The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khawla Bint Hakim & Uthman Ibn Madhun: The Righteous Couple | The Firsts
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Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
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Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
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Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Ali ibn Abi Talib (ra): Courageous & Steadfast
Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ love for Ali was immense. It is narrated that the Prophet ﷺ asked Allah to show love to those who love Ali and to show hate to those who hate Ali. Tune in to episode 6 of The Firsts as Sh. Omar Suleiman talks about the first child to embrace Islam, and the companion with more narrations about his virtues than any other.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. But let's talk about Ali today. So we know who his father is. Who is his father? I just want to see how awake you guys are. Abu Talib. Good. So his father is Abu Talib. That would mean his brother's name is Ja'far. I'm just trying to see if you guys are awake. Yes, he has a brother named Talib. There's Talib, there's Aqeel, there is Ja'far, and then there is Ali. So Talib is the oldest son of Abu Talib. Does anyone know what Abu Talib's actual name was? What his real name was? His name was Abd Manaf. So Abd Manaf, Abu Talib, obviously because his oldest son was Talib. And it comes down to, as we said, it's Talib, and then it is Aqeel, and then Ja'far, who we're going to have a very special session about at some point, about Ja'far. And then finally, Ali. Each one of these brothers was a decade apart from the other. So there are ten years between, approximately ten years between each of the brothers as the children of Abu Talib. And actually, something that really stuck out to me was the naming that was chosen for them, and I'm going to talk about that on Juma'ah, insha'Allah. So we have two weeks to really live with this family when we talk about these special people as they existed around the Prophet ﷺ. What was the name of Ali's mother? Does anybody know? Don't say Um Talib. What was his mother's name? Fatima. I mentioned that there are very few Khadijas, in fact I could not find anyone before Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha named Khadija. But when it comes to Fatima, there is Fatima, the mother of Ali, Fatima bint Muhammad, the wife of Ali, salallahu alayhi
wasalam radiyaAllahu anha. There's Fatima bint Hamza, Fatima bint Shayba. So Aqil also has a wife named Fatima. There are a lot of Fatimas that exist in that time. But the mother of Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, Fatima bint Asad, is so special that I thought about doing a whole lecture about her, but then I said this series is going to get way too long if I do a whole lecture on her and we're just going to end up having to dig a lot deeper. But she is a first as well. She is the first Hashemi woman to accept Islam. The first actual person from the family, the first woman from the family of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam in terms of his tribe to accept Islam. So unlike Abu Talib who of course had held out because of the implications of his tribe, Fatima bint Asad radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha immediately accepted Islam. So she's considered the first Hashemiya, the first woman from Banu Hashem to accept Islam. Some of the scholars put her as the 10th or 11th person as a whole to accept Islam. So she is one of the first 10 or first 11 to embrace the message of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. She did not hesitate at all. When the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam informed her about the message, she immediately believed in the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And she always knew there was something special about him. She's also like Umm Ayman, someone that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam referred affectionately to as a mother, because she served that role as a mother. Now we know that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam used to call Abu Talib his father, and Abu Talib would call him his son. And one of the nicknames of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was Yateem Abu Talib, the orphan of Abu Talib. So there are hadith where he would say, we remember the story in Ash-Sham where Abu Talib said, this is my son, and the priest said, no no no, the young man that's awaited, his father would have passed away. And then he explained
that it's his nephew. But Fatima bint Asad essentially raises the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, particularly from the age of 6 to the age of 25. The age of 6 to the age of 25, when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam got married to Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala bin Hanha. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam recalled the times of hunger, particularly, where Fatima bint Asad used to sacrifice her own food for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and for her children. Remember, Abu Talib's family was struck with extreme poverty, and poverty stayed with that family all the way until Islam, okay, into Islam, and never actually left the family of Abu Talib. They were a people that lived in extreme, difficult poverty, and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would recall the times that Fatima bint Asad would not have, would just have a little bit of food for herself, and she would instead choose to distribute that amongst the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and her children. And as we said, she accepted Islam instantly. She even considered making hijrah to Abyssinia with her son Ja'far. So we'll talk about Ja'far radiyaAllahu ta'ala bin Abu Talib again in a future halaqa, but she even considered making that hijrah, migrating to escape the persecution in Mecca. And she especially loved Ja'far out of her kids for a reason, because Ja'far looked like the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. So she loved Ja'far, particularly for his physical resemblance of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. So she had a preference, a soft spot for Ja'far radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. She suffered during the boycott, as we talked about, the boycott on Banu Hashim and Banu Mutalib. Of course that would cause the death of Abu Talib and it would cause the death of Khadijah radiyaAllahu
