Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the accursed. In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. No aggression is due except against the wrongdoers. The right path is for the righteous. I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the accursed. I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the accursed. Subhanallah is actually towards the end of this situated in none other than Gaza. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give the people of Gaza victory and protection and sustenance in these desperate moments of theirs. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala restore us to these days of glory that we read about in these particular stories. Allahumma ameen. So we'll get to that but subhanallah this is just the way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had willed as we come into the order of the companions. Where the focal point of his story becomes.
But the theme is of course enemies of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Whose children also inherited the enmity towards the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And then went on to become some of the greatest reasons for the spread of Islam throughout the world. And so tonight let's talk about this particular man Amr ibn Aas sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. How many Amr's do we have here by the way? No Amr's? We have no Egyptians here? We have one? Half of Mosul is named Amr for good reason. Alright. His title according to Imam al-Dhahabi rahimahullah he says Dahiyat al-Quraysh. The most cunning of Quraysh. They used to call him Dahiyat al-Arab. The most cunning of the Arabs. The politician of the Arabs. A man of the world. The person who examples are struck in regards to him. People would compare themselves to Amr in his intelligence. When it comes to his intelligence, his cunningness and his strength of intelligence, his strength of mind. And he's described as Imam al-Dhahabi rahimahullah says by Ibn Abdulbar. That Amr was a person who was a poet of Quraysh. He was a warrior of Quraysh. He was a horseman of Quraysh. A person who had the most eloquent of speech when it came to his poetry. And so he kind of combined all of the qualities that were desired in Quraysh at the time. Now one of the things that's also important about and interesting about his life. Al-Dhahabi rahimahullah narrates. He actually was older than Amr ibn al-Khattab.
And he used to say I remember the night that Amr ibn al-Khattab was born. Now the reason why this is an important part of understanding the context and the mindset of Amr ibn al-As. You had the elders of Quraysh that immediately took the Prophet ﷺ as an enemy. Because they felt threatened in their ways and of their tribal power. And then you kind of had the second generation. Khalid ibn al-Walid is a young man. Amr ibn al-Khattab is a young man. Amr ibn al-As is closer to the age of the elders of Quraysh. So he's the oldest of that group. And he's kind of situated in between the fathers and the sons when it comes to fighting the Prophet ﷺ. So he's one of the few, for example, who will fight the Prophet ﷺ in both Badr and in Uhud. Because many of those who came out in Uhud, like Khalid and Ikramah, they came out to avenge their fathers. Amr was there in both of these battles. So he's someone who's considered a senior amongst them. But he's not as old as the Abu Jahls and the Uqbas and some of the the eldest of Quraysh. But he's older than Umar and Khalid and that particular group of young men that would initially oppose the Prophet ﷺ. How was Allah ﷻ prepping this man for the journey ahead before he even became Muslim? One of the things that is said about him is that not only was he incredibly intelligent, but he was incredibly well-traveled, the most well-traveled of Quraysh. Meaning he had gone to Ash-Sham, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan multiple times. He had gone to Egypt multiple times. He had gone to actually what is Libya, modern-day Libya, multiple times. He had gone to Abyssinia multiple times. He'd gone to Yemen multiple times.
And so Amr bin Aas had gone through all of these countries as we know them now, all of these lands as a merchant. And he'd established a relationship with all of the leaders, both from the Persian side and the Roman side, in the capacity of being a merchant. And how this plays out later on is that basically when Amr bin Aas becomes a military general, he already knows the land, he's deeply familiar with the land that he is about to engage in battle within. So it's interesting because even in his childhood, he's being prepared for this and he knows the terrain, he knows the corners, he knows the cities, he knows the fortresses, decades before he actually returns back to those lands as a Muslim. As we said, he was a poet. He was known as well for his generosity. And when his father passed away, Amr bin Aas radiAllahu ta'ala anhu inherited all of his money. Why do you think that is? Why do you think he inherited everything? Because his brother was in prison. His brother was at that time in prison for being a Muslim. And when Al-Aas died due to the dua of the Prophet ﷺ, the supplication of the Prophet of Allah against him, Amr inherited all of his money. So he combines now the intelligence, the reputation, the travel. He's kind of situated in this place in regards to his age where he can relate to the elders and he can relate to some of the youth. So he's considered the oldest of the young and the youngest of the old. That's his description, right? So he's situated throughout Meccan society. He's trusted and he is their politician, the politician of the Arabs. And that means everything negative before Islam and then taking that cunningness, taking that intelligence and using it for good reasons after. As for his spouses, he would get married twice radiAllahu ta'ala anhu.
The first wife of his is named Rayta bint Munabbih. Rayta bint Munabbih radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And she's the mother of his famous son Abdullah bin Amr bin Al-Aas. The Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam said about them in an authentic narration, Amr bin Al-Aas min salihi Quraysh ni'ma ahlul bayti, abu abdullah wa ummu abdullah wa abdullah. That Amr bin Al-Aas is from the righteous ones of Quraysh. What a blessed family they are. Abu abdullah, ummu abdullah which is Rayta and Abdullah bin Amr who becomes one of the great scholars of this religion. So this is his first wife and he has one son through her. His second wife later on, who he marries way later, is a woman by the name of Umm Kulthum bint Uqba ibn Mu'ayt. Now since the theme of this is all about how the enemies of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, their own children, after they oppressed the Prophet Muhammad sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam for all of these years, their own children went on to become Muslims and went on to become good Muslims. Uqba bin Abi Mu'ayt was the man who humiliated the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam in the worst of ways. He's the one who took the guts of a camel and collapsed the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam under those guts, took on all of the challenges to humiliate the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam around the Kaaba and he's the one who ultimately triggered the du'a of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam against the elders of Quraysh. You know that incident where Fatima radiAllahu anha is cleaning the back of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam as he's shivering and he has no one to support him, no human being to support him? This is Uqba bin Abi Mu'ayt. All six of Uqba's children became Muslim. So al-'Asa's children became Muslim, al-Walid's children became Muslim, Abu Jahl's children became Muslim, Abu Lahab's children became Muslim, and Uqba bin Abi Mu'ayt, all six of his children became Muslim. And particularly, this woman, Umm Kulthum,
she is the one who migrated from Mecca to Medina all by herself. She was the first woman to make hijrah all by herself, coming to Medina, and it was after Hudaybiyyah, and she's the one that Allah s.w.t. mentions, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا جَاءَكُمُ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ مُهَاجِرَاتٌ ثَمْ تَحِنُوهُنَّ اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِإِيمَانِهِنَّ O you who believe, when the female believers, when the women believers come to you as migrants, then test them, and Allah knows best their belief. So she came to the Prophet s.w.t. as a sincere believer, after Hudaybiyyah, and Quraysh demanded that the Prophet s.w.t. return her, and Allah s.w.t. revealed that instead she should be protected in Medina. The same woman, and I'm not going to spend too much time with it, but it's pretty amazing. She married Zayd ibn al-Harithah, and when Zayd was martyred, she married al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, and then after Zubayr, she married Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, and then after Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, she married Amr ibn al-As, and she died in the Khilafah of Uthman r.a, who was actually her brother through her mother, so he's actually her half-brother. So the same woman married all four of those companions, Amr being the last of them, and this is sort of the family dynamic of Amr ibn al-As r.a, and this is of course much later on in Islam. So as for now, it's simply his wife Rayta, and then his son Abdullah. Now where does his story start off? Amr inherited a greater enmity to the Prophet s.a.w. than Khalid ibn al-Walid did. Amr deeply hated the Prophet s.a.w., deeply plotted against the Prophet s.a.w., used to scheme against the Prophet s.a.w. Khalid was more of, call me to the battle, and I'll make sure that you win the battle. Amr is someone who is in lockstep with his father,
trying to make sure that they intercept the Prophet s.a.w. at every route, they persecute the Muslims at every route. And so his story starts off where he uses his intelligence for all of the wrong reasons, and that's in Abyssinia. Abyssinia of course is ruled by a Christian king, a Najashi, and the Prophet s.a.w. says that you should escape to Abyssinia because the ruler of Abyssinia will not tolerate injustice. He will not tolerate a dhulm, and you should stay there until Allah s.w.t. relieves you from your distress. And so a group of Muslims flee Mecca, going to Abyssinia, and in Habesha, you have Ja'far ibn Abi Talib r.a, Uthman ibn Affan r.a, Ruqayya r.a, Mu'annah, the daughter of the Prophet s.a.w., Umm Salama, Asmaa bint Abi Bakr, Az-Zubair, so many of the best of the companions are settled now in Abyssinia, seeking refuge from the persecution of Mecca. Now we mentioned last week that one of those as well that escaped to Abyssinia was who? Does anyone remember? Hisham, his own brother. So Hisham ibn al-'As was his brother through his father. So his own brother is there. And by the way, I found another brother amongst them from his mother's side. So he has another brother by the name of Urwa ibn Uthatha. So actually, both his brother from his father and his brother from his mother are of those that fled to Abyssinia. So he's really driven to capture them and to bring them back to Mecca so that they could be persecuted there. And Umm Salama r.a says that Amr ibn al-'As had a good relationship with the Najashi. Remember, he's the politician of Quraysh. He knows exactly how politics works. He used to trade with the Najashi. He used to trade with the Romans. He used to trade with the Persians.
