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
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
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra) taught Hafsa (ra) how to read, and many others how to heal and understand other complicated matters.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Welcome back to the first Alhamdulillah rabbal ameen as we have finished 50 episodes of season one of the first. We are inshallah ta'ala going to spend the next few months with some of the shorter biographies. People whose names are relatively unknown and about whom we may have just a couple of paragraphs, but they are from the earliest Muslims, the first Muslims and bismillah ta'ala in this last batch of the first, we are going to revive their memory inshallah ta'ala. So the person we are speaking about today is a woman by the name of Shifa bint Abdullah Al-Adawiyya. Shifa bint Abdullah Al-Adawiyya. And she is the daughter of Abdullah ibn Abdushams and Fatima bint Wahab. She is married to Abu Hathma bin Hudhaifa radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum and they had two sons by the names of Suleiman and Masrook radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum. So she is known as Shifa bint Abdullah Al-Qurashiyya Al-Adawiyya. She is from Quraysh and she is also from the tribe of Banu Adi which is the tribe of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum. And I forgot to mention that the first few bios that we are going to go through inshallah ta'ala in these short bios are all somehow connected to Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum. So that is how we are going to batch this first group inshallah ta'ala. So she is related to Umar bin Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum and her name often comes up as if she is one of the tabi'at. She is someone that came later on in Islam because the role that she became known for is after the death of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. However, her reputation actually precedes Islam and she is considered amongst the very first people to become Muslim. Okay, her name actually was not Al-Shifa that was her nickname. Her name was actually Layla
but she gained the nickname Al-Shifa and which of course refers to the healer and this was something that would stick with her for the rest of her life. Now what makes this woman so unique? Number one, her wisdom. She had a reputation for her hikmah. Number two, she was someone that belonged to the small group of people that were literate at the time. Remember when we spoke about Umar bin Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum, he said the majority of people were illiterate in Mecca. Al-Shifa was one of the few women who could actually read and write in Mecca where they only had about 20 to 30 people according to biographers that were able to do so. So she acquired the skill of reading and writing of literacy which was very rare. She learned medicine as well hence her name Al-Shifa and on top of that she also was a calligrapher. So she didn't just know how to write, she used to teach people particularly how to do calligraphy and so we find Hafsa radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum the wife of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was a student of Al-Shifa obviously related to her and Al-Shifa taught her how to read, she taught her how to write, she taught her calligraphy as well. So when did she become Muslim? We don't have the exact time but we know that it was within the first three years of the call of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam that she embraced Islam and she is also amongst the first women to make the hijrah with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam to Al-Madina. Now here's where it gets even more interesting with her, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam trusted her and took her as a confidant in seeking her advice in many matters due to her wisdom particularly when it came to issues of finance, issues of the marketplace where she had a particular understanding. So when they got to Madina and she's considered amongst the first batch of women to make the hijrah, she had a house that was set up for her between the masjid
and the marketplace and that was the famous home of Al-Shifa that was very prominent in Al-Madina. So in Mecca she was known for her healing, she was known for her reading, she was known for her writing. In Madina her home was prominently situated between the masjid and the souq and so the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam he used to visit her frequently and this is where you see some of the beauty of the reverence that these people had for the Messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam. She always anticipated the next time the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would visit her family and so what she did was she had a particular izar, a particular blanket, particular amenities for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam for the rare times that he would come to her home. When I say rare, obviously that is relative to everyone else. I mean to live in Madina to host the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is a moment that you will never forget, right? But she wanted the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam to frequent her house even more and so she has everything cut out and ready and prepared for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam as a guest whenever he would come and so the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would visit her family and the Messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam would put on the izar and the blanket and use the amenities that she had for him and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would take a nap in their family home. So subhanAllah I mean think about how beautiful that is for her to have the honor of hosting the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam frequently in Al-Madina to learn from him alayhi salatu wasalam, to be a companion of his and also to be consulted by him salallahu alayhi wasalam and when she passed away her most precious belongings that she left for inheritance were not any of the wealth that she had acquired in Mecca or in her time in Al-Madina, nothing that she had inherited from her husband but rather the most precious belongings were the things, the clothes, the blankets, the things that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam
used to use when he used to come to her home radiAllahu ta'ala anha and so she actually allowed for Sulaiman and Masrook her children to inherit those things and that was considered the most precious of the inheritance of Ash-Shifa radiAllahu ta'ala anha. There are a few stories of her, there is one narration in particular that we find in Abu Dawood where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam entered upon her and Hafsa radiAllahu ta'ala anha and of course as we said she and Hafsa were very close as she was considered from the extended family of Umar bin Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So she says in an authentic hadith in Abu Dawood, Dakhala Rasool Allahi salallahu alayhi wasalam a'inda Hafsa, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam entered upon I and Hafsa when we were sitting together and he said to me ala tu'allimina hadhi ruqya an-namlati kama alamtiha al-kitaba? Will you not teach Hafsa how to perform a type of healing for ant bites, infections that come as a result of ant bites. Remember she is a healer, she knows medicine, she knows how to do ruqya and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam approved her to continue to do ruqya so long as it was grounded in what was coming from the Quran and the Sunnah not from the practices of jahiliya but other types of medicine as well. So she had a particular way of treating ant bites. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said will you not teach Hafsa how to cure ant bites and infections that come as a result of ant bites the same way that you taught her how to read and how to write. So subhanAllah why is this so important to us and why is it something that is significant because we find that the Quran was gathered in the house of who? It was gathered in the house of Hafsa radiAllahu ta'ala anha and some of the ulama mention that that is because of her literacy right that it was all gathered in her home and she was unique in that sense as there were only a few people that knew how to read and how to write. So shifa had
something to do with that radiAllahu ta'ala anha in teaching Hafsa radiAllahu anha how to read, how to write, how to use calligraphy and also how to treat ant bites. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam passes away and she maintains that home and there is a story that Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anha when he became the khalifa he formally appointed her as being in charge of the marketplace. Now there is nothing that is firm to suggest that entirely but we do know that Umar radiAllahu anha at the bare minimum used to frequently consult her on matters of the marketplace, the fiqh of finance, business issues and things of that sort and of course Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu who honored the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam in every way used to visit her home between the masjid and the marketplace just as he saw the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam used to do so and so we find that Umar as the khalifa would frequent this woman's house and on one occasion he asked her about her children particularly Sulaiman. So her son Masrook was appointed as an amir somewhere and he was considered a person of great knowledge, a person of great status under Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So Masrook was appointed as an amir. Her son Sulaiman was a person who was known for his recitation of the Quran and his long nights of prayer. He was a hafidh and he used to lead the people in prayer. So Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu on one occasion asked her why her son Sulaiman was not present at the fajr prayer and she replied that Sulaiman her son had been praying all night long and he fell asleep right before fajr and so he wasn't able to actually catch the fajr in jama'a and so the famous narration of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu where he said, Usalli as-subh fil jama'a for me to pray fajr in congregation, ahabbu ilayya min an usalli al-layl is more beloved to me than
praying the entire night. If I'm able to catch fajr in congregation, that's better than praying the entire night because the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasalam said that whoever catches isha' in congregation then it is as if that person has prayed the first half of the night and whoever prays fajr in congregation it is as if they prayed the entire night. So that's actually the context of this particular narration from ash-shifa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So we find again Sulaiman and Masrook both play an integral role and the only lineage that we see that survives shifa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu is through her son Sulaiman who had two sons and he named his two sons what? Abu Bakr and Uthman. So shifa, the relative of Umar is the grandmother now of Abu Bakr and Uthman and they became narrators of hadith. And so that is why we find some of the surviving hadith of this woman who was very early on in Islam, ash-shifa bint Abdullah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu al-Adawiyya amongst the famous hadith that she narrates. She narrates the famous hadith that we will talk about when we talk about this companion of the letter that was sent to Kisra with Abdullah ibn Hudhafa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So we'll talk about that hadith in a few weeks inshaAllah ta'ala and it's a powerful and beautiful story that we find in our history. She also narrates a famous hadith where she says to the Prophet radiAllahu ta'ala anhu or she says about the Prophet radiAllahu ta'ala anhu that RasulAllah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was asked what are the best of actions and he said imanun billah wajihadun fee sabeelillah wahajjun mabroor the belief in Allah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu to strive in the path of Allah and an accepted and perfected Hajj. So iman, jihad and Hajj this narration also comes through as shifa
radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. The most famous thing that she narrates is the story of how Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu anhu was named Amirul Mu'mineen the famous title that's given to him of the commander of the believers. Now if you remember when we spoke about Umar radiAllahu anhu when Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was alive as the khalifa it was simple he was khalifatu rasulillah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam he was the successor of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam but you couldn't just keep having the khalifa of the khalifa of RasulAllah and then the khalifa of the khalifa of the khalifa of RasulAllah and so there was a curiosity about what Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was going to be called and so one of the beautiful stories here and sometimes it's beautiful just to read about how the hadith or the narration is transmitted Imam al-Zuhri radiAllahu ta'ala he narrates that Umar ibn Abdul Aziz radiAllahu ta'ala anhu asked Abu Bakr ibn Sulaiman so that's the grandson of Ashifa he asked her he asked him I'm sorry who was the first one to write Amirul Mu'mineen who was the first person to call Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu by the name Amirul Mu'mineen such a beautiful and endearing name the commander of the believers and he says my grandmother Ashifa was one of the first women to make the hijrah and when Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu went to visit her he would frequent her on his way to the marketplace and she told me that one time Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu wrote a letter to a governor in Iraq and said send me two men two of your best men so that I can ask them about Iraq and its people so the two men were sent by this governor of Iraq and they were Labid ibn Rabi'a and Adi ibn Hatim may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with them so they came to Medina and they entered into the masjid and as they entered into the masjid of the Prophet radiAllahu
ta'ala anhu they found Amir ibn Aas radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and they said to him ista'thin lana ala ameer al mu'mineen can you seek permission from ameer al mu'mineen for us to enter upon him and Amir ibn Aas radiAllahu ta'ala anhu he said wallahi you two have been granted success by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the name that you just addressed him by fahuwa al ameer wa nahnu al mu'mineen for he is the ameer he is indeed the commander and we are the believers so he said that I then went to Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and I said to him assalamu alaika ya ameer al mu'mineen peace be on to you oh commander of the believers and Umar radiAllahu anhu said why are you calling me that ya ibn al-Aas and he said that well Labid and Adi came to me and this is what they said and you are the ameer and we are the mu'mineen and from that day onwards this is the name that Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu used to go by so subhanAllah this comes through a conversation literally between a grandmother and her grandson which then is transmitted to the greatest grandson of Umar ibn al-Khattab which was Umar ibn Abdul Aziz the fifth of khulafa ar-rashideen radiAllahu ta'ala anhum ajma'een may Allah be pleased with them all so this is the role that she plays she also has a narration similar to that of Aisha radiAllahu anha narrating the traits of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu where she once saw some men that were walking very slowly and she asked about them and they said that these are people that were praying all night and she said كان عمر إذا حدث أسمع وإذا مشى أسرع وإذا أطعم أشبع وإذا ضرب أوجع that Umar radiAllahu anhu when he used to speak he used to make sure everyone heard him he spoke loudly and when he walked he walked fast and when he fed he fed generously and when he hit he hit hard so a similar narration to Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala anha that we also
find from her speaking about Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and we find that this great woman who you know was a woman of great scholarship a woman of great literacy and above all of that a woman who embraced Islam in the very first years and had that noble position with the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam and Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu would pass away leaving behind some of the ahadith that are narrated by Bukhari Abu Dawood and Nasa'i and she passed away in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu would lead the janaza of this great woman Ash-Shifa bint Abdullah al-Adawiyya may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with her and may Allah allow us to follow in their footsteps Allahumma ameen inshAllah ta'ala I'll see you next time where we will continue to talk about some of the people around Umar radiAllahu anhu about whom we usually don't hear much about Salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
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