ta'ala anhu. And she also suffered, obviously, from the death of her husband Abu Talib in those difficult days. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam used to often, when he would receive something, he would say, divide it amongst the Fatimas. So Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu would take some of the food and some of the things that would come and he would divide it amongst the Fatimas in the families. Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu says about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and his mother, he says, كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يزورها دائما ويطيل في بيتها The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam used to go and visit her and he would enjoy her company and sit for a very long time in her home. And when she passed away, shows you the love of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam for this woman. When she was dying, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam came to her home, he removed his own shirt and he wrapped her in his shirt salallahu alayhi wasalam and he sat beside her bed and he made dua for her while she was passing away. And she passed away with her eyes on the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam while he was making dua for her. What a way to leave this world. SubhanAllah, wrapped in the shirt of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, staring at the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, sitting by her bedside, making dua for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to forgive her and to ease her transition. Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said that I remembered the day that Fatima bint Asad was buried and she's buried in Al-Baqi' Al-Gharqad. So she's actually, she made the hijrah to Medina and she was buried in Medina. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam himself jumped in the grave and he cleared the dirt for her. You know, there's a task to get inside the grave and to make sure that there's no obstacles, no hard rocks or anything that would prevent the body. And he cleared the grave for her himself salallahu alayhi wasalam. And then he asked for her body to come into the grave.
So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam actually received the body of this woman himself salallahu alayhi wasalam and praised her and then led her janaza. Fatima bint Asad also through her children there are 46 ahadith narrated from Fatima bint Asad radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha wa ardaaha. So this is the mother of Ali and the reason why I wanted to spend a little bit of time is because you know Abu Talib but you often don't hear about the mother of Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, Fatima bint Asad, the first of the Hashemi women to accept Islam. So Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was born according to Ibn Hajar about 10 years before the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam received revelation. About 10 years before the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam received revelation. Talib was the age of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And then there is Aqeel 10 years later and then there is Ja'far 10 years later and then there is Ali 10 years later and then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam received revelation of course as Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was a young boy in his home. And there are a few things that are to be mentioned here. When he was born I said that we're going to talk about Ali's name on Jum'ah inshallah because it's special how Abu Talib chose the names of his children. His mother named him Asad. So when you hear the famous narration where Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu says, I am the one whose mother named him Haydar or Asad, a lion. He was actually being, this was actually a fact that his mother his mother named him Asad, named him a lion. But when Abu Talib came back he didn't like the name, he was on a journey, so he changed his name to Ali which means aloo ash-sharaf
which means someone with great nobility. And subhanAllah her intention for him to be named a lion, to be named Asad was of course realized later on when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would refer to him as Asadullah, as the lion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because of the way that he would carry himself in battle. There's also narrations about him being born in the Ka'bah. Now if he was born in the Ka'bah, he wouldn't be the only one to be born in the Ka'bah. There's authentic narration about Hakeem ibn Hizam, the nephew of Khadijah radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. Hakeem ibn Hizam was also born in the Ka'bah. And so there are some narrations as we mentioned of Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu being born in the Ka'bah as others were. Now the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam tells the story about how Ali came into his house and this is narrated in al-Tabari al-Mujahid that when they were young, Quraysh was struck by a famine and it made it very difficult for people with large families especially those that were already in poverty. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam went to al-Abbas, of course this is his uncle, and he said to al-Abbas radiyaAllahu anhu that Abu Talib is going through a hard time because of all of his children. How about we make things easy for him and we take two of his children and raise them for him so that he can focus on getting himself to a financially healthy place. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam had just gotten married to Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala shortly before that so the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam's financial circumstances had changed. So al-Abbas radiyaAllahu anhu agreed and Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was literally an infant so he was just born. So we're talking about ten years before the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wasalam receives prophethood, five years after the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam got married to Khadija. So they go together and they say to Abu Talib, al-Abbas and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, give us your children so we can make things easy for you and we'll raise them for you. So Abu Talib said you can take them so long as you leave me Aqeel. So Abu Talib insisted only on keeping Aqeel with him. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam went up to Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu as a baby, picked him up and embraced him and he said I'll take him. Al-Abbas radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu went to Ja'far ibn Abu Talib and he said I will take Ja'far. So Ja'far, though he was a little older than Ali as we said about a decade older than Ali, would be raised in the house of al-Abbas and Ali would be raised in the house of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And for the benefit of Ali, I want you to think about this because Mujahid mentions this as an amazing miracle. It could have happened that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam could have adopted Ali. He could have officially made him his son like he did with Zayd. So he made Zayd Zayd ibn Muhammad. It also could have been that Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu could have breastfed Ali which would have made Ali her son. And Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu had flowing milk. There were other children of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam that were born at the time of Ali and had Khadija radiyaAllahu anhu breastfed Ali, then he could never marry Fatima because he would have been the brother of Fatima. He would have been the brother of Fatima. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was protecting this and obviously decreeing this in such a way that this marriage would happen from a very early age even though it