And so Umm Salama r.a said that when we got to Abyssinia, we felt ease and then we heard, we got the news that Quraysh had sent Amr ibn al-'As and Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'ah to basically bring us back. Amr is a politician. He knows how, he has a whole strategy in mind of how to sweeten up a Najashi so he can get these people back. So Umm Salama r.a says that Amr said, here's what we're going to do. First, we're going to get all of his advisors, all of his generals on our side. So he requests a meeting with the Najashi. But the night before, Amr ibn al-'As visits each one of his confidants, all of his generals. And he gives them all sorts of bribes. Leathers and skins and everything that they wanted from Arabia at the time. And as he sweetens them up, he says, listen, tomorrow I'm going to call a Najashi and I'm going to present to him that we have some people that have fled from us and basically I'm going to make an extradition request. I want them to come back to Mecca and I need you guys to all be on my side. Got it? We've got it. So he gave them all the money that they wanted, bribed them, sets up this meeting with a Najashi. And basically the premise of his request to a Najashi is going to be that this is a domestic issue. This is a domestic issue. These are people that have caused a lot of trouble for us and they fled to your land. They're not on your religion, they're not on ours. So we're not going to get into theology yet. We're not going to talk about Christianity and Islam. We're not going to talk about idol worship and, you know, the Meccans worship idols and Najashi's a Christian. But the only thing we're going to say is they're not on your religion, they're not on mine, they're a group of suspicious people, heretics, they should not be trusted and they caused us all sorts of trouble and if you let them
stay in Abyssinia, it's only a matter of time before they stir up some trouble here. So he's got, he's basically using anti-refugee rhetoric. Right? It's going to be anti-immigrant rhetoric to a Najashi and he wants to keep it very simple, that's the message. We have a good relationship, we have a treaty, send them back to Mecca and we'll take care of them. We won't tell you what we're going to do to them but we'll take care of them. So a Najashi calls for Amr. They all come together and his generals are around, all of his confidants are around and Amr says to Najashi exactly what I just mentioned. He said, listen there's a group of people that have fled from us after causing all sorts of trouble, it's a domestic issue they're not on your religion, they're not on my religion, but we have a good relationship and we wouldn't want anything to go sour between Abyssinia and Mecca, just send them back to us and we'll handle them. And Najashi says what kind of a man would I be if I don't hear their case? I have to listen to them first. This is exactly what justice is. As the scholars mentioned, justice is hearing both sides and not being driven by bias. And Najashi to Amr, as you're going to see, he's like a fatherly figure to him. They have a really good relationship. He's known him for a very long time. But a Najashi says, well I have to hear them out. I have to give them a chance to explain to me who they are and why they fled to my land. They came here because they felt like they would find some refuge. So let me hear them out. And subhanAllah a Najashi had received a letter around that time that coincides with Amr coming from Abu Talib. Okay, from Abu Talib. And Abu Talib says to him, does a Najashi still treat Ja'far and his friends kindly? Or has the troublemaker prevented him? Who's the Fattan?
Amr bin Aas. So he's nicknamed in the letter as Al Fattan. A guy that causes all sorts of trouble. Has Al Fattan stopped him from doing what he's supposed to do? He says, you are noble and generous. May Allah protect you. No refugee is disappointed by you. And no one ever shamed. Know that Allah has increased you in happiness and prosperity because of your justice. You are a river whose banks overflow with bounty, which reaches both your friends and your enemies. So a Najashi kind of has the familiar friend in Amr bin Aas and he has somewhat of an idea that there's some sort of persecution that has led these people here and he wants to demonstrate his justice. Which is a consistent feature of a Najashi. You know, due to his own history and due to his own religion. So Amr bin Aas is in front of him and a Najashi says, call the Muslims to me. So he calls forth Ja'far and the Muslims and Ja'far radiya Allah gives the most eloquent speech introducing Islam perhaps in history. Says to him, oh king, we were a people in a state of ignorance and immorality. We used to worship idols and eat the flesh of dead animals. We used to commit all sorts of abominations and shameful deeds. We used to break the ties of family. We used to treat our guests badly. The strong amongst us used to exploit the weak and we remained in this way until God sent us a prophet from our own whose lineage, truthfulness, trustworthiness and integrity were well known to us. He commanded us to speak the truth, to honor our promises, to be kind to our family, to be helpful to our neighbors, to abstain from bloodshed, to not appropriate an orphan's property or slander a chaste woman. So he goes on explaining the ethics of Islam. And this resonates with a Najashi. So a Najashi is listening to him and he looks at
Amr al-As and he says, I see nothing in these people that requires me to give them up to you and you need to leave them alone and whoever harms them will have to deal with me. So a Najashi says they're under my protection and he lets Ja'far and the Muslims go back and he basically tells Amr and Abdullah that this is not going to work. The next day Amr al-As and Abdullah bin Rabi'a are together and Amr says to Abdullah, I've got an idea. And Abdullah bin Rabi'a says, listen, you're pushing it. It didn't work. Go back home. Take the L, right? Take the loss and just it's not going to work. Don't mess with the Najashi. He was very steadfast in saying I'm not going to turn them back. So just go back to Mecca. Let's deal with we have plenty of Muslims to persecute over there in Mecca. And Abdullah even says to Amr, he says, look, at the end of the day, these people are our families. Like these refugees, these are our kin. Like this is getting a little bit too obsessive that we're that dedicated to persecuting our own. I mean those are your only two brothers that are over there and you're that committed. And Amr says, I'm not going to leave Abyssinia without all of them in chains. They're coming back with me. So he said, here's my idea. He said, do you notice they didn't say anything about Jesus? They didn't bring up Isa Alayhi Salaam. So he said what I'm going to tell Najashi because he's a Christian. I'm going to say they say that Jesus is nothing more than a creature. And they say that he's not the son of God. It's okay for us to say that because we're idol worshipers in the first place, but they blaspheme about Isa Alayhi Salaam. They claim to know better about Jesus than the Christians. So he says, I'm going to tell a Najashi, you forgot to ask them about Jesus.
And if you ask them about Jesus, then you will see their blasphemy in action. So Najashi says, you know, sort of begrudgingly fine. I'll give them one more chance. I'll give you one more chance to let them, you know, come and present their religion, present their case and you be there. So Najashi gathers them all together. Amr bin As is excited. He once again talked to the generals. He's got the generals on his side and then Najashi is a smart man. He knows something is going on. He knows that there's some plotting happening and he knows the games that are being played. And Najashi says, what do you say about Isa Ibn Maryam? What do you say about Jesus the son of Mary? Ja'far radiyaAllahu ta'ala said, we do not say anything more or less than what God said about him himself in the Quran. So he told them recite to me those verses. And Ja'far radiyaAllahu ta'ala recited the verses about Jesus and Mary alayhimu s-salam in Surah Maryam up until مَا كَانَ لِلَّهِ أَنْ يَتَخِذَ مِنْ وَلَدٍ that it is not befitting for God to have a begotten son. And when he finished his reciting, he looks up and Najashi is crying and the bishops are crying. And this is what many of the scholars mentioned the verse in Surah Al-Ma'idah وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ تَرَى أَعْيُنُهُمْ تَفِيضُ مِنَ الدَّمْعِ مِنْ مَا عَرَفُوا مِنَ الْحَقِّ When Allah says that of the righteous Christians are those who when they hear the revelation, then you will see their eyes filled with tears because they recognize this as the truth. This makes sense. Jesus peace be upon him, a great prophet, a great messenger. This makes sense. And then Najashi, you know, was, you know, if you look up Eastern Christianity and, you know, some of the types of Christianity that were present in Africa, it's a little further removed from Roman influence. So it's a little closer to the monotheism and to Islam. When you look into the types of Christianity that are practiced there in Africa.
