Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. A'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wa lil'alwani ila ala al-dhalimeen. Wa l'aqeebatu lilmuteqeen. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barak ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathira. I want to welcome you all back to the first. Insha'Allah ta'ala, what we're going to be doing over the next few weeks is really getting into the details of what I think is one of the most underestimated periods of the life of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. One of the most difficult episodes in the seerah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that the Muslims really don't know much about. They don't connect much with. But we're going to do so through the eyes of the major figures, through the eyes of the major companions that were involved. And essentially what we're going to do is we're going to talk about some of the most important martyrs of that incident. And then I guarantee you a significant plot twist in two weeks. So the next two weeks we're going to talk about some of the famous martyrs of two incidents within the seerah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that happened at the same time and that resulted in probably, again, one of the least studied tragedies in the life of the Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam known as Bi'r Ma'una and Al-Rajeer. Bi'r Ma'una and Al-Rajeer. So I want you to think about Uhud. Uhud lives in the memory of all of the Muslims because you go to Medina, you visit the shuhada of Uhud as is the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And how many people were martyred in the Battle of Uhud? This great tragedy of Islam. How many people were martyred? A little over 70. 72 or 73 companions of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And it shook the entire Muslim community. Now what if I told you that in these incidents that happened right after Uhud, more people were martyred than Uhud itself. So the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would lose more companions in these two tragedies that followed Uhud, Bi'r Ma'una and Al-Rajeer, than Uhud itself. Which really speaks to the complexities of the situation and how these tragedies are being compounded and the Muslims are being tested. Now when you read about these two tragedies in particular, you're going to have the stories of these companions and they're usually grouped together and you just kind of read their names and you don't actually get into their lives. So I wanted us inshallah ta'ala for the next few weeks to focus on some of those companions and identify two of the most important ones, especially in Al-Rajeer, the incident of Al-Rajeer, and then speak about them in great detail. So inshallah ta'ala, tonight we're going to speak about Asim ibn Thabit radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. How many Asims do we have in here? Anyone named Asim? I know I do this all the time. No Asims in here? I don't know what's wrong with Valley Ridge. Every time I'm covering a companion and I ask for the name, no one's here. But you all know Asim, right? Everyone knows Asim? Yeah? Okay, good. Any parents of any Asims here? No? Siblings? Oh, mashallah. Okay, we have one Umm Asim, alhamdulillah. So the name Asim is very common in our cultures. You hear it all the time. And usually people will connect the name Asim to Asim ibn Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. Asim, the son of Umar ibn Khattab. But this Asim is the one that that Asim was named after. That we're going to be talking about tonight. And he has a profound story with the Messenger, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So the man that we're going to be talking about tonight is Asim ibn Thabit al-Ansari radiyallahu ta'ala anhu.
Asim ibn Thabit, the original Asim. His nickname, and you'll understand why at the end of this inshallah ta'ala, is Dafinullah or Dafinul Malaika. The one who was buried by Allah or the one who was buried by the angels. That is his nickname. So you can anticipate that the ending of this man's story is a deeply profound ending. Radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. So I wanted to speak about him inshallah ta'ala. He was a young man when the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came to Medina. He's from Banu Auf. He embraces Islam as a teenager or just into his 20s. Radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. And his father is a man by the name of Thabit ibn Abi Akhlah or ibn Abi Aflah. Ibn Abi Akhlah or ibn Abi Aflah. Both of them are narrated in the books of Sira. Now I actually made a chart that I'm going to show you all. Those of you that want a screenshot or those of