would have been understood and it would have been only natural that Khadija radiyaAllahu anhu would either breastfeed him being a young child in her house or the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would officially adopt him. And there is no actual stated reason why the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam never adopted him and why Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu did not breastfeed him except that it's a miracle from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was planning for him very early on. So he's growing up in the house of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija as a child of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and he's witnessing everything that we talked about with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija radiyaAllahu anhu from the perspective of a child. So he sees the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam when he comes home, the stress, Khadija radiyaAllahu anhu embracing the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, going to waraqa, obviously the fatrah, he witnesses that pause in revelation where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is trying to figure out what's happening to him. And before the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would approach Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, this young boy who was again 8, 9 or 10 years old, to talk to him about Islam, the first exposure would be Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu watching the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu pray on the first night when Surat al-Muddathir was revealed. So remember Surat al-Muddathir was revealed to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam as he was in the arms of Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commanded the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam to pray. Now how the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would pray, was it the full exposure at that point? No, it was a developing concept of salah. But still the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was starting
to pray. And so the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is praying with Khadija and Ali notices that night and obviously Ali radiyaAllahu anhu has been seeing things are changing in the household of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. Something is happening here that is not normal. Our lives are changing. So his first exposure to Islam, he said that I saw the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija praying at night so I waited until they finished and Ali radiyaAllahu anhu walks up to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and he says, Ya Muhammad, ma hatha? He said, Oh Muhammad what is this? I have no idea what is going on. I don't know what you are doing, how you are praying, what is this? So he said that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam responded, Deenullah alladhi istafaahu linafsihi waba'atha bihi rusulah. He said this is the religion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the religion of God which he chose for himself and he sent messengers in accordance with that. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said to him, fa ad'uuka ila Allahi wahdahu la sharika lah, wa ila ibadatihi, wa an takfur billahi wal'uzza. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam told to me, so I call you to Allah and that you worship him without associating any partners but at the same time you reject allat and al'uzza, you reject the idols, allat and al'uzza. And you can realize that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is giving Ali a very serious message. He's not treating him like a child, he's not saying don't worry about it, we'll talk about this when you get older. He's imparting on him the seriousness of this. This is not something small or just do what we're doing, right, you're a child, just go ahead and follow along with us. He's making it very clear to Ali radiyaAllahu anhu what he was doing. Now Ali says, I grew up in the house of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, I never worshipped an idol because the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija did not worship idols. So I never even worshipped an idol. But when the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam talked to me with that seriousness, ad'uuka ila Allah, I'm calling you to Allah, wahdahu la sharika lah, no partners associated with him, wa an takfur bil'lati wal'uzza, and that you disbelieve in allat and al'uzza. Ali radiyaAllahu anhu, he said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, he's a very mature child, he said, hadha amrun lam asma' bihi qabla al yawm. He said, look this is something I've never heard about until today. Falastu bi qadin amran hatta uhadithu bihi abu talib. He said, and I can't make this decision without talking to my father, Abu Talib. So he said, I've got to talk to Abu Talib first. Now Abu Talib had not heard yet of Islam. And this was the maturity of Ali radiyaAllahu anhu where he doesn't say this looks cool, let me go ahead and do this too. He gets that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is imparting a very serious message to him, he's a mature young boy, he says to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, I need to talk to Abu Talib. He said the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam smiled at me and he accepted that and he said, idh lam taslim thaktum. He said, listen if you don't become Muslim, be quiet. Don't go blurting this out to everybody, what we're doing in this house. That's a lot to put on a ten year old, right? Eight, nine or a ten year old. He was between the age of eight and ten, right? So this is what I'm doing, this is the religion, this is our aqeedah, this is our creed, and if you're not going to become Muslim, then that's fine, just don't tell anybody. Okay? So you've got to keep it to yourself. Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said that I said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, okay. He said that I sat back in the room and he said I watched the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija radiyaAllahu alayhi wasalam continued to pray. When is this all happening? Ali radiyaAllahu alayhi wasalam said the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam received revelation on Monday, I became Muslim
on Tuesday. So this is the very first night of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu making dua, praying together in this way as Muslims. Okay? So Ali radiyaAllahu alayhi wasalam said I watched the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija praying and that night I felt something enter in my heart and I couldn't sleep. Meaning the message of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was clear to me. What he was doing, the words that he said to me, I kept repeating them to myself trying to comprehend what I heard from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam until it entered into my heart. So he said the next morning I said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, can you remind me again what you're calling me to? Can you repeat everything that you said? So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said sure. And he repeated the message to Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. He said that I'm calling you to Allah. Wahdahu la sharika lahu ila ibadatihi wa an takfur billahi wal'uzzah. That you worship him without partners and that you disbelieve in Allah and in al'uzzah. So Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said aslamt. I submit myself. So he actually never went to Abu Talib to talk to Abu Talib about it. He just decided the next morning to accept the message and he said that from that day I started to pray with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. So Ibn Abbas radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, you'll find a narration in Bukhari where Ibn Abbas says awwalu man salla Ali. The first to pray was Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. What he's speaking about is this obviously. To follow along the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu literally on Tuesday. He says the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam received revelation on Monday and I became Muslim or accepted Islam that next morning on Tuesday.