And Najashi hears this. And Najashi stands up and he comes towards Ja'far radiyallahu anhu and he takes the stick and he draws in the line. And he says, وَاللَّهِ مَا خَرَجَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمْ عَنْ هَذِ الْعُودِ So Jesus peace be upon him, does not exceed what you have said by the length of the stick. And at that point, the generals that Amr bribed, like Amr is like, oh no, this backfired. And the generals that Amr bribed start to grunt, right? And then Najashi says, even if you grunt, even if you grunt, these people are under my protection. And he looked at Ja'far and he said, مَنْ سَبَّكُمْ غَرَمْ If someone insults you, I will find them. If someone insults you, he's talking about his own people, I will find them. And then Amr starts to sort of say to a Najashi, but they say he's not the son of God, right? He's trying to cause fitna. He's trying to make this worse. He's trying to poke. And then Najashi basically yells at Amr al-As, and he says, اِذْ هَبْ He says, go back. And he said, whoever, he turned towards Ja'far and he said, مَنْ ضَرَبَكَ قَتَلْتُهُ If someone hurts you, I will kill them. In front of Amr al-As. So Amr al-As knows رضي الله عنه that he failed in his mission. And the last words that a Najashi said, it was a famous statement, قَالَ وَاللَّهِ مَا أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِنِّي الرَّشْوَةَ فَآخُذُ الرَّشْوَةَ حِينَ رَدَّ عَلَيَّ مُلْكِي وَمَا أَطَاعَ النَّاسَ فِيهِ فَأُطِيعُ النَّاسَ فِيهِ He said, Allah did not take a bribe from me when he gave me back my kingdom. So how can I take a bribe for my kingdom? And Allah did not do what they wanted him to do against me. So how can I do what they want me to do against him? It's a very complicated statement. And if you go back and you watch the lecture of a Najashi, it's referring to the attempt on his life
when he was younger and Allah saving him from his own uncle and from his own cousins who tried to kill him and putting him back on the throne. So Najashi is saying God took care of me when I was in a vulnerable place. So why would I betray God when I'm not in a vulnerable place? So I can't do what the people want me to do when Allah did not let the people do to me what they wanted to do. And so he tells Amr to go back and to leave and then he dismisses everybody from his court except for Ja'far radiyallahu ta'ala anhu and he secretly tells Ja'far that he embraces Islam. So he embraces Islam with Ja'far radiyallahu ta'ala anhu in that state. Amr bin Aas comes back to Mecca on his first ever failed diplomatic mission. Absolutely humiliated, embarrassed and people are saying even Amr bin Aas could not bring them back and some of the people said surely that's a sign that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam either receives revelation or he's a magician because no one could escape Amr's tricks. The man is too good of a diplomat. He's too smart, too slick to come away with not a single Muslim in his hand from Abyssinia. Of course Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would decree that some of the Muslims come back from Abyssinia thinking that Mecca had softened towards Islam including his brother Hisham. Amr takes his anger out on Hisham, on his own brother. They capture those Muslims. They torture them. Some of them are able to flee to Medina. Some of them are stuck in Mecca including Hisham who will remain in that torture for 10 years. During that time Al-Aas dies from the dua of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And remember Amr bin Aas went to Ta'if to try to find a doctor to cure his father and his father died from the dua of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so Amr became even an angrier opponent to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He fights the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in Badr.
After Badr he goes back out in Uhud and he was commanding one of the flanks of the army against the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He's one of the main architects of the battle of Khandaq. Now you've got to understand that after Uhud the people of Mecca thought that this is it. We can carry out a genocide against the Muslims. We can wipe them all out of Medina. They gather the largest army in the history of the Arabs, attack Medina and Allah spares the Muslims with the Khandaq, with the trench that they build around themselves. So Amr bin Aas sallallahu alayhi wa sallam as he's plotting against the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam something fascinating happens here. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam makes a dua against Amr. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam prays against Amr. Now this is where it gets very interesting because you know when you make dua and we say that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala answers the supplication in a way that's even better. We saw what happened to the people the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam prayed against. I mean he prayed against his father and he stepped on a thorn and it killed him. So when he raises his hands to make dua against Amr bin Aas I mean the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has made dua against Abu Jahl and Uqba and all these people and look what happened to them. But Allah reveals Quran in response to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam his dua against Amr bin Aas. Who can tell me what that ayah is? Surah Ali Imran. لَيْسَ لَكَ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ شَيْءٌ أَوْ يَتُوبَ عَلَيْهِمْ أَوْ يُعَذِّبَهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ ظَالِمُونَ It is not in your hands O Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. For Allah will choose whether to accept their repentance or to punish them for verily they are transgressors. This is one of the most fascinating incidents of the Quran responding to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's dua that we find. And subhanAllah remember Hisham his brother is one of the reasons for the revelation of the verse
قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَا الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِنْ رَحْمَةٍ لَا Say, O my servants who have transgressed against themselves do not despair from the mercy of Allah because Hisham thought because he was tortured into leaving Islam that he had no way back. So Allah reveals a verse to Hisham ibn al-Aas or about Hisham ibn al-Aas don't despair of the mercy of Allah. And for Amr ibn al-Aas do not say he's deprived of the mercy of Allah. Ya Muhammad sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam there's a plan for this man. As annoying as he is, as much as you hate him, as much as he's done to you ليس لك من الأمر شيء This is not your decision for Allah to damn him or for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to cast him into the fire. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will guide him or punish him as he sees fits. So what happened here? Where is the change of heart? I mean you can imagine all the years now between the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and Amr ibn al-Aas. He's orchestrated and architect all of these attempts on the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam's life. Amr ibn al-Aas sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam says, لما صرفنا من الخندق That when we finished khandaq, like when we surrounded Medina from all sides and we carried out that attack on Medina and we failed. He said, جمعت رجالا من قريش I basically got together some of my trusted friends from Quraish. And I said, والله إن أمر محمد sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam يعلو علوا منكر He said, listen, I see that this is not going our way. The affair of Muhammad sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam seems to be moving in a direction to where if he survived this attempt, I think he's going to win. So he said, I have an idea. They said, Maho, what's your idea? Look at the way this becomes so poetic. He says, أن نلحق بالنجاش على حاميتنا Let's go back to a najashi and let's us be the refugees. Let's go to a najashi and let's ask him for protection.
