The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
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44
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khawla Bint Hakim & Uthman Ibn Madhun: The Righteous Couple | The Firsts
52
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
58
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
125
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
126
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
146
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
147
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubayy (ra): The son of the Chief Hypocrite | The Firsts
While his father undermined the Prophet ﷺ at every juncture, he served alongside the Prophet ﷺ in his most difficult moments. He was the opposite of his father, and opposed him when he hurt the Prophet ﷺ.
Dr. Omar Suleiman shares the story of Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubayy (ra), the son of the chief hypocrite.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Had hope in the children of the mushrikeen, had hope in the children of the disbelievers, and their families and how they were able to shine. Imagine being the children of the chief hypocrite. The chief hypocrite. Who was the chief hypocrite in Medina? Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. The chief hypocrite. There was Abu Jahl in Mecca, there was Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, the chief hypocrite in Medina. A significant part of the Qur'an is dedicated to the evil and the corruption of this man. Right? And what he was able to stir. In Uhud, this was the man who managed to get people to flee from the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. That managed to infiltrate in the time of Khandaq. That managed to infiltrate with the slander of A'ishah, radhiallahu anha. I mean, he's behind horrible thing after horrible thing after horrible thing after horrible thing. Subhanallah, one of the greatest of the Ansar is his son. Is actually his son. And his son, his name was Al-Habab. So Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul's nickname was Abu Al-Habab. And the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, changed his name to Abdullah. So his son's name is Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. So Abdullah, the son of the very famous Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. Abdullah, radhiallahu anhu, the son of the chief of the hypocrites, was one of those who immediately embraced Islam, sincerely, dedicated himself to the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He attended all the battles with the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. So he's a Badri companion as well. Remember, you know, not all of the Ansar got to attend Badr. That's still a small select group of people. He's one of those who went out with the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, on the day of Badr. He's one of those that did not flee from the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, in Uhud. He attended in Khandaq. He went out in Bay'at al-Ridwan. He took the pledge with the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, under the tree in Hudaybiyyah. He was one of those who was able to read and write.
So his father, I mean, this is the royal family of Medina, essentially, right? So he was being groomed to be the Prince of Medina, you know, the Prince of Yathrib. His father was going to be the king, he was going to be the successor to the throne. So he was literate. Instead, he becomes one of the scribes of the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Some of the books of Siyar say that he was one of those who wrote the Qur'an. Imagine the son of the chief hypocrite, and he's writing some of the Qur'an, and some of the Qur'an is about how evil his father is, and the plots and plans of his father. And Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha, she specifically narrates that in Uhud, he lost part of his nose, and he lost two of his teeth, fighting alongside the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, allowed for them to replace the part of his nose that was gone with gold, with gold, because that was the way that they pieced it together, whatever treatment was used, and his two teeth with gold as well. So the permissibility of using gold for the sake of rectifying something, is actually taken from his story, radiallahu ta'ala anha. So he had gold on his nose, and he had gold in his teeth. Radiallahu ta'ala anhu, because of his supporting the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And as he's with the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, through thick and thin, and Rasulullah, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, would even appoint him as an Amir in battle, he'd appoint him as a commander in battle, his father is trying to do everything he possibly can to get the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, killed. Think about the paradox here, subhanAllah. Your dad is the worst human being in Medina, and you love the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, the way you love the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and you're essentially becoming one of those people, who's proven time and time again, that you're going to be there by the side of the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Your father is the one who gets people to flee the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and you're one of those who stays next to the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