Then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam started to invite people in small groups to Islam, particularly Banu Hashim. So now the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam's mission is to focus on his own tribe of Banu Hashim and to focus on some of the smaller groups that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has called him to call upon around his family. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would go and before that call at As-Safa, the very famous call at As-Safa, there were actually family gatherings where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam privately starts to speak to these small groups of people. And the rumors are starting to spread amongst Banu Hashim and Banu Mutalib that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is calling to a new message. So Ali radiyaAllahu anhu says that I used to accompany the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam on those little trips where he would go and he would call them to a dinner or he would call them to a lunch and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would speak to some of his immediate relatives about Islam. And he said sometimes I would go with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and it would just be me and him. And he said but I would not speak, I was obviously a little boy so I wouldn't say anything. And he said sometimes it was Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu anhu and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. Abu Bakr was of course just two years younger than the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. He was far senior to Ali radiyaAllahu anhu. So he said sometimes the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu anhu would become Muslim soon after would go out and they would call people to Islam and he said I would go with them but I would remain silent. So Ali himself being the young boy did not publicly call to Islam but it was understood he's like the son of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and he's with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam on these journeys. And then he mentions As-Safa, right?
Where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam decides at this point to broaden his call to make his first public call to Islam and it's still to his family but it's to his extended family and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is doing it out in the open. Which is when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam stands on As-Safa and he starts to call the tribes to As-Safa and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam says if I was to tell you that there is an army that is behind that mountain that is coming to attack you, would you believe me? And they said of course, you're As-Sadiq, Al-Ameen, you're the truthful one, you'd never lie. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam calls them to the oneness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and warns them of a harm, a punishment in the hereafter. So he presses a great sense of urgency on them salallahu alayhi wasalam when he's standing on As-Safa. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said so who will follow me? So before Abu Lahab would curse the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam gives his message. All of these people just responded united and said you're As-Sadiq, Al-Ameen, we would believe you if you said that there was some harm coming to us. And then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said so who will support me? Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu looks around and he sees dead silence. You imagine how this is waraqa's message to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam starting to come to him now. That this is serious, that all of these people who just enthusiastically said we would support you, we would believe you, you're As-Sadiq, Al-Ameen, now are completely silent. They love the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam too much to insult him. But at the same time, they're completely out of sync with what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam just said to them.
So Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, he raises his hand, this is his first time publicizing, he says Ya Rasulallah, I will believe in you. And what do you think that does to the situation? Ali radiyaAllahu anhu is showing his support but it actually further alienates the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam from the crowd. It's like the only one that stood up and said Ya Rasulallah, I will support you, is the little boy, his little son. And that's when Abu Lahab looks around and Abu Lahab says to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, Tabban laka ya Muhammad, ali hadha jamaatana, may you perish oh Muhammad, is this why you gathered us together? So we could gather all of our gods and worship this one God? So Abu Lahab insults the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, everyone walks away, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is completely shocked by the incident that just happened. There's no Abu Bakr in this, this is his family. It's just the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Ali radiyaAllahu anhu who wanted to support the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam enthusiastically, he walks up to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam to support him in those difficult moments. And you can imagine what that conversation was like between the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and Khadija radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha that night. Waraka, who told the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam that your people would run you out, was dead now. And Ali walks home with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam who was not physically harmed, but who had just gotten a taste of what was to come, of the alienation with this message. Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said, I would walk with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and he said after that the people would turn their faces. So there's a clear message that's being sent to the Messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam at this point, and he says, Wallahi, every single stone and tree would give salam to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam in Mecca, but the people would turn their faces away from him.