The way that the Muslims sought protection from him the first time. He said, so if we win, if our people win, فنحن من قد عرفوا نرجع إليهم If the people of Mecca beat the people of Medina, beat the Muslims, we'll just come back to Mecca. Not a big deal. We have enough goodwill with the leaders in Mecca and with Quraish that we can simply come back and we can pretend this never happened. He said, وإن يظهر محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم But if Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم wins, فنكون تحت يدي النجاش And he said, for us to be under the rule of a najashi أحب إلينا من أن نكون تحت يدي محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم It's better for us to be under najashi than to be under the rule of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم because what he's going to do to us if he gets control over us, we don't even want to see that. So his idea is, let's go back to Abyssinia and let's say we're in trouble. We want your protection and we have that goodwill. So they said, that's a good idea. Let's do it. He says, فابتعوا له هداية We went and we bought all the best gifts in the world for najashi. And he says, وكان من أعجب ما يهدى إليه من أرضنا الأدم And it was the best of gifts that we could give to him. The skins, the perfumes, everything. We surrounded a najashi with all sorts of gifts. And he said, we're walking into the palace of a najashi. فواثقنا عنده عمر بن أمي And we found with him عمر بن أمي رضي الله عنه قد بعثه النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في أمن جعفر وأصحابه The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم sent عمر بن أمي, a companion, to a najashi to tell a najashi, send me Ja'far and my companions to Medina now. Because if you remember, the Muslims of Yemen and the Muslims who escaped to Abyssinia came to Medina after Khandaq. So it just so happens, subhanAllah, عمر بن أمي says, I'm walking into the palace of a najashi and I see عمر بن أمي
and I'm like, what's going on here? The ambassador of the Muslims and he had sent him at that time to send back some of the Muslims that had escaped persecution in Mecca in the first place. عمر could not escape his ignorance at that time. And when I say his ignorance, I don't mean his intellectual ignorance, his arrogance, right? And sort of the causes of Jahiliyyah. So he says, فَلَمَّا رَأَيْتُهُ قُلْتُ لَعَلِّي أَقْتُلُ He said, when I saw him, I said, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to take him out here in Abyssinia. I'm going to get this man. So he says, وَأَدْخَلْتُ الْهَدَايَةُ So I brought in the gifts to a najashi. So a najashi said to me, مَرْحَبًا وَأَهْلًا بِصَدِيقِي Welcome, welcome to my good friend. Remember, he's like a father figure to عمر. We have an old relationship. وَعَجِبَ بِالْهَدَايَةِ He liked the gifts that I brought him. So I said to him, أَيُّهَا الْمَلَكُ إِنِّي رَأَيْتُ رَسُولَ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَنِي وَسَلَمَ عِنْدَكَ I saw the messenger of Muhammad with you. وَهُوَ رَجْلٌ قَدْ وَتَرَنَا وَقَتَلَ أَشْرَافَنَا This is a man that caused us a lot of problems in Mecca and he killed some of our leaders in Mecca. So he says, so give me the permission. أَضْرِبُوا عُنَقَةً Let me handle him. Will you give me permission to attack him? So عَمْر sort of lost the plot of the mission. The mission was asked for protection, but he saw عَمْر بن أُمَيَّة and he wanted to kill him so bad that he asked النجاشي, Can we go fight outside? Can I just, can you give me and him a moment outside of the palace and let me handle him? And this is where it gets interesting. The narrator says, فَغَضِبَ النجاشي And نجاشي got so mad. وَضَرَبَ أَنفَهُ ضَرْبَةً ضَنَنْتُ أَنَّهُ قَدْ كَسَرَهُ He punched عَمْر so hard that he almost broke his nose. Like what is wrong with you? Wake up. And he said, عَمْر بن عَصَد That at that point,
I wished the earth would swallow me because I felt so stupid for saying that. Like I shouldn't have done that. That was a dumb move. I should know better not to interfere with the core mission, which is to seek refuge. So I said to him, لَوْ ضَنَنْتُ أَنَّكَ تَقْرَهُ هَذَا لَمْ أَسْأَلْكَ That if I knew that this would upset you so much, I wouldn't have asked you this. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked you to fight him outside the palace or to kill him outside the palace. And then نجاشي says to him, يا عَمْر when are you going to wake up? He says, what are you talking about? He said, you asked me to give you the messenger of the man. رَجُلًا يَأْتِيهِنَّ مُوسُ الَّذِي كَانَ يَأْتِي مُوسَةً You have asked me to give you the ambassador of the man who the angel that used to come to Moses comes to. Now, by the way, this is really interesting subhanAllah in the history of Sirah because Waraq ibn Naufal who was also a Christian scholar, right in Mecca. What did he tell the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam after his encounter with Jibril Alayhi Salaam? He said هذا الناموس This is الناموس, the secret teller who used to come to Musa Alayhi Salaam, used to come to Moses. And نجاشي clearly reads the same scripture, knows the same books. He uses the exact same language. He says you want me to give up a man who is the ambassador of the messenger, a man who Jibril, Gabriel descends upon, the way he used to descend upon Musa. Amr ibn Aas says at that point I woke up. Like subhanAllah, Iman struck me at that point. Faith came to me at that point. Like wait, and نجاشي believes this too? Because remember نجاشي didn't tell him that he became Muslim the last time around. So he says وَإِنَّ ذَٰرِكَ لَكَ ذَٰلِكَ He says wait, is it really like that? Like is he really a messenger of Allah?
And نجاشي says yes. And he says وَاللَّهِ إِنِّي لَكَ نَاصِحٌ فَاتَّبِعْهُ He said I am giving you advice. I swear by Allah that I'm giving you sincere advice. Amr, go back and follow him. فَوَاللَّهِ لَيَظْهَرَنَّ كَمَا ذَهَرَ مُوسَى وَجُنُودُهُ He said I swear that Allah will give him victory the way that Allah gave Musa and his people victory over the Pharaoh. This is really interesting. Amr has seen the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam for all these years. And he said faith never entered my heart. But he trusted in نجاشي and he found in نجاشي to be an intelligent man and he knew how learned he was in the scriptures. And this coincides with what he sees now that there's something divine that's giving the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam victory. And now when نجاشي is telling him like a father, wake up, realize this man is who he says he is and I believe in him too. Now go back and follow him. And عمر بن عاص رضي الله تعالى عنه says at that moment I said to him أيها الملك, O king فَبَيَعْنِي أَنْتَ لَهُ عَلَى الْإِسْلَامِ Let me take a pledge with you upon al-Islam. I want to become Muslim through you. So what is النجاشي become? The only تابعي in history to give shahada to a sahabi. النجاشي never met Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So he's from the second generation technically a تابعي, a follower of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam who never met him. The only man in history that was a تابعي that gave da'wa and gave shahada to a companion of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So he said فَبَسَطَ يَدَهُ So النجاشي extended his hand. فَبَيَعْتُهُ لِرَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَى الْإِسْلَامِ So I took an oath with النجاشي, a covenant with him,
with the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam upon al-Islam. I accepted Islam through النجاشي. And then he said ثُمَّ خَرَجْتُ إِلَىٰ عَمْرِ بْنِ أُمَيَّ فَعَانَقْتُهُ وَعَانَقَنِي So then I came out and I went to عمر بن أميّ and I hugged him and he hugged me. So I embraced him and he embraced me. So now عمر بن أميّ is going to go back to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Whoever gets to him first is going to tell the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that عمر بن عاص is coming to you as a Muslim this time. So he said my people were waiting outside. And subhanAllah, by the way, I think this is an important thing because Ibn Abd al-Barr mentions this as a note. Sometimes you need someone else to recognize the truth for you to really be affirmed in it. You know, I think about all like those MSA lectures when like we bring like Yusuf Estes to like talk about Islam or something like that and like 95% of the audience was Muslim already, right? But hearing other people, right? Receive the message, it validates. When you see someone take shahada like it's another form of increase of your own iman. So it increased in عمر بن عاص this idea that he really must be the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. If النجاشي believes this too, it must be true. So he said, so I went out and I hugged عمر بن أميّ فخرجت على أصحابي and I went out to my companions. They're waiting to hear the news if النجاشي has given us refuge. All of his non-Muslim companions. So they said, ما وراءك? They said, what happened with النجاشي? فقلت خير. Good things happened. All right? And it was night time. So he said, I'll talk to you about it in the morning. I'll tell you the plan in the morning. All right? عمر بن عاص said, we went to sleep. He said, as soon as all of my companions were asleep, I got on my camel. وانطلقت وتركتهم And I left them all in Abyssinia. And he said, I made my way straight to Medina. All right? I was like, all right, forget these guys. I'm going to Medina. Because if he tells them what happened,
