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The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
Abu Mahdhura (ra): The Kid Who Mocked Adhan | The Firsts
As the Prophet ﷺ left the siege of Ta’if, a group of youth were making fun of the adhan. The Prophet ﷺ saw past their mockery and stuck to his hope of their becoming Muslim. In one of the most beautiful stories of the Prophetic lens, we gain new insight into how he brought the best out of people even in the worst of times.
This episode of The Firsts is part of the “Muslim of Ta’if” series.
The Firsts is a weekly video series that chronicles the lives of the Sahaba (the companions of the Prophet ﷺ) during and after the time of the Prophet ﷺ.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
So if I was to ask you, who are the mu'adhins of the Prophet ﷺ, who would you say?
The very first one, who is it? Bilal al-Habashi (رضي الله عنه). And then who? Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum (رضي الله عنه).
Those are the two most famous mu'adhins of the Prophet ﷺ. The person that we're going to talk about now, truly a powerful story, his name is Abu Mahdhura.
Abu Mahdhura. And just like Abu Bakr, he's known by Abu Mahdhura, his actual first name is disputed.
So is it Samurah or Sumayr or Salamah? All of these are possibilities with him. Samurah or Sumayr or Salamah, ibn Umayr.
And he is al-Jumahi, he's from the same area as that woman, so he's sort of a mix between Ta'if and Mecca in this regard.
The incident that is known as the incident of Abu Mahdhura is something that gives such a beautiful dimension of the character of the Prophet ﷺ.
The Prophet ﷺ has left the siege of Ta'if, he's making his way back to Al-Madinah. And he has with him now these 23 escaped slaves, amongst them Abu Bakrah Nufay' (رضي الله
عنه). Abu Bakrah, Mawla Rasulullah ﷺ. And obviously on the way, they're making salah and they're going about their business.
Bilal (رضي الله عنه) was with the Prophet ﷺ on this journey back from Ta'if the second time around. So it's actually really interesting, the Prophet ﷺ never actually gets to go into Ta'if, right?
He's bringing people out, he sends back the delegation, they become Muslim, but we don't actually have the incident of the Prophet ﷺ going back to the place where he was stoned and going back to the garden. It's all now happening on the way out.
The emotions are high and there's at any moment a sneak attack that could happen, an ambush that could happen. The Hawazin, those Bedouin tribes were famous for that, right?
The Prophet ﷺ orders Bilal (رضي الله عنه) to give the adhan, to call the adhan. And he would alternate of course Bilal and Ibn Umm Maktum, depending on the situation. Bilal (رضي الله عنه) stands up to do the adhan.
Abu Mahdhura was with a group of youth, so they're a bunch of kids and they hate the Prophet ﷺ. Why? Because their parents hated the Prophet ﷺ.
They don't know anything about the Prophet ﷺ, all they know him is as the man that came from Mecca tried to cause us trouble and then he came back again and tried to cause us trouble, they don't know about the message of the Prophet ﷺ.
So while Bilal (رضي الله عنه) is giving the adhan, what does Abu Mahdhura say we did? He said, we started to make fun of the adhan of Bilal. Okay? كنا نسخر ونقلد المؤذن.
We started to mock Bilal from afar. So you can imagine a bunch of 10 kids, you know, on the outside making fun of him, laughing and they're making fun of the adhan.
So they're trying to call out the words and the Prophet ﷺ, then in a stern voice he says تعالوا, come. All right, we're in trouble now.
Why? Because at the end of the day, you forgot for a moment that this man ﷺ is not just the Messenger of Allah, he's also a military general, right?
And the Prophet ﷺ is fully suited, armored, like you kids come here. So they come to the Prophet ﷺ and they're terrified.
And so this is the opposite of Abu Bakrah doing ruku' and inching in. This is uh-oh, we didn't think about the consequences here. We got caught and all 10 of them come in front of the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ said,
go ahead and do what you were doing. You were repeating the adhan, so keep saying it. They kind of look around at each other and the Prophet ﷺ said, yeah, go. So they start going, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, like what's going to happen here?
So they're not making fun of it the way that they were when Bilal ﷺ was doing it. So the Prophet ﷺ listened to them and then the Prophet ﷺ says, من الذي كان يقلد المؤذن?
Which one of you was the one that was loudest and, you know, making fun of the mu'adhin? And Abu Mahdhura said, they all pointed to me. It's also a lesson for kids too.
Your friends will sell you out very quickly when fear comes. So you're making fun of him together. But then when there were consequences, the other nine kids all pointed to Abu Mahdhura.
Abu Mahdhura was like, all right, I'm in trouble. So the Prophet ﷺ, after that, so كلهم أشاروا إليّ, they all pointed to me.
The Prophet ﷺ said to the other nine, انصرفوا, you guys can go. What's he going to do to Abu Mahdhura? Chances are, execute him, torture him, enslave him. What would a military general do?
I mean, you play out the scenes, tense moments. What's he going to do with him? The Prophet ﷺ أبقاني عنده, he kept me with him.