So you imagine the little boy walking with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam in those moments, and this is of course building character for him as well. In Mecca, Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said that I was good at reading people's behavior. So he said that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam appointed me to go and to look out to see if there was anyone that was coming around that looked like they were there to learn about Islam. What does that mean? Ali radiyaAllahu anhu stands around the Ka'bah, little boy, young man, and he looks at the faces of those that are traveling in particular to see if there's anyone that's potentially looking for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And you know who he found, by the way? Abu Dharr al-Ghifari. So Abu Dharr radiyaAllahu anhu would become Muslim, specifically through Ali radiyaAllahu anhu going through the marketplace, looking around, analyzing people's faces, saying salam to people, or interacting with the people, and getting a sense of who was potentially there to inquire about the message of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And then you have this stunning narration. Think of the Ka'bah right now, the Ka'bah in particular, and think of all the people that are always there. Now I want you to rewind to this narration. There's a man by the name of Afif al-Kindi. Afif al-Kindi says, I was a merchant, and he said I came to Mecca in the early days of Jahiliyyah, and he said I used to stay with al-Abbas. Al-Abbas radiyaAllahu anhu was the merchant of Mecca. Al-Abbas radiyaAllahu anhu used to sell clothes, he used to sell perfume, people used to have debts with al-Abbas radiyaAllahu anhu. So he said that I was a close confidant of al-Abbas radiyaAllahu anhu. So he said I came to Mecca to stay with al-Abbas one day,
and he said I passed the Ka'bah and the sun was at its peak, it was like dhuhr, middle of the day, the sun was at its peak. So he said I saw a man, a young man, facing the Ka'bah with his hands raised, and a boy right next to him, raising his hands like him, and a woman standing behind them, and everybody ignoring them. So this is a strange sight. I saw this young man with his hands raised, someone next to him raising his hands next to the Ka'bah, and a woman standing behind them doing the same. So he said I didn't know who they were, what was happening. He said so I watched them, and he said then they bowed down, and then they made sajda, they prostrated. So Afif says that I went to al-Abbas radiyaAllahu anhu and he said I was late to him, and I told him I just saw the strangest thing happening at the Ka'bah. And al-Abbas says what is it? So he told him, he said I saw this man standing in front of the Ka'bah with his hands raised, and then a young boy next to him doing the same thing, and then a woman standing behind them doing the same thing. And everybody was ignoring them, and no one was doing this ritual with them. So al-Abbas radiyaAllahu anhu said do you know who that is? He said no. He said that's my nephew, Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, wa ibn ammihi, Ali, and the son of his uncle, so his cousin Ali, and his wife Khadija. He said my nephew, this is al-Abbas talking to Afif, he says my nephew says that his lord is Rabbus samawati wal ard, is the lord of the heavens and the earth, and that he's given him a new religion. And al-Abbas said I don't know anybody in the world that follows the religion except for those three.