if he tells them he's Muslim now, then he risks being killed by them at this point. These are enemies of the Prophet ﷺ. So he said, I made my way to Medina. فوالله إني لأهوي He said, I swear by Allah that as I was going out to المدينة, in the desert, who does he bump into? خالد بن الوليد رضي الله عنه. His friend Khalid and Uthman ibn Talha رضي الله تعالى عنه. Khalid ibn al-Walid. Khalid, who we spoke about, right? Who was the one who, you know, obviously, orchestrated that maneuver in Uhud and whose father was a staunch enemy of the Prophet ﷺ. Uthman ibn Talha, whose mother was the one that put the bounty on the head of Asim ibn Thabit and said, I want to drink alcohol out of his skull. And Uthman ibn Talha and Khalid ibn al-Walid have decided to become Muslim and they're making their way to Medina. And Amr ibn al-As says, I bumped into them. If you go back to Khalid's story, you'll hear the narration from Khalid's vantage point. Now you get to hear it from Amr ibn al-As's vantage point. He says, إلى أين يا أبا سليمان؟ Where are you going, Abu Sulayman? Khalid رضي الله عنه was not scared of anybody. Khalid says, أذهب والله أسلم. إن الرجل لنبي ما أشك فيه. Khalid said, I'm on my way to become Muslim. This man is a prophet. I have no doubt about it at this point. And Amr says, in that case, وأنا والله, I'm in the exact same position. Let's go become Muslim together. Now, SubhanAllah, what's really interesting is if you go back to Mecca, remember there was an incident where the leaders of Quraysh would go out secretly to listen to the Qur'an. They'd listen to the Prophet ﷺ at night and then they bump into each other and then say, wait, are you Muslim? Like, no, I'm not really sure. Not yet. Of course not. And they basically convinced themselves to stay outside of Islam, even though they knew the Qur'an
was speaking to them, but their hearts were turned away. They couldn't do it. Here you have the meeting of the sons and they say, you know what? We're going to go become Muslim. It's about time. And so Medina, SubhanAllah, after they survived Khandaq, where they're being bombarded, you have Ja'far رضي الله عنه and the Muslims who fled to Abyssinia on a ship coming from Abyssinia. You have the Muslims from Yemen coming on a ship to Medina. And now you have the Prophet ﷺ sitting in Medina and he receives the last of the Muhajirun, the last people to make hijrah, to migrate to the Prophet ﷺ, Amr and Khalid and Uthman. And when they come to the Prophet ﷺ, he is so happy to see them approaching him and he knows ﷺ that they're coming to him different than before. They're not here to attack him this time. They're here to embrace him. So he says, so he went up to the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ extended his hand to take that pledge from each of us. Khalid رضي الله عنه gave the pledge to the Prophet ﷺ. Uthman رضي الله عنه gave the pledge to the Prophet ﷺ. Amr رضي الله عنه said that the Prophet ﷺ extended his hand and then as I was about to extend my hand, I did this. The Prophet ﷺ looked at him like, are you serious? Like, what now? Right? Amr is a diplomat. He's intelligent. He says, يا رسول الله أبايعك على أن يغفر لي ما تقدم من ذنبي ولم أذكر ما تأخر. He said, look, I've done a lot of bad stuff to you. So this bay'ah, this pledge that I'm taking with you, I will take it with you on the condition that all of my previous sins are forgiven. And I'm not mentioning what comes later. Like, I understand it's not reasonable to say that I should be forgiven in advance for some of the
shortcomings I might have later. And by the way, remember this statement when we get to his death. Remember this particular part of the statement when we get to his death رضي الله عنه. He said, look, I did a lot of things to you. I fought you in every single battle. Khalid fought you once. I fought you every single time. I plotted against the Muslims in Mecca, the Muslims in Abyssinia. I have a lot of dirt on my record. And the Prophet ﷺ said, يا عمر, Oh عمر, take your pledge. بايع فإن الإسلام يجب ما كان قبله. Take that pledge because don't you know that Islam does away with everything before it? And in one narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, and hijrah does away with everything before it. And hajj, مبرور, does away with everything before it. The point here though, very interesting. Notice the Prophet ﷺ did not say, he didn't say that for you, I'll forgive all of your previous sins. Because that would be unethical, right? If the Prophet ﷺ makes an exception for عمر because I really want him to be Muslim, and I'll tell him, okay, fine for you, you're all forgiven. The Prophet ﷺ said, don't you already know that this is baked into the contract of Islam? When you become Muslim, all of your previous sins are forgiven. This is already there. And عمر صلى الله عليه وسلم said, الحمد لله. So he took his pledge with the Prophet ﷺ. سبحان الله, it was only shortly after that, the Prophet ﷺ stands up in the masjid, and he says لقد مات اليوم رجل صالح. A righteous man has just passed away. Who was it? Najashi has died in Abyssinia. And Jibreel has just informed me of his death. These are the small connections that are so beautiful. Najashi told عمر, the last thing he told him before he became Muslim is that this is the man upon whom Jibreel descends upon. And the Prophet ﷺ is saying, and the angel Gabriel just
descended upon me to tell me that a man died thousands of miles away. لقد مات اليوم رجل صالح. So everyone stand up and pray janazah on him. So عمر بن عاص prays janazah on the one who gave him shahada in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. سبحان الله. The Prophet ﷺ, now obviously if you are hearing this story, there could be a doubt in your heart like did he really become Muslim for the hereafter? Or was he just sort of playing the cards here? Was he kind of just weighing the options and watching the way the political affairs were going? Was عمر making a political move? Or was he making a move of faith? The Prophet ﷺ said ابنا العاص مؤمنان. The two sons of العاص are two believers عمر وهشام. Both of them are believers. In another narration the Prophet ﷺ said ان عمر بن عاص رشيد الامر. That عمر بن عاص is a person who's guided in his affairs. And in one narration, this is a beautiful one, the Prophet ﷺ said اسلم الناس وآمن عمر بن عاص. While other people may have just become Muslim, عمر بن عاص truly believed. Like this is a man whose faith has truly entered into his heart. And so عمر رضي الله عنه is like خالد رضي الله عنه where he says that this was the most hated person in the world to me and now he's the most beloved person in the world to me. And he immediately wants to live up to this iman that he has, this faith that he has. So in Medina one night there was a loud noise that takes place outside of Medina. And عمر بن عاص says I and سالم مولى أبي حذيفة, we grabbed our swords and we immediately rushed to the boundary of Medina to protect Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ said ايها الناس, O people, ألا فعلتم كما فعل هذان المؤمنان? Would you not have done what these two righteous believers have done? It's a testimony to his faith, to his iman.
So عمر رضي الله عنه knows that he's gaining the trust of the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ is testifying to his iman. Now for خالد بن وريض رضي الله عنه, the battle of Mu'tah happens two weeks later. And that's the moment of خالد بن وريض رضي الله تعالى عنه. So he has his moment quickly to prove himself to the Prophet ﷺ. And خالد was like put me to work. خالد رضي الله عنه knows one thing, battle, put me in the battlefield. I don't do any of the other stuff. عمر بن عاص does the diplomacy, does all the other stuff, put me in the battlefield. Prophet ﷺ put him to work. عمر بن عاص has ذات السلاسل. ذات السلاسل is not the big ذات السلاسل, the battle against the Persian Empire that we talked about in the time of خالد. This is a small battle that takes place with the Roman Empire who are now closing in and becoming more aggressive towards the Muslims as they see them rising to become a legitimate political power. So عمر بن عاص رضي الله عنه tells the story. And this is only a few weeks after he became Muslim. قَالَ بَعْثَ إِلَيَّ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ The Prophet ﷺ sent me a message. The messenger said to me خُذْ عَلَيْكَ ثِيَابَكْ وَسِلَاحَكْ ثُمَّ أَتِنِي That dress yourself for war and bring forth your armor, your weapons and come to me. قَالَ فَأَتَيْتُهُ وَهُوَ يَتَوَضَّ I came to the Prophet ﷺ and he was making wudu. قَالَ فَصَعَدَ فِي الْبَصَرِ He looked up at me ﷺ as he was making wudu and when he finished his wudu he said to me إِنِّي أُرِيدُ أَنْ أَبْعَثَكَ عَلَىٰ جَيْشٍ That look I'm going to send you as a commander over a battalion. And he said that Allah ﷻ will surely give you victory وَيُغْنِمَك And the spoils of battle as well. عمر بن عاص took offense to that. Why? Because it's like you know that's what the Arabs used to take the spoils. They used to fight