you that want to take a picture, if we can put up the chart inshallah ta'ala of his family lineage so that you can understand the significance a bit inshallah ta'ala of who this man is and where he comes from. Because often you lose people in the process. So Asim ibn Thabit, his father is Thabit ibn Abi Aflah or Thabit ibn Abi Akhlah. His mother, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, profound woman, is a woman by the name of Ash-Shamus bint Abi Amir Ar-Rahib. Ash-Shamus bint Abi Amir Ar-Rahib. So his mother embraced Islam. His father passed away before Islam apparently. So it's him and his mother that went to the Prophet ﷺ and they took their bay'ah together. His mother, Ash-Shamus bint Abi Amir, is the sister of one of the most famous companions of the Prophet ﷺ, Hamdala ibn Abi Amir, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, who's known as Ghaseel al-Malaika,
the one whose body was washed by the angels. So that's his uncle, his maternal uncle. You'll understand why that's so significant once we get to the battle, insha'Allah ta'ala. We talked about Hamdala not in the first, but in Angels 2, the second season of the Angels series. We talked about Hamdala, radiyallahu anhu. He's the man who literally was taken to the heavens and washed by the malaika. This is his uncle, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. So he's the son of Thabit ibn Abi Aflah, Ash-Shamus, the sister of Hamdala. And his sister is Jameela ibn Thabit, the wife of Umar ibn al-Khattab, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. So he's the brother-in-law of Umar ibn al-Khattab, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. And that's why you're going to see why the famous Asim takes his name. Umar named his son Asim after this Asim. Umar, radiyallahu anhu, named his son Asim after this Asim. And it kind of gives you an idea of the way that the legacies are being passed down, the names and the histories are being passed down. Because Asim ibn Umar never met his uncle Asim ibn Thabit. But it's a great name to be given, right? After his uncle. Now, if any of you have read the story of Umar ibn Abdulaziz, and one day we will spend hours with it, insha'Allah ta'ala. That Asim ibn Umar is the one who ends up marrying a special woman and having a daughter by the name of Layla, who ends up being the mother of Umar ibn Abdulaziz. Radiyallahu ta'ala. So one day, this chart will make a lot of sense to you, insha'Allah ta'ala. But I decided to put it together anyway for historical reference, insha'Allah ta'ala. So you can see the transition of names and you can see the transition of legacies. And obviously you have to be a special person for Umar to name his son after you. Umar radiyallahu anhu was very intentional about his children's names. And Umar loves his brother-in-law Asim ibn Thabit
and names his son Asim ibn Umar, who becomes a very special companion and a very special figure in Islamic history. Again, the one that most Asims in our ummah, unless their parents just googled it or were copying someone else. But if you're named after Asim, you probably found Asim ibn Umar, radiyallahu ta'ala, anhum ajma'in. So Al-Shamus is the lucky mother of these two special people. She's the mother-in-law of Umar ibn Khattab and she's the mother of Asim ibn Thabit, and of course Jamila ibn Thabit, radiyallahu ta'ala, anhum. Now sometimes, subhanAllah, the name of a person fits the description. The word Asim is a protector, it's a guardian, right? And so when Allah azza wa jalla says, لا عاصمة لك اليوم that there is no protection for you من أمر الله from the command of Allah, Asim is a guardian, Asim is a protector. And this Asim ibn Thabit, radiyallahu ta'ala, anhum, is going to be known as one of the guardians of Islam, one of the guardians of the faith. So let's talk about him, inshaAllah ta'ala, a little bit and how he comes into the history of the life of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam. When the Messenger of Allah, salallahu alayhi wasalam, comes to Medina, we spoke about this last week, he pairs off brothers and he does mu'akha between the muhajiri and the ansari, the migrants from Mecca and the hosts from Medina, in accordance with their personalities and their strengths. So we talked about Abu Dujanah and Abu Dujanah's brother from the muhajiri. This man, Asim, his brother from the muhajiri is Abdullah ibn Jahsh, radiyallahu ta'ala, anhum, who is known as the first Amir of Islam, the first commander of Islam, one of the earliest Muslims, the cousin of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, and the first person who was ever known as an Amir in Islam, the first person the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, ever sent as a commander of an army.