So Afif said, interesting, stated with al-Abbas, he did some of his trade. And then later on he would become Muslim. Later on Afif al-Kindi would become Muslim once Islam grew. And Afif used to always cry and he would say I wish I was the fourth. I wish I was the fourth. Ya laytani kuntu raabi'an. I wish I was, I should have been the fourth. I should have been the fourth. I had an opportunity in those moments when it was just the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, and Ali, and Khadija, and I could have been that next one. But instead he waited until Islam got a little bit more growth and popularity, and then Afif radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu would become Muslim as well. So it kind of just gives you that instant, if you think about the growth of Islam, and you think about this first family standing there, worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at the Ka'bah. And al-Imam al-Qurtubi rahimahullah ta'ala, he likened this to, he said it's like Ibrahim alayhi salam and Hajar and Ismail. Think about when the Ka'bah was first built, and think about the moment of Ibrahim alayhi salam and Ismail alayhi salam and Hajar alayhi salam raising their hands to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then later on the fulfillment of that, it's once again, it's a Prophet with his wife and with his child, standing in front of that house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, declaring the oneness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and showing their support to that. So Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala maintained this position of being obviously extremely close, the first child, the first young man to accept Islam. And he also remained in poverty. So the family of Abu Talib obviously remained in deep poverty. And there are so many different stations and virtues, but the first one that we'll talk about, beyond just being in that close capacity to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam in those early days,
and being in that close capacity of Khadijah radiyaAllahu ta'ala Anha, is the day of the hijrah. When the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam asked Ali radiyaAllahu anhu to sleep in his bed on the eve of his departure, knowing that there was a plot to kill him. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam asks Ali to sleep in the bed, and to take his place. Now there were seven tribes that conspired to kill the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And the idea was if all seven of them had blood on their hands, then they wouldn't be able to particularly target one of them for the murder of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. So it would do away with that fitna of tribalism. It wouldn't start a tribal warfare, because it was so many tribes that would be implicated in the murder of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam left Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu there, and he could have, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam obviously had foreknowledge, he could have just left and not put anyone there, and they would have simply burst into the house, and they would have found nobody. Now having Ali radiyaAllahu anhu there gives some sort of a presence in the house, so they could see the body of someone there, in the bed of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, when they're waiting. And Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu had no hesitation whatsoever to take his place. Not only that, Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, sleeping in the bed, knowing that seven people are about to come in there, and what are they going to do? If they even take the time to uncover, and to see that it's not the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, they'll probably kill him anyway. At this point now, they're killing people regularly, right? They're persecuting the Muslims regularly. So they'll probably kill him anyway. Abu Talib is dead, who's going to take his revenge? Right? Comes from a poor family at this point. They'd probably kill him anyway. Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said, that that night, I slept like I'd never slept before. He was snoring. Slept nice and calm, peacefully,
knowing that it's only a matter of time before they break into the house, and they kill him, or they try to kill him. Ali radiyaAllahu anhu was in complete tawakkul in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Ibn Abbas radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said that, Wallahi, he freed every part of his body from hellfire, by putting it all on the line for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam that night. Right? Sleeping in the bed of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, knowing that they're plotting outside to bust in and to attack him. Absolutely no hesitation. Absolutely no fear. Complete courage, all alone, knowing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is with him. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is with Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu in the cave. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala obviously settles their hearts. Anzal alayhimu s-sakina. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala descends tranquility upon them, and He also descends tranquility onto the heart of Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, as He did on Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu in the presence of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So they bust into the house, they uncover him, and then they see it's not the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. They're disgusted. Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu just gets up and walks away. They didn't kill him, and he's completely fine. And so this was a way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala raising his rank. But then look at the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam told Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu to return all of the amanat, the trust of the people, before he makes the hijrah, before he migrates. These people are trying to kill the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and this is the moment where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam has left Medina. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam could have said, you know what, if Abu Jahl wants to kill me, I'm keeping his watch. I could keep their stuff. They knew that even as they're trying to kill him, that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would still have the honesty to maintain their belongings and not to do away with them.
And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam entrusts Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, right after they came in, almost killed him. He tells him to spend some time and to go and to return all of the amanat, the trust that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was holding. Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said, then I made the hijrah. And he said, wallahi, I had no companion and I had no camel. Ali walking from Mecca to Medina with absolutely nobody and nothing. Imagine making that journey in the desert by yourself, and they were so poor. He said, I didn't have a camel. I was too poor to afford a camel or a horse. Gave away all of the amanat of the people. And he said that as I was making the journey from Mecca to Medina, he says that it was so hot in the daytime that he made a strategic decision that he would sleep in the daytime and then he'd wake up at night. And then Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu would try to make up as much of the journey by himself in the desert at night to avoid dealing with the heat of the sun and the dehydration of making that journey. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was waiting for Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu in Quba' and the Messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam would go out and look for Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. He was the last one to make it because I was all by myself, on my foot. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam left me there. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is waiting at Quba' making du'a for his safety. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam sees him when he comes into Quba' and he embraces Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and inducts him into this new system in Al-Madinah al-Munawwara. Ali radiyaAllahu anhu said, when I got to Madinah, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam paired me off. He was doing mu'akha, he was doing brotherhood. He paired me off with Sahal ibn Hunaif radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu.