for spoils. They used to fight for taking the other army, the opposing army stuff after the battle, collecting the غنيمة, connecting the spoils. So عمر بن عاص صلى الله عنه He said I said to the Prophet ﷺ يا رسول الله ما أسلمت من أجل المال I didn't become Muslim for money. وَلَكِنِّي أَسْلَمْتُ رَغَبَةً فِي الْإِسْلَامِ I became Muslim for Islam. وَلَأَنْ أَكُونَ مَعَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهِ وَسَلَامً And so I could be with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ told him relax. نِعْمَ الْمَالُ الصَّالِحِ لِلرَّجُلِ الصَّالِحِ So he praised him again. He said the best form of of of property is righteous property for a righteous man. Meaning what? This is not like you're going and you're going on some raid attacking some group of people to steal their stuff, right? This is the stuff that comes in the capacity of nobility and Allah ﷻ decrees it for you. So don't take this as a read on your iman, just go ahead and take it. So the Prophet ﷺ appoints Amr al-Aas as a commander of an army. Now by the way, if you're a Muslim who fled Mecca to Abyssinia and who fought Amr in all of these battles and he's only been Muslim for a few weeks and the Prophet ﷺ says he's your commander, you're kind of looking at that and you're like okay. سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا We hear and we obey but this is an interesting decision. On top of that amongst the people who Amr was in charge of were Abu Bakr and Umar ﷺ. Three hundred men amongst them Abu Bakr and Umar. So he's putting the best of the companions under Amr al-Aas who just became Muslim. And this could, if the Prophet ﷺ is not divinely inspired like this could go really bad. If Amr is just playing around, he could go ahead and kill the top Muslims and he could go back to Mecca and he could say I got him. This is also part of the Prophet ﷺ growing these men, growing these people. So they went out at
night فَأَصَابَهُم بَرْد شَدِيد And they were struck by a cold, cold, cold breeze. And so the Muslims wanted to kindle fires because that's how you keep yourself warm. And Amr ﷺ comes out and he says to them لا يُوقِدَنَّ أَحَدُ النَّارَ Not a single one of you light a fire. So they're freezing at night. So one of them goes back to the Prophet ﷺ complaining and a group of them go to the Prophet ﷺ complaining we don't know about this guy. And the Prophet ﷺ calls Amr and Amr says to him يَا نَبِيَ اللَّهُ كَانَ فِيهِمْ قِلَّ فَخَشِيْتُ أَن يَرَى الْعَدُوُ قِلَّتَهُمْ So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, we're a small group. The Romans are huge. We're only a few hundred men. And if we lit our fires, then they're smart enough if they sent some spies out to be able to tell that we're a really small group of people. And so they'd easily be able to overtake us. And so I didn't want to give them anything to track us by. So the Prophet ﷺ, يَا نَبِيَ اللَّهُ كَانَ فِيهِمْ قِلَّ فَأَعْجَبَ ذَلِكَ رَسُولُ اللَّهُ So the Prophet ﷺ liked Amr's thinking. Okay, that makes sense. And then they go out and Amr رضي الله تعالى عنه leaves them in Salah. I mean, the new Muslim guy leaves them in Salah. On top of that, in this narration, he was in a state of Janabah. Okay, which means that Amr رضي الله عنه was supposed to do ghusl, he was supposed to take a shower before he led them in prayer. Amr رضي الله تعالى عنه did a modified version of that. And so the Prophet ﷺ asked the companions, how did you find your Amir? And they praised him فَأَثْنَوْ عَلَيْهِ خَيْرًا But they said, يَا رَسُولُ اللَّهُ صَلَّى بِنَا وَهُوَ جُنُوبٌ He prayed in front of us and he wasn't in, he was in a state of Janabah. The Prophet ﷺ called Amr رضي الله عنه to him and he told him, what is it that I'm hearing about you leading the companions in prayer while you weren't in a state of proper wudu. So he told him, يَا رَسُولُ اللَّهُ صَلَّى بِنَا وَهُوَ جُنُوبٌ It got really cold. And he said,
and Allah says in the Quran, وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِكُمْ رَحِيمًا Don't kill yourselves, Allah is merciful with you. And he said, وَلَوْ اخْتَسَلْتُ مِتُّ He said, and if I would have taken a shower, I would have died of the cold. فَضَحِكَ رَسُولُ So the Prophet ﷺ laughed and he let it go. Meaning that was the ijtihad of a companion, that was his using his own judgment in that moment. And at the end of the day, Amr ibn Aas ﷺ was successful, the salah of everyone else was valid. I'm not going to get into a fiqh tangent right now, right? This would be a complete waste of my time right now, to not be able to tell the story. In any case, the Prophet ﷺ also sends reinforcements. He sends Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, رضي الله عنه, as a reinforcement. When Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah comes, Abu Ubaidah رضي الله عنه is a man, immediately when the companions see him, they immediately know he's in charge. So there was a little bit of a confusion when Abu Ubaidah رضي الله عنه showed up with his men to reinforce Amr ibn al-Aas, who's in charge. And Amr ibn al-Aas ﷺ goes up to Abu Ubaidah رضي الله عنه and says, the Prophet ﷺ put me in charge, so you're under my command. You understand? Abu Ubaidah رضي Allah عنه says, I understand. Under your command. The companions are looking like, you've got to be kidding us. Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, and he's under the command of Amr ibn al-Aas. And this, by the way, again, is a sign of Aminu Hadhihul Ummah, the trustworthy one of this Ummah. Abu Ubaidah رضي الله عنه, just like with Khalid رضي Allah عنه later on, right? He doesn't give, you know, he doesn't cause any rupture in the army. Simply says, you know what, for the sake of the Muslims, we're going to go with this. The point is, there is an adjustment period here for Amr ibn al-Aas رضي Allah عنه, right? And this is important to understand. In any case, they're given success. They're given victory. Khalid رضي Allah عنه was given victory in Mu'tah. The two enemies of the Prophet ﷺ come home with victory, right?
Now Amr ibn al-Aas رضي Allah عنه talks about the development of the love that he had for the Prophet ﷺ, his own heart now, and how it's developing a love for the Prophet ﷺ. He says, إني لأشد الناس حياءً من رسول الله ﷺ. فما ملأت عيني منه ولا رجعته. He said, I was so shy with the Prophet ﷺ that I would not even be able to make eye contact with him. I couldn't even stare at him. Out of love and awe of the Prophet ﷺ. And he tells the famous story. He says that after that, I won the battle. The Prophet ﷺ is giving me all of this empowerment. He's putting me in a position to succeed. He's showing me love ﷺ. So now you understand the context. We're sitting amongst the companions. I say, يا رسول الله من أحب الناس إليك. Oh, Messenger of Allah, who's the most beloved of people to you? Like, go ahead and tell them. Tell all these people how much you love me, right? The Prophet ﷺ says what? عائشة. My wife عائشة رضي الله عنها. He says, no, يا رسول الله من الرجال. I mean from the men. I'm not talking about the women. We don't talk about how we love our wives in this context. Tell them who you love from the men. The Prophet ﷺ says, أبوها. Her dad. أبو بكر. He said, then who? He said, then عمر. He said, then I stopped because I was afraid he'd never get to my name. I was like, all right, I lost this one, you know. عائشة, أبو بكر عمر. But it shows you, again, the immediate love the Prophet ﷺ showed to someone when they converted to Islam, even if they did heinous things to them, right, to the Muslims. And that was a means of bringing them up in Islam. And so عمر رضي الله عنه truly starts to develop his own qualities. There's another narration where many of the many of the Sahaba, they narrated that one time they're with the Prophet ﷺ. This is from Alqama ibn Rathma. He says, we are with the
Prophet ﷺ on a journey. فنعس. And the Prophet ﷺ got tired on this expedition. So he said, يرحم الله عمر. May Allah have mercy on عمر. And again, as the Prophet ﷺ got tired, another point of the journey said, يرحم الله عمر. May Allah have mercy on عمر. And he said it a third time, may Allah have mercy on عمر. فتذاكرنا كل من اسمه عمر. Like, there were a lot of عمر amongst the companions. So he said, which عمر is he talking about? So he said to the Prophet ﷺ, which عمر are you talking about? May Allah have mercy on عمر. So the Prophet ﷺ said عمر بن عاص. And again, this is surprising, the history of عمر بن عاص. So they said, وما شأنه? Why him, يا رسول الله? So the Prophet ﷺ says, كنت إذا ندبت الناس إلى الصدقة جاء فأجزل منها. When I would tell the people to donate for the sake of Allah, عمر would come and he would bring all that he has. فأقول يا عمر. And I would say to him, Oh عمر, أنا لك هذا. Where did this all come from? And he would respond and he would say من عند الله. From Allah. And I would say, وصدق عمر. إن له عند الله خيرا كثيرا. He has much good from Allah ﷻ. So all of that money that he inherited, the Prophet ﷺ started to see the detachment from wealth. So there's the detachment from his old ways and it's materializing. His motives are changing. His intentions are changing. His personality is slowly being molded. The money is being donated for the sake of Allah. And the Prophet ﷺ trusts him and he sends him as a governor of Bahrain and then he sends him to Oman. And while he was in charge of Oman, many people embraced Islam in Oman. Because remember, the Muslims would not force the people to embrace Islam. There is no compulsion in religion. They did not force the people of that land to become Muslim, even if they were victorious. But under عمر بن عاص, many people of Oman became Muslim