And so this is his brother. And in this household, you had these two young men who basically would dedicate themselves to long hours in prayer, long hours of qiyam, and dedicate themselves to the defense of the Messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam. So where do we first actually see him? We see him in the Battle of Badr. He's a strategist, and he's someone who automatically brings this element of the tactics of battle, similar to Abu Dujanah, to the life of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam. And there's an authentic narration from Hussain ibn Sa'ib al-Ansari, radiyallahu ta'ala, anhum. He says, lemma kana laylatu badr, that on the night of Badr, the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, said to those that were with him, kayfa tuqatirun, what's your strategy? Obviously, on the day of Badr, they are surrounded from all different directions, and they have an army that is much larger than theirs. It's the first time that they're going to encounter a situation like this. The Messenger of Allah, salallahu alayhi wasalam, is going to spend the entire night praying, but he says, what is your strategy? Fa qama Asim ibn Thabit, radiyallahu ta'ala, anhum, fa akhadh al-qaws. Asim ibn Thabit, he stood up, and he was an archer. He had his bow and arrow. And he said to the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, ay Rasool Allah, itha kana al-qawmu qareeban min mi'atay dhiraa' au nahwi thalik, kana ramyun bilqisi. He said that, O Messenger of Allah, if they are about 200 yards away from us, then we start with the arrows. Then he said to the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, then once they get within 200 yards of us, or something close to that, then we start to use a catapult system. So basically we start to throw these large stones on them. Right? Then he goes and he marks on the battlefield for the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam. He says, Ya Rasool Allah, when they get to about right here, then we start with the spears. And we slow them down again.
So he's basically plotting out the whole strategy. Then he says to the Messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam, once they get to this point, then we pull out our swords and we fight them with our swords. So he maps out for the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, the entire strategy of the Battle of Badr, starting off with arrows, and then the catapults, and then the spears, and then at what point we actually start to fight with our swords, the opposing army. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, when he saw him, he said something that became very beloved to Asim, and it basically became a badge of honor. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, said, بهذا أنزلت الحرب من قاتل فليقاتل قتال عاصم أو يقاتل مثل عاصم The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, said, this is how a battle is fought. Whoever wants to fight, fight like Asim. Imagine being that guy who hears the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, say his name, and say, fight like this man, fight like Asim. So Asim radiallahu anhu already has a certain type of validation from the Messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam, and he was particularly skilled in archery. So he's kind of skilled in all of the arts of battle, but he's particularly skilled in archery. And he says on the day of Badr, قَالَ وَاللَّهِ لَا يُغَادِرْ رَجُلٌ مِنكُمْ حَتَّى أَقْتُلَ بِكُلِّ سَحْمٍ رَجُلًا He said, every single arrow that comes out is going to hit his target. So he was ready on that day, and if you read about the history of the Muslims and how they were able to overcome larger armies, archery was really at the center of that. And Asim is central to that particular strategy from the Messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam. So that's the Battle of Badr. Now comes the Battle of Uhud. In the Battle of Uhud, we know about the tragedies of the companions that were martyred from the side of the Muslims. If you see the grave of Hamza, رضي الله تعالى عنه,
and I only say this to refresh your memory, the man that's buried in a single grave with Hamza is Abdullah bin Jahsh, رضي الله تعالى عنه. The brother of Asim, meaning from the Muhajireen, the cousin of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam. The eventual, you know, the one who the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, of course, would marry, Zainab bin Jahsh, رضي الله تعالى عنها. So the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, is related to him in multiple ways. He and Hamza are buried in one single grave. So Asim lost his brother in the Battle of Uhud, and there is a constant, you know, imagery that happens in this time of the Seerah of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, of the ethics of the Muslims versus the vengeance and the nastiness of their opponents. So you remember, as we said, Abu Dujanah reached Hind bin Utbah with his sword, and he said, I'm not going to hit a woman with the sword of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam. Even if she's, you know, instigating this battle, and whatever role she's playing, I'm not going to do that. Hind bin Utbah, on the other hand, you know, mutilates the body of Hamza, رضي الله تعالى عنه. Abdullah ibn Ja'sh was also one of those who was mutilated after his death, and they made an example out of him. مُثِّلَ بِهِ Means they made an example out of him to send a message to the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam. So you have, on one side, the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, who's insisting on the greatest ethics of battle, even in the, you know, in the lowest points, and even as vulnerability is at its highest. And you have, on the other hand, a people that are trying to make an example out of their opponents, that are crucifying and that are mutilating people, even in death. So he loses his brother, Abdullah ibn Ja'sh, رضي الله تعالى عنه. His uncle Hamzala, رضي الله تعالى عنه, dies in Uhud as well. He's one of the martyrs of Uhud as well. And he is the one that his body was raised to the heavens and washed,