Sahal ibn Hunaif was from the Aus tribe and he's one of the people that was an archer that supported the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in Badr and in Uhud. Very close person to Ali radiyaAllahu anhu. He would actually live all the way to the Khilafah of Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and become one of Ali's amirs. He would actually become one of his generals in Quba' in Iraq and pass away and Ali would pray janazah on him. Now what about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam making him a brother to him? There are some narrations that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he did the mu'akha, he made Ali his brother. And we'll actually see that next week in one of the authentic narrations where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentions that in the capacity of the marriage to Fatima. It doesn't seem to be a contradiction. So there are some that would say the narrations are not necessarily authentic but it doesn't seem to necessarily be a contradiction since there is actually an authentic narration where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam called him his brother. That the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam still symbolically called him his brother as he passed away. He paired the muhajireen and the ansar and referred to him as such when he brought him there. And there is no doubt that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam saw Ali, or he treated Ali radiyaAllahu anhu more like a brother than he did a son. So even though there are 30 years between the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and Ali ibn Abi Talib, you see the relationship between the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu? Very much so like that of a brother. The joking of Ali with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. There is a beautiful narration, Ali radiyaAllahu anhu again, he has lived in poverty his whole life. And when Fatima radiyaAllahu anhu married him, they still lived in poverty their whole lives. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's house was one of poverty. And Ali radiyaAllahu anhu said that I used to take up these odd jobs between supporting the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in battle and being in his companionship. Ali radiyaAllahu anhu was a contractor, right? You need someone to pick something up, you need someone to build something, so he would take these jobs with his hands.
And one day he said I worked the whole day for this woman and she paid me in tamr, so she paid me in 12 dates. SubhanAllah how these people would work. No minimum wage in Medina, you get 12 dates for working the whole day, doing hard work in the heat. So he said when I got the 12 dates, I knew that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was hungrier than I was. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam used to go out at night looking for food sometimes. So he said I took the 12 dates to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, sat with him, he said I took 6 for myself, I put 6 in front of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And then we ate the dates and he said the sahaba came and they gathered around us. He said when the sahaba came I pushed my 6 date seeds in front of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, so he had 12 date seeds in front of him. And I said to the sahaba, look at Rasulallah salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he eats and he leaves me hungry. That's the type of jokes, that's the approachability of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam responded and he says, look at Ali, when he eats his dates he swallows his seeds. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam reciprocates his jokes. This was the type of relationship that they had. Ali's favorite name was Abu Turab, the father of dust, because that was the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's nickname for him, Abu Turab. And it was endearing to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And even in his own personal life, you see the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would seek nasiha, would seek advice from Ali radiyaAllahu anhu, despite the large age gap and despite the fact that he would become his son-in-law, not just like his own son that he raised, but also would become his son-in-law when he marries Fatima after the battle of Badr in Al-Madinah, which we'll talk about inshallah ta'ala next week. So what are some of the other virtues? There are some of these ahadith that are so beautiful, and I'm only going to focus on the authentic ones.
It's very hard to sift through when you're looking through the riwayat about Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu because you have some that from the perspective of the sunnah are exaggerated and some that are depreciating. But it was Imam Ahmad rahimahullah who said that there is no sahabi of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam who had more narrations about him than Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam praising him, talking about his love for him, and that does not take from the maqam of Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu or from the khulafa from our perspective. We'll get to that later on inshallah. We don't see a contradiction between these two. The authentic hadith where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, man kuntu mawlaahu fa'alee mawlaahu, whoever takes me as a sincere, you know when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about the mu'mineen and the mu'minat being awliya to one another, being close, loved ones to one another, the believing men and the believing women. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Allahu waliyul ladheena amanu. Allah is the wali of those who believe. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, whoever takes me as a mawla, then Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu is his mawla. And the munafiqun, they got jealous obviously of the relationship that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam had with Ali and this is something that's widely narrated. And so when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam went to Tabuk, realized the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would leave Ali radiyaAllahu anhu behind to do some things at times and this was not to take away from him, this was in praise of him. So just like he left him behind in Mecca, that's not him leaving Ali behind because he doesn't care about him, it's because Ali radiyaAllahu anhu has very particular qualities of trustworthiness. He's the representative of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, someone that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam loves dearly. And Ali radiyaAllahu anhu was a warrior too. And a warrior hates to be anywhere but in battle. So you have all these stories of every single battle of Ali radiyaAllahu anhu taking on