and he stayed in that place until the Prophet ﷺ died. So عمر بن عاص was transitioned to Oman as the governor, as the amir of Oman until the death of the Prophet ﷺ. After the Prophet ﷺ passes away, he and خالد بن وليد رضي الله تعالى عنه together play a pivotal role in حروب الردة, in the battle with the apostates. Of course, مسلم الكذاب is the false prophet and he's literally slaughtering Muslims and claiming to be the prophet after محمد ﷺ. And حافظ بن كثير رحمه الله actually narrates a really interesting incident. He says عمر بن عاص actually bumped into مسلم himself. He's on his way back to مدينة and he bumped into مسلم, the false prophet. So مسلم knows عمر and عمر knows مسلم. مسلم says, have you heard that I'm a prophet like the Prophet of Allah, محمد ﷺ? He said, okay, interesting. So he said that مسلم then tilted his head and he started to read some of his ridiculous imitation of the Qur'an, right? And it's actually narrated in كثير, it is ridiculous lines. مسلم would basically just put a bunch of rhymes together like poetry and say this came from Allah and he tilts his head in a funny way to show that he was receiving revelation. So he said, عَمْ مَا رَأْيُكَ What do you think? عَمْ said, وَاللَّهِ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ أَنَّكَ لَتَعْلَمُ أَنِّي أَعْلَمُ أَنَّكَ كَاذِبٌ I swear by Allah that you know, that I know, that you know, that I know you're a liar. Like we both know that's a bunch of garbage, right? And he said, I just made my way back, right? مسلم didn't put his hands on him and this was just like you know that I know that I know that you know something like that, right? Gets a little confusing even in Arabic. In any case عَمْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ تَعْلَى عَنْهُ serves a critical role under أَبُوبَكَةِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ but it's really in the time of عَمْرِ مِنْ خَطَابِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ that we see him shine and عُمْرِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ
had a statement about عَمْرِ مِنْ عَاسِ قَالَ مَا يَنْبَغِي لِأَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ أَنْ يَمْشِي فِي الْأَرْضِ إِلَّا أَمِيرَهُ This is a high testimony. He says it is not befitting for عَمْرِ مِنْ عَاسِ to walk on this earth except as a leader. The man has to be a leader. Some people don't fit except in that position. So he will be a commander, he will be a leader as long as he is alive. And so خالد رضي الله عنه cutting deep into the Persian Empire عَمْرِ مِنْ عَاسِ رضي الله عنه cutting deep into the Roman Empire their paths converge in أجندين and يَرْمُوك and عَمْرِ مِنْ عَاسِ and خالد and شُرَحْبِيل and أبو عُبَيدَ are all coming together and now they are bringing the Roman Empire to its knees. After the Romans and the Persians have dominated for so long they are bringing the Roman Empire to its knees. Now سبحان الله most of Palestine is actually taken by عَمْرِ مِنْ عَاسِ رضي الله عنه So the entire southern part of Palestine, if you were to take Palestine, if you were to look at the bottom half of it all of that is عَمْرِ مِنْ عَاسِ رضي الله عنه leading his armies in the conquest of Palestine of فَلَسْتِين and basically setting up then Jerusalem to where أبو عُبَيدَ رضي الله عنه will then move forward to negotiate the terms and عَمْرِ مِنْ خَطَابِ رضي الله عنه will come and will take the keys of Jerusalem peacefully, right, peacefully and not exact any type of bloodshed on the Romans and even bring back the Jewish families that were expelled by the Christians to live peacefully in Jerusalem. But عَمْرِ رضي الله عنه is the one who conquers all of that land south of Al-Quds, south of Jerusalem under عَمْرِ مِنْ خَطَابِ رضي الله عنه and brings it all under Islam. He takes أَيْلَى and then he takes رَمْلَ and then he gets to the
Babylonian fort and he faces the emir of the Romans who's known as أَرْطَبُونَ الرُّوم أَرْطَبُونَ الرُّوم was basically the most intelligent Roman leader and so the Arabs called him the عَمْرِ بِالْعَاصِ of the Romans and the Romans called عَمْرِ بِالْعَاصِ the أَرْطَبُونَ of the عرب. It's really interesting here. So it's kind of like them meeting each other, a meeting of the minds. Extremely intelligent military commanders and the أَرْطَبُونَ of Rome is impossible to outsmart. عَمْرِ بِالْعَاصِ is impossible to outsmart. When عَمْرِ بِالْخَطَابِ رضي الله عنه heard that their two armies were meeting, he said رَمَيْنَ أَرْطَبُونَ الرُّوم بِأَرْطَبُونَ الْعَرَابِ فَانظُرُوا عَمَّا تَنْفَرَجْ that we have basically put up against أَرْطَبُونَ الرُّوم, the أَرْطَبُونَ of the Romans, the أَرْطَبُونَ of the Arabs and see which one of them is able to overcome the other. عَمْرِ بِالْعَاصِ comes up with this risky strategy because he's عَمْرِ بِالْعَاصِ رضي الله عنه with him. Remember عَمْرِ used to travel all that land before Islam. He knows the land inside out. But he basically wants to outsmart the man by figuring out what his internal forces are and what his actual palace looks like. So what عَمْرِ does is he disguises himself as a messenger of himself. So he actually, I mean it's super risky. He walks in to meet أَرْطَبُونَ الرُّوم acting like he's just the ambassador of عَمْرِ بِالْعَاصِ like some average Muslim. And while he gets in there, he takes note of everything that's on the inside. He kind of analyzes the place. He's coming up with a plan of how to overcome the guy. And while he is talking to him and interacting with him, أَرْطَبُونَ الرُّوم actually figures out that it's him. So this guy is too intelligent. And so أَرْطَبُونَ الرُّوم
signals to his guards in a way that عَمْرِ catches to basically take him out. So now عَمْرِ has to pivot, right? So what does عَمْرِ بِالْعَاصِ say to him as he sees this all taking place? He says, أَيُّهَا الْأَمِيرُ said, O Leader إِنِّي قَدْ سَمِعْتُ كَلَامَكُ وَسَمِعْتَ كَلَامِي I have heard your words and you have heard my words. وَإِنِّي وَاحِدٌ مِنْ عَشَرَاتٍ بَعَثَنَا عُمَرُ بِالْخَطَابِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ that I am one of tens of the best of companions that عُمَرُ بِالْخَطَابِ sent, meaning the leaders of the companions. He doesn't tell him he's عَمْرِ بِالْعَاصِ. So he says, I'm going to go and get all of them. How about I go and get all of them to come meet you as well with me? Let me go get the 20 or 30 best of the companions to come talk to you. So he says, oh, this is a great idea. Now I can kill all of them. Like bring me the 20 or 30 best of the companions and I'll take them all out. So he says, فَذْهَبْ فَأْتِنِي بِهِمْ go ahead and go and get your companions with you. So as soon as عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ gets out, عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ takes off, creates all sorts of diversions. And at that point, he says, خَدَعَنِي الرَّجُل. He said, the man deceived me. هَذَا وَاللَّهِ أَدْهَى الْعَرَبُ. This is the most cunning of the Arabs. He got me, he got away and he got me and he understands now the internal. And indeed, subhanAllah, he defeated him. عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ defeated him. And this was sort of the last stronghold of the Romans within Palestine, within Palestine. But then, subhanAllah, what does he set his eyes on? Egypt. Hence why all the Egyptians love عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ. He set his eyes on Egypt. عَمْرُ بِالْخَطَابِ told عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ,
calm down. We already have the Romans and the Persians that we're dealing with. Egypt is a whole nother reign. We don't want to touch Egypt. Leave Egypt alone. عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ says, I've got 4,000. They've got 120,000, but I have a plan. عَمْرُ بِالْخَطَابِ is very skeptical. Now, here's the situation with Egypt. Egypt is under which empire? Under the Roman Empire. Okay. But subhanAllah, it would just so happen that the Persians captured Masr from the Roman control for about a decade during their battles. So it was weakened on the inside. There was still quite a bit of political instability. And here's where it gets very interesting. The Egyptian Christians are Coptic Christians. And they're not welcomed by the Roman Christians who, of course, are following a very, I guess, Catholic Christianity, if you will. Just like with the Crusaders, they didn't just kill all the Muslims and the Jews, they killed all the Eastern Christians as well. The Christians of Egypt are not treated like insiders by the Byzantines. And so they're developing a resentment towards them as well. They don't like the way they're being treated by them as well. And عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ is smart. So عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ, صلى الله تعالى عنه, where does he station himself? Who can tell me? Gaza. Not just that. عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ, صلى الله تعالى عنه, stations himself in Rafah. May Allah ﷻ make it easy for the people of Rafah. SubhanAllah, all the letters between Umar and عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ take place from Rafah to Medina. And عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه, camps in Rafah. May Allah ﷻ make it easy for the people and bring back that blessing. Imagine the Sahaba, the companions there in Rafah.