فاقترب مني ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ came to me, came closer to me. And the Prophet ﷺ said, say it again. He said, say what? He said, قل الله أكبر الله أكبر. So he said, الله أكبر الله أكبر. The Prophet ﷺ encouraged him. قل الله أكبر الله أكبر.
So say it again. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, call it out the way you were calling it out.
So he had him call the adhan after him ﷺ. After he finished that, so he starts off in a low voice, raises his voice eventually and
the Prophet ﷺ is clearly having him demonstrate his voice in the adhan. And Abu Mahdhura had a beautiful voice. So he said that after I finished, the Prophet ﷺ gave me a pouch with some silver in it,
right? And he smiled, he said, هذه لك. This is a gift for you ﷺ. And Abu Mahdhura was stunned. He thought he was in trouble. Now he's got silver in his hand.
So he says, ثم وضع ﷺ يده على ناصيتي وهو يدعو لي.
So then the Prophet ﷺ put his hand on my forehead and he made du'a for me. And then he moved his hand ﷺ, ثم وضع يده على قلبي.
Put his hand on my heart ﷺ, on my chest and he made du'a for me. And the Prophet ﷺ moved his hand, making du'a for me as I was looking at the Prophet ﷺ.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he said, اللهم بارك له اللهم بارك عليه. So part of the du'a of the Prophet ﷺ was silent, then he said, O Allah, bless him,
بارك له بارك عليه. Bless him and put blessings upon him. Bless him and put blessings upon him. He said, سبحان الله, and this will be a familiar story. He says, كان رسول الله ﷺ أبغض الناس إليّ. That the Prophet ﷺ was the most hated person to me.
I hated the Prophet ﷺ before that. We knew bad things about him. They're kids. His reputation was horrible. فصار أحب الناس إليّ صلى الله عليه وسلم. And the Prophet ﷺ became the most beloved person in the world to me.
Like in those moments, suddenly, I was in awe of him ﷺ. So he asked the Prophet ﷺ, teach me again. So the Prophet ﷺ said, قل الله أكبر الله أكبر. الله أكبر الله أكبر.
قل الله أكبر الله أكبر. الله أكبر الله أكبر. قل أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله. So he's repeating it. And the Prophet ﷺ went through the whole adhan with him, to make sure that he memorized it properly.
And then the nerve of Abu Mahdhura. Man, these young people. Abu Mahdhura says, يا رسول الله اجعلني أؤذن في مكة. O Messenger of Allah, let me be the mu'adhin of Mecca.
Like a minute ago, you were making fun of my mu'adhin. You're lucky I spared you. I gave you some money and I made du'a for you and you're Muslim now and your heart is full of love for Allah ﷻ. Now you're saying, let me be the mu'adhin. You haven't even prayed a salah yet.
يا رسول الله اجعلني مؤذن في مكة. The Prophet ﷺ said, okay, I'll make you the mu'adhin of Mecca. And so he has Bilal (رضي الله عنه) with him and Ibn Maktum (رضي الله عنه)
obviously in Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ had left Attab ibn Usayd. Attab ibn Usayd (رضي الله عنه) as the Amir of Mecca. I mean this is right after the Fath of Mecca. So Mecca's just been conquered fresh and they moved on to Ta'if.
And the Prophet ﷺ left an Amir there and the Prophet ﷺ said that I'm going to send for him for you to be the mu'adhin. قال اذهب فأذن عند البيت الحرام.
Go ahead, you're going to give the adhan at al-Bayt al-Haram. It's yours. SubhanAllah, in one moment you're mocking him in Ta'if, the next moment you're being sent to be the mu'adhin of Mecca.
And this is subhanAllah so powerful and profound. He goes to Mecca and he had such a beautiful voice. Abu Mahdhura had such an enjoyable voice in Mecca that people loved to hear his adhan. So people would ask him to repeat it.
He had the singer's voice, right, but he used it for the sake of Allah ﷻ. And so he goes back to Mecca.
The Prophet ﷺ has appointed him as the mu'adhin and Abu Mahdhura (رضي الله عنه) would never leave the Haram.
He was the five times a day mu'adhin of Mecca. While the Prophet ﷺ was still alive, he would not leave his position out of fear that someone else would take it from him.
So no one else is giving adhan except for me, Abu Mahdhura (رضي الله عنه). And his voice was beautiful so people let it happen. And on top of that, subhanAllah, this is something so powerful.
See the love that he had for the Prophet ﷺ. He would not ever cut the part of his hair that the Prophet ﷺ touched. لم يحلقها ولم يفرقها.
He wouldn't even part it. So the part of his hair that the Prophet ﷺ touched when he made du'a for him, Abu Mahdhura (رضي الله عنه) said, I'm never cutting this again. Never parting it, I'm never cutting it. So he was known (رضي الله عنه) that he would trim, he would do everything, but
he'd leave that part of his hair. Because he was like, the Prophet ﷺ made du'a for me, he touched that part of my head and he prayed for me ﷺ.