people that everyone else was afraid of and the pre-battle duels that would take place. Ali radiyaAllahu anhu going forward with Hamza radiyaAllahu anhu fighting before the battle. So when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam went to Tabuk, he left Ali behind in Medina to take care of the women and the children that were left behind in Medina. And some of the munafiqun, they started to make fun of Ali to say to him that this was a sign that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was putting him aside. So this started to annoy Ali radiyaAllahu anhu because he started to think about it. He said, you know, is this some sort of degradation? Am I being lowered in my status because the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam left me behind? So when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam came back, he noticed Ali radiyaAllahu anhu was bothered by what seemed to be a demotion of sorts in the ranks. And he said to him, to Ali radiyaAllahu anhu, amma tarda an takuna minni bimanzilati haroon min moosa? Aren't you satisfied, O Ali, that you are to me like Haroon was to Moosa, except there is no Nabi after me, there is no Prophet after me. What does that mean? When Moosa alayhi wa sallam left, who did he put in charge of the people? Haroon. Right? And this was a sign that Haroon alayhi wa sallam was on the same wavelength as him. So he's leaving behind Ali radiyaAllahu anhu in charge of that area in Medina, not because he's taking away from him, but that's the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam talking him up and saying, this is the same thing like when Moosa alayhi wa sallam put Haroon in charge when he went to Mount Sinai. Abu Sa'id radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu says, this is authentic and sahih Muslim, ma kunna na'rif
al-munafiqin ala ahdi rasoolillahi salallahu alayhi wa sallam illa bi buhdihim li Ali. That we knew the hypocrites in the time of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam by their hatred of Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And Ali radiyaAllahu anhu used to say, also an authentic hadith, he used to say that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam told me that no one except a mu'min would love me and no one except a hypocrite would hate me. That only a mu'min loves Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and only a hypocrite would hate him. And the hadith includes this, right after the hadith ayatul munafiq bughd al-ansar wa ayatul mu'min hubb al-ansar. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said that the sign of a believer is their love for the ansar and the sign of a hypocrite is their hatred of the ansar. And then specifically the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam specified Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu with that type of love. There's also the narration of Khaibar where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in the battle of Khaibar said that tomorrow I'm going to give the banner to someone who loves Allah and his messenger and who is beloved to Allah and his messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And Umar bin Khattab radiyaAllahu anhu said I never wanted so badly a position of leadership than that day. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam kept the people waiting and then the next morning the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam called Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, or he called for Ali and Ali radiyaAllahu anhu had an issue with his eyes where he couldn't even see. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam took some of his saliva and he applied it to the eyes of Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and Ali could see once again and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam gave him the banner and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala granted him victory on his hands. So that was also one of the moments where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam really gave Ali radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu a special type of love in those moments. And in Mustadrak al-Hakim there's an authentic hadith where a man said to Salman al-Farisi
radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, how extreme is your love for Ali radiyaAllahu anhu and he said I heard the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam say whoever loves him loves me and whoever hates him hates me. And we'll see some of those hadith next week inshaAllah ta'ala with Ahlulbayt, with the family of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam from the books of the Sunnah. Finally a very special narration because I love anything that has to do with Jibreel alayhi wa sallam. Also a sanad that is sahih in Muslim Imam Ahmed that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam looked at Abu Bakr and Ali on the day of Badr and he said to them, ma ahadikuma Jibreel wa ma al-akhir Mika'il. One of you right now has Jibreel with you and the other one has Mika'il alayhi wa sallam. We know that the Malaika were sent on that day of Badr to support the believers. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said to Abu Bakr and to Ali, one of you has Jibreel, the other one has Mika'il with them as you fight on the day of Badr. And I want to end with this because it's really interesting because again you can't talk about Ali radiyaAllahu anhu without the politicizing of it right. If you talk too much about him, even from the authentic ahadith, then are you exaggerating? Are you sure these are from our books? There's a counter reaction and sometimes there's a fear of talking about the love of Ali radiyaAllahu anhu because it would suggest somehow that you're taking away from the other companions in the capacity of that discussion. And guess who else was accused of this? Imam al-Shafi'i. Al-Shafi'i rahimahullah has poems. One of the four imams of Ahl al-Sunnah where they accused him of being Shia because he loves Ali too much and he talks about Ahl al-Bayt too much. This is a part of our Sunnah, this is a part of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And he says, la'in kana dhanbi hubbu aali Muhammad, fatharika dhanban lastu anhu atub. He said if loving the family of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam is sinful, then that is a sin for which I will never repent.
Loving them is what the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam taught us to do and loving Ali radiyaAllahu anhu without the exaggeration that would contradict some of our credo points is part of our religion, it's part of who we are and it's not something that we should shy away from. And again, I could go on and on and on about him. We'll reserve some of it next week inshaAllah to talk about the makings of that marriage with Fatima radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be pleased with him and to be pleased with the family and the companions of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam and to join us with them. Allahumma ameen.
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