And عَمْرُ is negotiating terms with the people of Egypt. And he's speaking to a mindset. He's speaking to the Copts. And he says to them that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told us, he promised us that one day Allah would open Egypt for us. And when we got there, we should treat them with kindness because they are our kin through our mother Hajar, the mother of Ismail, the mother of Ismail ﷺ, Hajar. So Christian, or initially they say a Coptic as Ibn Kathir ﷺ says, but from Masr. So we were told that we should treat the people of Masr with goodness. So عَمْرُ بِالْعَاصِ is at the border of Egypt and Palestine, set up in Rafah. And عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه comes to know that the Romans, the Byzantines are basically recollecting themselves in Masr so that they can fight against the Muslims there. And عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه sends a letter to عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه, I'm going in. عُمَرُ gets the letter. Uthman says to عُمَرُ, send a letter to عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه, tell him not to go into Egypt. But if the letter reaches him while he's already in Egypt, then go ahead. So basically, if he's still in Gaza, if he's still in Rafah, tell him come back to Medina, tell him stop. But if he's already in Egypt, then tell him بِسْمِنْله. And if he needs reinforcements, we'll send reinforcements. This is of course summarizing for the sake of time, much of what happens in this communication. So عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه knows that the messenger of عُمَرُ is coming, and he happens to see عُكْبَ بن عَامِر coming with the letter. And this is عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه, he doesn't want to not, he doesn't, he wants to go forth in Egypt. So he goes into
مصر, because he has a feeling what's in that letter. And he receives the letter in Egypt. So he could say to عَمْرُ الخطاب, يا أمير المؤمنين, the letter came to me while I was already in مصر. And he goes forth in Egypt. And of course, they are able to take مصر. What's the oldest city in Egypt before testing the Egyptians here? Don't say قاهرة, don't say Cairo, Alexandria. He's able to take Alexandria. And then عَمْرُ بن عَامِر is able to, with many of the Copts, by the way, even in Egypt, is able to exert control over مصر, bring مصر into Islam, with just 4,000 men, subhanAllah, just 4,000 men. And the Byzantines flee مصر, they flee Egypt as well. And while he is there, many of the people become Muslim, by the way, because of the way that they were treated. In fact, many of the books that talk about the history of Muslim empire, living under Muslim rule, talk about the treatment, particularly of the people of Egypt under عَمْرُ بن عَامِر, under the early Muslims, the way they were treated fairly, as opposed to the way that the Romans treated them, even though they're technically all Christians. عَمْرُ رضي الله تعالى عنه takes سكندرية and he builds the city, and I know this has gone long, so I'll sum up, inshaAllah ta'ala. He builds the city known as فُسْطَاطْ, which is the city of tents. عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه told عَمْرُ بن عَاصِ that don't make the base of the Muslims in سكندرية because it needs to be closer to مدينة, it needs to be closer inland. He didn't like the idea of Muslims being on a border town to the water as their place, so he said you need to stay close, so build something closer. So عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه, in those tents, where those tents are, builds out the city of فُسْطَاطْ, which is today known as what?
Old Cairo. So قاهرة, which comes later on, three centuries later, actually becomes, you know, absorbs what was فُسْطَاطْ, the city that he would develop. He turns it into an amazing city. عُبادة بن صامت رضي الله عنه architects it. عبدالله بن عمر رضي الله عنه moves there. This becomes, outside of مدينة, فُسْطَاطْ becomes a place where so many صحابة live in the same neighborhood, and they build a masjid, and what is that masjid called until today? Masjid عَمْرُ بن عَاصِ. So the very famous masjid عَمْرُ بن عَاصِ is actually where they established themselves in مصر, in Egypt, that first time. May Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى restore it back to its glory and restore رَفَحَ and غَزَّ back to its glory and descend upon it tranquility and ease and victory as he once did with the small group of believers. اللهم آمين. عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه was dying at the age of 90 years old, and سبحان الله, I just want to quote to you the conversations between him and his son at his death. Sahih Muslim, as عَمْرُ is dying, he's talking to his son عَبْدُ الله بن عَمْرُ about what's happening, and he's starting to feel regret over the phases of his life. And عَبْدُ الله is trying to give him hope, and عَمْرُ says to him that I divide my life into three phases. There was the first phase where I fought against the Prophet ﷺ, and if I would have died in that phase, I would have certainly been from the people of hellfire. Then he said, and there was the second phase in which I embraced Islam, and I was alongside the Prophet ﷺ, and if I would have died then, I would have been certain that I'm from the people of paradise. But he said afterwards, I just don't know about myself. You know, there was politics, there was fitna, there was a lot that عَمْرُ رضي الله عنه got involved with, and indeed he actually made mistakes رضي الله عنه during the course of the fitna. He's like, I don't
know, this third phase of my life, I don't know which of my states I will be in when I pass away. So عَبْدُ الله says to him, ما هذا الجزع? What is this fear of yours? وَقَدْ كَانَ رَسُولُ اللهِ ﷺ يُذْنِيكَ وَيَسْتَعْمِنُكَ Prophet ﷺ used to bring you close to him, and he used to put you in charge of important things, like clearly the Prophet ﷺ loves you. And he said, أَيْ بُنَيْ قَدْ كَانَ ذَلِكَ He said, oh my son, indeed it was like that. وَسَأُخْبِرُكَ And I will tell you, أَيْ وَاللَّهِ مَا أَدْرِي أَحُبًّا كَانَ أَمْتَ أَلُّفًا I don't know if the Prophet ﷺ did that because he really loved me or the Prophet ﷺ was trying to soften my heart, like he was trying to bring me along because he knew how hard my heart was. But he said, I can't rely on that. وَلَكِنْ أَشْهَدُ عَلَى رَجُلَيْنِ أَنَّهُ فَارَقَ الدُّنْيَا وَهُوَ يُحِبُّهُمَا But I can tell you two men that the Prophet ﷺ left this world loving. ابن سمية وابن أم عبد. عمار بن ياسر رضي الله عنه and عبد الله بن سعود رضي الله تعالى عنه. So I know those two men, like they're different. The Prophet ﷺ left this world loving them, the early مهاجرين, and they should be sure of themselves. But me, I don't know. And then he looked up and he made this du'a. قَالَ اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ أَمَرْتَ بِأُمُورٍ O Allah, You commanded us to do certain things. وَنَهَيْتَ عَنْ أُمُورٍ And You forbade us from doing certain things. تَرَكْنَا كَثِيرًا مِّمَّا أَمَرْتَنَا We left off much of what You used to command us to do. وَرَتَعْنَا فِي كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّا نَهَيْتَ And we unfortunately indulged in things that You told us not to indulge in. اللَّهُمَّ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنْتُ O Allah, there is no god but You. And عبد الله says that he raised his finger to the sky
and he kept on at that point saying لا إله إلا الله, لا إله إلا الله, لا إله إلا الله until he passed away saying لا إله إلا الله. So Allah granted him death, this man رضي الله تعالى عنه upon لا إله إلا الله over the age of 90 years old. He only narrated about 40 حديث but the خير, the goodness that we see that came out of the ummah through him is plentiful. We ask Allah to accept from him and to forgive us for our shortcomings. We ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى that as he descended goodness and victory upon that land that he does so again and that as we read about the glory of Rafah that Allah سبحانه وتعالى protect our people in Rafah and Gaza again and that Allah سبحانه وتعالى restore Egypt as a place of glory as well and that Allah سبحانه وتعالى forgive us as an ummah for our shortcomings. اللهم آمين. نزاكم الله خيرا. Inshallah ta'ala. Next week we'll continue with Ikramah ibn Abi Jahl. As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
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