So Allah, subhanAllah ta'ala, revealed an ayah about his father, يقولون لئن رجعنا إلى المدينة ليخرجن الأعز منها الأذل. They say that if we go back to Medina, we're going to replace the humiliated one with the honored one. Basically, Allah quoting when Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul tried to make his move, in Ban al-Mustalaq, and he said, We're going to go back to Medina, and I, the honored one, will remove the humiliated one, the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. This is treason of the highest order, right? So, Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul was sneaky about his hypocrisy until he thought he had an opening, where he could overthrow the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. It's a very interesting conversation that happens here. The expectation is, he's been caught, he's going to be executed, which is the norm of any society. Literally, the man is guilty of treason. He explicitly said, I'm going to remove the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and overthrow him, and he's been caught. Listen to what Abdullah says to the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. He says, Ya Rasulullah, Innahu balaghani anaka turidu qatla Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. He said, O Messenger of Allah, it has reached me that you're probably going to execute, he didn't say my father. He said, Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. He said, Fa in kunta la budda fa'ilan, Ya Rasulullah, if you're really going to do that, fa murni bihi, then give me the order to do that. Now, some of you might think to yourselves, like, wait a minute, is this like anger? Is this what the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, was motivating in this person? Like he wants to be the one to have the pleasure of killing his father? No, he says,
Fa wallahi laqad alimatil khazraj maa kana laha min rajulin abarra biwalidihi minni. He said, Khazraj knows that there is no son that loves his father more than I love my father. So I actually was always obedient to my father, always used to love my father, always treated my father well. He says, wa inni akhsha an ta'mur bihi ghayri fa yaqtulahu, fa la tada'uni nafsi an anzura ila qatila abi fin nas. He said, so if you order someone else to execute my father, then I'm going to have to live with the one who murdered my father. And I don't know if I'm going to be able to look at the person who carried out that execution. I don't know if I'll be able to forgive that person. I don't know how merciful he's going to be. I don't know. I mean, there are various means, obviously, of carrying out a death penalty, right? But this man has done something that is definitely guilty of the death penalty. So he said, I don't want to find myself trying to kill that man. And then I'd kill a mu'min, I'd kill a believer, because jahiliyya overtook me, because the ignorance overtook me. And I thought I was defending the honor of my father. I said, ya Rasulullah, if you have to order the execution of my father, then order me to do it. What did the Prophet ﷺ say? bal na tarafqu bihi wa nuhsinu suhbatahu ma baqia ma'na No, no. We're going to treat him with the best of manners. We're going to accompany him with the best of character, so long as he's amongst us. Ahsin suhbatahu, told him as a son, treat him well. Ahsin suhbatahu, no, you know what? That's still your father. I didn't come here to turn you against your dad. That's still your father. And subhanAllah, when Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul comes back to Medina, because remember, he said that I'm going to replace, I'm going to overthrow the Prophet ﷺ,
the humiliated one, and replace him with the honorable one, being myself. The man who he saw standing at the gates of Medina was his own son, and he said, ya Rasulullah, anta al-aziz wa huwa al-adhal. O Messenger of Allah, you're the honored one and he's the humiliated one. And he didn't want to let his own father come back to Medina, because of what he said about the Prophet ﷺ. With all that being said, and this shows you the human complications, I said this story is full of twists and turns. When Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul died, his son Abdullah was devastated. And he came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, ya Rasulullah, can I have your shirt so I can wrap him in it when we bury him? Can I use your shirt as his kafir? This is the man who slandered the Prophet's wife, who tried to kill him on multiple occasions, who destabilized the society from the start of this building of the city of Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ takes off his shirt and he gives it to him and he says, wrap him in my shirt. And then he says, ya Rasulullah, can you come and lead his janaza and seek forgiveness for him? And did the Prophet ﷺ do it? He did. He went out. And it was Umar ibn Khattab, radhiAllahu anhu, who was trying to stop the Prophet ﷺ, like ya Rasulullah, this man, this man, like you're going to pray on him? You're going to seek forgiveness for him? And that's when Allah ﷻ revealed that even if you were to seek forgiveness for him 70 times, Allah would not forgive him. Because the man was never a believer, but instead an opponent of the Prophet ﷺ that was infiltrating and destabilizing from within. So subhanAllah, this is the ihsan the Prophet ﷺ showed to this man, despite what he did to him ﷺ.
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