and the companions found him in that state, and he's called غسيل الملائكة, the one who was washed by the angels. Now as for him himself, Asim, رضي الله تعالى عنه, started off with the archers, and he stayed in that position. And then he becomes one of those people who went and defended the Prophet ﷺ, one of the Ansar, who defended the Prophet ﷺ and did not flee from the battle, which was the majority of people, meaning the majority of people did actually flee from the battlefield in the second episode of Uhud. So he's one of those who stayed with the Messenger ﷺ and continued to fight that battle. Now why is his story so significant, Uhud, in regards to, you know, what he eventually gets marked for? Now on the other side of Uhud, there were women that came out that were banging the drums of war and were instigating the battle. And they had their wine and they basically wanted to take revenge for those that were killed in Badr and, you know, enjoy the corpses of the Muslims and to make an example out of them. And so there were three people, three women in particular. And when I say there's a plot twist in two weeks, it's the story of repenters. But three women who were leading that group of women that were instigating the battle, that were beating the drums of death basically, that were pushing for the battle to continue, and that were calling out for all sorts of vengeance. One of them, we already mentioned, was Hind bint Utbah. Hind bint Utbah, the wife of Abu Sufyan. The other one, the second one, was Rayta bint Munabbih. Rayta bint Munabbih, who's the wife of Amr ibn al-'As. So Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan. Rayta, the wife of Amr ibn al-'As. And the third one, whose story is very much so connected
to the story of Asim, is a woman by the name of Sulafa bint Sa'ad. Sulafa bint Sa'ad. Sulafa bint Sa'ad is the wife of Talha ibn Abi Talha. Now if you go back and you read the history, Talha ibn Abi Talha was the boogeyman of Quraysh. He literally would come out in the beginning of the battle, call people out, and no one wanted to meet this guy. He would be killed in Uhud by Sayyidina Ali radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. Talha ibn Abi Talha. So she was out there with her husband, Talha ibn Abi Talha, and three of her sons, who were in battle. Two of her sons were flag bearers. I know that you guys are going to probably ask, those of you that are taking notes, you can ask for notes, inshallah. You can ask for names at the end of this, inshallah. I don't want to overwhelm you, but I at least want to give you the scene. Her husband's the main guy dueling. Two of her sons are flag bearers on the other side. Their names are Al-Musafir and Al-Harith. Al-Musafir and Al-Harith. And they're going forward. Now the difference, obviously, between her and the other two women, is that the other two women are there to avenge a previous death. She's not necessarily there to avenge a previous death. She did not lose anyone, particularly that was noteworthy to her in the Battle of Badr. But she is there encouraging her husband, encouraging her sons, to fight the Muslims on the day of Uhud. Now what ends up happening, Ali, radiyaAllahu anhu, beats Talha ibn Abi Talha in the duel in the very beginning of Uhud. Her two sons, Musafir and Al-Harith, the flag bearers, were both killed by Asim ibn Thabit, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. Alright? So she loses all three of her sons. In fact, her third son also dies, but not at the hands of Asim. Asim was responsible for the death
of two of her sons that were fighting on the side of Quraysh. So when the Battle of Uhud finishes, and you have Hind cutting out the liver of Hamza, radiyaAllahu anhu, and you have, you know, people that are making an example out of the Muslims' bodies, she comes to find out that her husband and her three sons all passed away against the Muslims. And she comes to find out that Asim ibn Thabit, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, in particular, was responsible for the death of two of her sons. Some narrations say all three of them, in fact, at the hands of Asim, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. So what does she do? She takes an oath, not by Allah. She swears by Al-Latun al-Uzza. She swears by the idols. She says that, I will not rest until the head of Asim is brought to me, and I drink wine out of his skull. That's the vengeance. That's the spirit of vengeance. I want his head. Someone bring me his head. I want to drink wine out of the man's head. Now here's the thing. I'm going to give you an early plot twist. There's a particular family that takes care of the Ka'bah until now. The Prophet ﷺ handed the keys to Uthman ibn Abi Talha. That's his mom. Uthman ibn Abi Talha, until now, that family maintains the keys of the Ka'bah. It was a wealthy family, a powerful family. They embraced Islam eventually. But at this point, this is a woman that is wealthy, that is angry, and that wants vengeance. So she puts a price tag on the head of Asim that was only put on the head of one man before Asim. And here's like a bonus points question for you. Who do you think that man was? The Prophet ﷺ.