And what ends up happening, subhanAllah, is that he goes on as well to become a Companion. He has students who narrate from him. All eight of his narrations have to do with adhan.
You know like just the mu'adhin and that's it, nothing else. I'm a mu'adhin, I know the adhan, that's what the Prophet ﷺ appointed me to do. I'm not doing anything else. So all of his narrations have to do with the adhan.
And by the way, if you hear Adhan Abu Mahdhura, it's a term in fiqh, it's a term in jurisprudence. Why? You know how sometimes people want to fight each other over the way the iqama is done?
So for example, Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, or Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar. Right? So do you repeat it four times or do you repeat it two times? You can find narrations for both.
The adhan of Abu Mahdhura, the Prophet ﷺ taught him, Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, Ashadu an la ilaha illa Allah, Ashadu an la ilaha illa Allah, Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah, Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah, Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah,
Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah, Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah, Hayya 'ala as-salah, hayya 'ala as-salah, hayya 'ala as-salah, hayya 'ala as-salah.
So the Prophet ﷺ taught him what is known in this regard, right, as the quadruple form of this recitation.
So there's a tarji' wa tarbi' to literally repeat it four times, right? And it was narrated from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. So when you hear Adhan Abu Mahdhura as an acceptable way of making adhan, this is who it goes back
to (رضي الله عنه), the Prophet ﷺ taught me to make the adhan this way and he was not combated in this regard. And so for generations, that's how the adhan of Mecca was, Adhan Abu Mahdhura.
If you went to Mecca, you heard the adhan in the style of Abu Mahdhura (رضي الله عنه). On top of that, you know how the Prophet ﷺ gave the key to the Ka'bah to Uthman ibn Talhah
and his relatives (رضي الله عنه) and said it has to remain in his descendants? So Abu Mahdhura, his descendants have to be the mu'adhin of Mecca.
Up until the time that Imam Al-Dhahabi (رحمه الله) is writing about Abu Mahdhura (رضي الله عنه), he says, فَبَقِيَ الْأَذَانُ فِي وَلَدِهِ وَوَلَدِ وَلَدِهِ إِلَى الْيَوْمِ بِمَكَّةٍ
Until today in Mecca, the adhan has remained from the children, the grandchildren, the great grandchildren of Abu Mahdhura (رضي الله عنه). Only the children of Abu Mahdhura get to give the adhan and he lived a long life (رضي الله
عنه) and there's actually a really funny incident before I move on to the last part of this. Again his name is not really known.
Mu'awiyah had sent a mu'adhin to Mecca at the time of Abu Mahdhura (رضي الله عنه) and Abu Mahdhura was like, I'm not having it.
So when the mu'adhin for Mu'awiyah came, it literally says, فَاحْتَمَلَهُ أَبُو مَحْذُورَةَ فَأَلْقَاهُ فِي زَمْزَمٍ Abu Mahdhura pushed him into Zamzam, so you're not taking this adhan from me.
So he still had that attitude like nope, I'm the mu'adhin of Mecca, no one else will come between me and this reward of Abu Mahdhura (رضي الله عنه).
There's even a poem subhanAllah that was authored, وَأَنْشَدَ مُصْعَبُ ابن عبد الله لبعضهم قال أَمَا وَرَبِّ الْكَعْبَةِ الْمَسْتُورَةِ وَمَا تَلَا مُحَمَّدٌ مِنْ سُورَةٍ
وَالنَّغَمَاتِ مِنْ أَبِي مَحْذُورَةَ لَأَفْعَلَنَّ فِعْلَةً مَنْكُورَةً So he rhymed it, he said that I swear by the Lord of the dressed Ka'bah and by Muhammad ﷺ on what he recited of surah and by the adhan of Abu Mahdhura that
I'm going to do something you're not going to like. So he used those rhymes because it became known that this is the adhan of Abu Mahdhura (رضي الله عنه).
SubhanAllah the lessons that can be gleaned from this again, sometimes you have to see potential even in a person who doesn't even show any willingness to be guided and you
have to be able to see what they're good at. So just like the Prophet ﷺ saw something very specific in Abu Bakrah (رضي الله عنه), I see something very specific in this young man Abu Mahdhura
(رضي الله عنه) and the Prophet ﷺ gave him a task and he stuck him to that and Abu Mahdhura owned that task and he never left it. So how do you not break a young person?
Like you literally could take the lessons one by one here and how do you not break a young person that is showing you great potential. The way that the Prophet ﷺ did not break this young person.

























































































































































































