it’s becoming similar to fiqh applied to us. Therefore they say we should apply the same rules of hadith on Seerah.

The second book which is Sahih Seerah ibn nabawiya is based on the rules of hadith. So what these scholars did, they went into Bukhari, they went into Muslim, they went into Sunnan Abi Dawood, they went into these books of hadith and they gathered the bits and pieces that were referring to Seerah. And they constructed the Seerah of Rasool Saw based on Hadith. So rather than going to the book of Ibn Ishaq, they would go to Bukhari. Rather than come to Maqrizi or other earlier scholars or ibn Hisham, they would go to Muslim. Saeed Hawa has written a book based on hadith, its called the asas ul Suna. This book we mentioned by Ibrahim Al Ali which is called Sahiah Seerah ibn Nabawiya. And there are  few other books  also following this line.

Now the reason why I chose ibn Kathir as our primary source is because ibn kathir, he combined both in one book. So he would draw information from the books of Seerah and he also draw information from the books of hadiths. So you would find him narrating from Bukhari and narrating from Ishaq. That’s why you would find the Seerah of kathir unique.

Just one draw back with the Seerah of Ibn Kathir is that it is a bit complicated and cumbersome to use, because he would mention all of the chain of narration, sometimes he would not stick to a chronological order and some times he would bring in information that seems to be contradicting. But it is an excellent source and Alhamdulilah, it is now present in the English language.

It has been recently translated by MC Gothic.  A professor in the us and it is a very good translation. Other books we might not  be using, some of them , I have got quotations from them.

We have Manhaj Al haraqi by Moid Al  Ghabban. The thing about this book is that the author  tried to  draw movement lessons from Seerah. So he would divide it into Secret stage, public stage, then he would go through the Hijrah and then different stages of Jihad. So he tried to construct a movement work line from Seerah. It is a recently written book.

Then you have Fiqh as Seerah by Muhammad Ghazali. (rahimullah) This book has tarbiya lessons.

There is another book by the same name Fiqh As  Seerah by Al Buyti. Muhammad saeed Ramadan Buyti. And Al Buyti emphasizes on fiqh. He draws many fiqh lessons from Seerah.

And then there is a book called Al Ghuraba by Sheikh  Salman Auda. And it is dealing with Hadith of the Strangers. And he tries to draw co relation with the strangers in the time of Rasool saw and the strangers now. Al Asas al sunna, we talked about this by Saeed Hawa and  then At Tariiq Il Al Madina by Muhammad Al Abda, which is lessons drawn from Seerah and Fiqh As Seerah by Al Buyti.

Arabic Terminologies

 Sallalahu Alihe Wassalam: means May the  peace and blessings of Allah be on him. This is what we say when we hear the name of Muhammad saw. Now the Hukum of saying it : It is mandatory to say it the first time you hear the name of Muhammad saw. Any other time after that, it is recommended. So in this lecture, the first time you hear the name of Muhammad , it is mandatory to say Saw. Any other time after that as long as we are in the same gathering, it is recommended. So this is the hokum of Salat salam ala Muhammad saw.

Rasool Allah: The word Rasool Allah means the Messenger of Allah.

Jahiliya: Is the ignorance of the Pre Islamic era. So Jahiliya is a time period but it is also conduct. Whenever you have a time that resembles the pre Islamic era, it is called jahiliya. And you will find that Syyed Qutub uses this word a lot in reference to the times that we are living in. he says that there is a lot of resemblance between it and the early jahiliya. So jahiliya comes from the root word Jahal, which is ignorance. So it is the time of ignorance. The absence of the  message. Even if the message is there and the people are not following it, it is a jahiliya.

Eman: Faith

Jannah: Paradise

An Naar: Hell fire

The last section is discussing the difference between hadith and Seerah scholars. We talked about this. Hadith scholars more stringent in their narrations coz of basing their rulings. Seerah scholars less stringent coz they want us to get the stories, so they were flexible in their narrations. We mentioned that we are using a combined approach. So I will use hadith and in the situations where there is no hadith, we will fill in the gaps by referring to Seerah.

So this is the introduction to the series. Inshallah o Tala the next session will start talking about some background history.

Sallalahu Alihe Wasalam Ala Muhammad waashabihe wasalam

SubhanaKalahuma Wabihamdik,Ashaduan  La ilaha ila inta, nastaghfiruka wana tubu ilaik