The Prophet ﷺ was fleeing from Mecca. There was a bounty that was put on the head of the Prophet ﷺ of a hundred camels. And that's why Suraq ibn Malik went after him. And what that type of a bounty does is it basically brings people out against you that don't even have an interest in battle. But that was a bounty that was only put on the Prophet ﷺ before Asim. All he did was, of course, is he fought in the battle the way that you're supposed to fight in battle. But subhanAllah, these are the plot twists that exist at this time. This is a rich woman. She now has the wealth of her family and she wants to offer all the wealth that she possibly can for the head of Asim ibn Thabit to particularly drink wine out of his head so that she could make a point of her anger and her vengeance towards Asim ibn Thabit. After the battle of Uhud, and this is where I want you to appreciate at least for the next few weeks because we're going to be in the scene for the next three weeks inshaAllah to some extent. There was a sense of invincibility that the Muslims had after Badr. And there was a fear that all of the surrounding tribes had of the Muslims that maybe they had some sort of, you know, divine aid. And they did have divine aid to where they could not be attacked. And so that was all gone after Uhud. After Uhud, every single element of the prophetic community, of the Prophet ﷺ and his community felt a sense of vulnerability, outside and inside. So let me actually lay these out for you inshaAllah to Allah so you can actually appreciate this. For one, Quraysh feels emboldened. They're already plotting their next attack. We struck them. We killed a significant amount of them. We have shaken Medina. So they're already thinking about how they can come back and
attack Medina once again. All of these tribes that exist, these bandits and Bedouins that exist in the desert, they now know of the bounties and they sense the vulnerability of Medina so we can loot Medina. We can attack the Muslims when they're weak, when they're grieving their dead. We can steal their belongings. We can get in on this business basically of attacking them. So you have them on the inside. The hypocrites start to show themselves with a great sense of emboldenment after Uhud. Right? So they go to the Muslims and they say to them, where were those angels that came to you in Badr? What happened now? The Prophet ﷺ only has promised you delusion. You're in trouble. We told you. Don't take these people in. So they're hearing it from the hypocrites. Those that they have treaties with, the Prophet ﷺ has treaties with people on the inside. Some of the Jewish tribes on the inside. Some of the polytheistic tribes on the outside. They are now rethinking their treaties. Right? What's the point of being in a treaty with a weak community, with a community that's now vulnerable? So the Prophet ﷺ has to negotiate all of these realities in an instant while grieving some of the most beloved people in the world to him. And it's in this moment that the Prophet ﷺ has to act quickly. And so one of the things that happens right after Uhud is that the Prophet ﷺ has to dispatch an army to Hamra al-Asad. It's about eight miles away from Uhud to basically scare Abu Sufyan and scare Quraysh away from gathering themselves once again and plotting another attack on Medina. So he has to preemptively try to strike some fear in them and get them out of Medina. Push them as far away from Medina as possible. The Prophet ﷺ, he learns of a plot from one of the bandit tribes, which is going to be very important in the story, the tribe of Hudayl. He learns of a plot from them to attack Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ appoints
a small battalion to go out and to preemptively attack them under Abdullah ibn Unais. And SubhanAllah, look at what the Prophet ﷺ says. The Prophet ﷺ tells Abdullah ibn Unais to go and to attack the chief of Hudayl because he's plotting an attack. And the chief of Hudayl was a man by the name of Khalid ibn Sufyan. Abdullah ibn Unais says to the Prophet ﷺ, Ya Rasulullah, I've never seen him before. And the Prophet ﷺ says, Neither have I, but he looks like a shaytan. He looks like a devil. When you see him, you will know him. And SubhanAllah, Abdullah ibn Unais, he goes to the location and he immediately sees Khalid ibn Sufyan. He said, the man looked like a shaytan, the most evil looking person I'd ever seen. And he's able to take out Khalid ibn Sufyan and basically cut off that attack from the tribe of Hudayl. Now what's going to happen at this point? The Prophet ﷺ is subjected to an evil plot that takes the ethics of the people of Mecca to a new low. Which was, that they basically decided to send these people to the Prophet ﷺ to ask for Sahaba to come and teach them the Qur'an in different places. And under that pretext of da'wah, the Prophet ﷺ will send his companions to teach these people, to give them da'wah. They'll then attack those companions and massacre them. Now one of the things about the Arabs is that they prided themselves in being noble, in honouring treaties, in not attacking a person under protection. All of these different things, even when they were not Muslims. But now, Uhud kind of changes the atmosphere, changes the mood for them as well. So they came to the Prophet ﷺ and Hudayl in particular sent a group to the Prophet ﷺ, these two
Bedouin tribes, they were known as Al-Udal and Al-Qara. And they said, pretend to be Muslims and ask the Prophet ﷺ to send teachers from the Sahaba. And ask him for the best of the companions. SubhanAllah. So these two tricks of Bi'r Ma'una and Al-Raji' are going to come from people who come to the Prophet ﷺ and say, we're Muslims and we want you to send Sahaba with us, to send some companions with us to teach our people the Qur'an and they'll be under our protection the entire time. So the massacres that are going to happen are going to happen under that stated protection. And this is what makes this particularly difficult and hard on the Prophet ﷺ. You know, SubhanAllah, when people are killed in battle, at least they're face to face. When companions are ambushed and massacred in that number, it's a different level of, it is adding insult to injury and in this case even injury to injury because there will be more people that are going to be killed in these two instances than Uhud itself as we said. So the Prophet ﷺ will end up sending 70 to Bi'r Ma'una or to Al-Najd under the pretext of Dawah once again. Al-Najd is about five times bigger than the Hijaz, so it's a huge Dawah opportunity. So when they come to the Prophet ﷺ and they say, Ya Rasulullah, give us these people, send them with us and let them teach us the Qur'an, the Prophet ﷺ knows that if Najd becomes Muslim, that's bigger than Mecca and Medina and everyone put together. So he sends 70 Sahaba, 70 of the best, Qurra, people of the Qur'an, people who are for the most part from Ahl as-Suffah that were known for their Qiyam al-Layl, that were known for their righteousness. He sends them there. And in the case of the smaller campaign here, it is Al-Rajir, which we're going to talk about
as it relates to Asim ibn Thabit. So the Prophet ﷺ, he sends six or ten with Ahl as-Suffah with these two tribes. Now the way that these Bedouins would operate is that they would ambush the Sahaba further away from Medina and closer to Mecca because obviously they're further away from their home base. And so you're going to find Bi'r Ma'una, literally is the well of Ma'una, and they used to name their battles and their campaigns after the wells, right, so the Battle of Badr is around Badr, Hudaybiyyah obviously is around the wells, Ma'una is a well, Al-Rajir is a well, it's right on the outskirts of Mecca. And Asim ibn Thabit is in this particular group, and we're going to talk about two men in particular insha'Allah ta'ala over the next few weeks, so you could put their names on the screen insha'Allah ta'ala. They're six or they are ten of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. Now the reason why I have them separated by three and by three is because these six people are going to be caught, and they're going to be ambushed in this particular incident of Al-Rajir. The top three, Asim ibn Thabit radiyaAllahu ta'ala Anhu who was in charge of them, Marthad ibn Abi Marthad, and Khalid ibn Bukair, are not going to surrender themselves when they get ambushed. The second three, Khubaib radiyaAllahu Anhu, we'll talk about next week in detail, Zayd ibn Dathina, and Abdullah ibn Tariq radiyaAllahu Anhum, they surrender themselves during the ambush because they've been given another level of protection which turns out to be again khyana, which turns out to be a betrayal on the side of these tribes. So these six men, some of the narrations say ten, but we have the names of these six, basically they are traveling and they're going under the pretext of teaching
people Islam, and as they get close to Mecca, they start to hear an army that comes towards them, and this army was from Banu al-Hyan under Hudayr. They track them down with their date seeds, so they recognize their date seeds, and that was the plan, their date seeds were the date seeds of Medina. So they basically followed their tracks and they tracked them down by their date seeds, and then over a hundred men ambushed these six men, or these ten men, on the outskirts of Mecca. Now, what these six men do, radiyaAllahu Anhum, is they take to a hill, so they flee and they get to a hill, and they basically protect themselves behind something. Hudayr calls out, and they say to them, listen, ista'asiru fa-inna la nureedu qatlakum, wa-inna ma nureedu an-nutkhilakum makka, fa-nuseeba bikum thamana. They said, look, go ahead and turn yourselves in, we don't intend to kill you six, we don't intend to kill you all, what we want to do is take you as prisoners, and go to Mecca, and get something out of you. So we'll either exchange you for other prisoners, or we'll sell you into captivity, but you can either fight us and die, and you're outnumbered, or you come to us, and we'll find a way to negotiate a prisoner exchange in Mecca, and things of that sort. So subhanAllah, I mean, they have to think really quickly, and all six of them basically think about this differently. So the group in that situation, three of them decide that they'll come out in captivity, three of them say, we'll continue the fight. Now what was the logic of going out into captivity, and accepting the terms of captivity? Number one, they were not fighters, they were ambassadors, that's number one. Number two,
what they thought to themselves was that there could be some sort of negotiation between the Prophet ﷺ and Mecca, between Medina and Mecca, and perhaps they'll get exchanged, somehow, with the Prophet ﷺ, or the Prophet ﷺ will find a way to free them, and so they still have a chance at making their way back to Medina. On the other hand, you have the three that decided to stay back and fight, Asim ibn Thabit, Marthad, and Khalid ibn Bukair, and their logic was that these people can't be trusted, they've already betrayed us once, what makes us think they're not going to betray us again? Asim ibn Thabit, radiyAllahu anhu, in particular, knows exactly what's on his head, the bounty that exists on his head, and Asim is the prize of these six people, right? Asim is the prize of these six people. Now, all six of them have something to worry about, but he's the one, right? He has a bounty of a hundred camels on his head. So Asim, radiyAllahu anhu, says, I'm going to keep fighting. So three of them surrender, three of them continue to fight, and obviously, when you're in battle, this happens rapidly, it's not like they had a chance to sit down and talk things through, right? In fact, it's very likely that all six of them don't even have a chance to coordinate at all, right? So some of them are coming out one by one to surrender themselves to this army, some of them are staying back, but at the end of the day, it ends up being three that come down, and three that end up in this particular fight. Asim, radiyAllahu anhu, he says, He says, ask for me, I'm not going to put myself in the protection of these polytheists. And so, they then start to attack the three of them. Marthad, radiyAllahu anhu, is martyred. Khalid, radiyAllahu ta'ala anhu, is martyred. And Asim bin Thabit, radiyAllahu ta'ala anhu,
is the one who basically stands his ground for the longest period. I mean, he fights with everything, fights back with his arrows, fought back with any object that he could particularly find. And they even got exhausted with him, radiyAllahu anhu, even though he was one man. And eventually, they got so exhausted with him that they decided it's no point. I mean, he actually was able to, according to some of the narrations, kill some of those that went to kill him. It's no point to fight him up close. Let's just stay back and just rain down arrows and rain down whatever objects we possibly can on this man, radiyAllahu ta'ala anhu. And it's here, subhanAllah, that Asim, radiyAllahu ta'ala anhu, some of the most profound poetry that's narrated from him as he is fighting alone. And he says, وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ وَلِلَّهِ الْحَمْدُ وَالْمِنَّةِ مَا عِلَّتِي وَأَنَا الْجِلْدُ النَّابِلُ وَالْقَوْسُ فِيهَا وَتَرٌ عُنَابِلُ تَزِلُّ عَنْ صَفْحَتِهَا الْمَعَابِلُ الْمَوْتُ حَقٌّ وَالْحَيَاةُ بَاطِلُ إِنْ لَمْ أُقَاتِلْكُمْ فَأُمِّي هَابِلُ And he continues to say, وَمُؤْمِنٌ بِمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ That I am a believer in what has been revealed to Muhammad. So he's basically chanting out that he is going to continue this battle and that he will never submit himself or surrender himself to these people and that he is a believer and that it is the life of the hereafter that is truth and it is the life of this world that is falsehood. Now, subhanAllah, he makes a du'a in this moment that is deeply profound. And this is where the story of Asim al-Muthabit radiyaAllahu ta'ala becomes the legendary story that it is in the books of history. He says, اللهم إني حميت دينك أول النهار فحمي لي لحمي آخره اللهم إني حميت دينك أول النهار فحمي لي لحمي آخره
Which basically means, and it's said that he used to make this du'a as soon as he heard about the bounty that was on his head. He used to say, Oh Allah, I protected your religion in the beginning of its affair. Meaning I used to fight on your behalf in the beginning of Islam when no one else would stand up and defend the Prophet ﷺ except for a handful of people. So, Oh Allah, protect me, and he says particularly protect my body in the end of my affair. So I used to protect your religion, this is literally a definition of a first, one of the سابحون الأولون. I gave everything to protect your religion in the beginning of its affair, so protect my body in the end of my affair. And so as he continues to fight, they rain down all of these objects on him, arrows, until Asim was martyred. And subhanAllah, he did not ask Allah to protect his soul, he asked Allah to protect his body. It's a very specific du'a that he asked from Allah to protect his body. Now when they rain down these arrows and they rain down these objects, as soon as they realize that he was dead, it was as if they forgot about the other ones that they killed, and they all started to celebrate that they killed Asim al-Muthabit رضي الله تعالى عنه. So they start to chant out and they start to shout out, and you can imagine the scene of jubilation on their end, thinking about the reward that they're going to get when they take the body of Asim al-Muthabit رضي الله تعالى عنه to Sulafa bint Sa'ad, and they get their one hundred camels. But here's what happens, and this is the plot twist, subhanAllah, that ends up happening a few times. There are more miracles, as the ulema say, in Raji' and Ma'una than at any other point in the seerah. When they went to go and get the body of Asim رضي الله تعالى عنه, they found a curtain of bees, nahl, that surrounded
his body. And they said to themselves, all right, well let's try to move them out of the way. So they basically took their weapons and they started to try to move through the bees, and some of them got stung by these bees. And then they tried to go from the back of the hill, and they found that Asim رضي الله تعالى عنه was surrounded by bees on the back of the hill as well. His body was surrounded by bees from the back of the hill as well. So they tried for hours to get his body, until it basically got dark, and they said, you know what, let's wait, I mean maybe these insects come out, these bees come out only during the daytime or at some point, let's wait until the morning, and let's see if we can go get his body then. And subhanAllah, at that moment, Allah سبحانه وتعالى sends a rain upon them that literally starts to flood the valleys. And the body of Asim رضي الله تعالى عنه is taken in that storm, in that rain, and it goes down one of the rivers, and they never found his body رضي الله تعالى عنه. SubhanAllah. And that's why he gains the nickname دفين الله or دفين الملائكة, the one who was buried by Allah or the one who was buried by the angels رضي الله تعالى عنه. When Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه, I mean Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه is the brother-in-law, Jameela رضي الله عنها is his wife, the sister of Asim. When Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه heard about the story, he used to say, سبحان الله يحفظ الله العبد المؤمن. Allah protects his believing slave. He said, كان عاصم نظر أن لا يمسه مشرك ولا يمس مشرك أبدا في حياته. So that Asim رضي الله عنه used to swear that I will never be touched by a polytheist, and I will never touch a polytheist
at this point. فمنعه الله بعد وفاته كما امتنع منه في حياته. So he said, Allah سبحانه وتعالى protected his body in death the way that Allah protected him in life رضي الله تعالى عنه. And then Umar رضي الله عنه, as we said, went on to name his son Asim ابن عمر رضي الله تعالى عنه. So subhanallah, it's in this particular incident that the first martyr comes back to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, the first set of martyrs comes back to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, of the people that were killed in الرجيع. And this is the first miracle that we find with the body of Asim ابن ثابت رضي الله تعالى عنه. And inshallah next week we'll continue and we'll talk about Khubaib ابن عدي رضي الله عنه. And the rest of them with whom many of these martyr miracles actually took place. And the irony as we're going to see subhanallah is that the incident of Asim led to some of those people becoming Muslim. Because they saw what happens. Right? The incident of the martyrdom of Asim رضي الله تعالى عنه led to some of those people becoming Muslim. And of course in this particular family, if you think back to the charts, the uncle of Asim is حنظلة غسيل الملائكة حنظلة who was washed by the angels. And Asim رضي الله عنه is دفين الملائكة, the one who was buried by the angels رضي الله تعالى عنهم أجمعين. And inshallah we will continue next week with this devastating incident in the life of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم through the eyes of another great companion خبيب ابن عدي رضي الله تعالى عنه. And inshallah تعالى with that we will stop. We'll take a couple of questions and we will move on bismillah. Yeah.
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