The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khawla Bint Hakim & Uthman Ibn Madhun: The Righteous Couple | The Firsts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
126
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
147
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Asma Bint Abi Bakr (ra) : The Possessor of Two Waist Belts
She was nicknamed the possessor of two waist belts by the Prophet ﷺ himself but was the possessor of many qualities. Many martyrs came out of her home. She was a woman of unrivaled strength and courage.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Welcome back to the first. Bismillah walhamdulillah wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So we have covered Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib. Radhi Allahu ta'ala anha. We have covered Ibn Safiyyah, Az-Zubair ibn al-Awam, radhi Allahu ta'ala anhu, one of the 10 promised paradise. And tonight inshallah ta'ala we cover none other than Asma bint Abi Bakr, radhi Allahu ta'ala anhuma, who is a legend in and of herself as well. And someone from whom we learn courage. And if there's something that underlines this entire family, it is courage. SubhanAllah you find a bravery that is prominent in each one of their stories. And of course is then transferred to their children. May Allah azwajal give us courage like that. And may Allah give us children like that. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to inherit and inspire with the courage that we learn from these people. Asma bint Abi Bakr, radhi Allahu ta'ala anha, is of course the daughter of the greatest man to walk the face of the earth that was not a prophet. And that is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, radhi Allahu ta'ala anhu. Her mother was Qutayla bint Abdul Uzza. Now Abu Bakr radhi Allahu ta'ala anhu had a wife named Qutayla bint Abdul Uzza that was divorced after Islam when he embraced Islam. She did not embrace Islam. And Asma radhi Allahu ta'ala anha and her full brother, Abdullah bin Abi Bakr come from this mother, Qutayla bint Abdul Uzza. Her half sisters were Aisha and Um Kulthum bint Abi Bakr. And her half brothers were Abdur Rahman bin Abi Bakr and Muhammad bin Abi Bakr. If you remember with Muhammad bin Abi Bakr, and I hope I'm not losing you all,
but Muhammad bin Abi Bakr was born to Asma bint Umais, who was the widow of Ja'far, married Abu Bakr, had Muhammad bin Abi Bakr, washed the body of Abu Bakr, married Ali radhi Allahu ta'ala anhu. That was Asma bint Umais. So why is this important? Because we're going to find that Asma and Abdullah are the two children and their full brother and full sister, the two children that play that important role on the hijrah. And I've had this happen to me where I'll say Abdullah bin Abi Bakr and someone will say Shaykh bin Abdur Rahman. I'm like, no, there's actually Abdullah bin Abi Bakr and that is the brother of Asma radhi Allahu ta'ala anha. So again, the children of Abu Bakr and Qutayla bint Abdul Uzza Asma radi Allahu ta'ala anha was not married to a Zubair. Obviously, you know, he was only 12 or 13 years old when he embraced Islam. She also was young, but she is one of the first to accept Islam herself. Ibn Ishaq lists her as the 15th person to accept Islam. Of course, these numbers shift, but she is from the first batch to accept Islam. And she accepted Islam at the hands of her father, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq radi Allahu ta'ala anhu. She was about 11 years old at the time that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam received revelation. And by the way, it's important to note here that Abu Bakr radi Allahu ta'ala anhu is of course the one on whose hands Talha al-Nujzubair embraced Islam as well. So this is all SubhanAllah from the ajr of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq radi Allahu ta'ala anhu from the reward of Abu Bakr radi Allahu ta'ala anhu. So you have Asma' radi Allahu ta'ala anhu accepting Islam early on, and we don't hear much about her in Mecca. In fact, there is pretty much nothing about her in Mecca. Meccan seerah in general, because of the nature of the persecution, the way that the community was scattered,
Meccan seerah in general is lacking in terms of the amount of information. A lot of the nobles are not thoroughly covered in the Meccan seerah. But with Asma' radi Allahu ta'ala anhu, you find pretty much nothing about her in the time of Mecca, except that she was the daughter of Abu Bakr radi Allahu ta'ala anhu, a devoted follower. She's listed amongst those that would come to, naturally come to Dar al-Arqam and study with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and knew, had a relationship with Khadijah radi Allahu ta'ala anhu. And obviously, if you're gonna be a child of Abu Bakr, you have to do that, especially a grown child of Abu Bakr. As we said, Az-Zubair comes back to Medina, and Abu Bakr radi Allahu ta'ala anhu marries Az-Zubair to Asma' in Mecca, before the hijrah to Medina. Within the first year of their marriage, she gets pregnant. And that's when the hijrah is going to take place, and they're going to make the hijrah, and Asma' radi Allahu ta'ala anhu, heavily pregnant on that day. Now, this is, subhanAllah, where the legend starts with Asma' radi Allahu ta'ala anhu, is that she was tasked with taking the food to Abu Bakr and to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam during the hijrah. And she used to take her waist belt, and she tore it into two, and then she tied the goods with two belts. And so she was given the title from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as that Al-Nitaqeen, the Possessor of Two Belts. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam saw her with her two waist belts, and the way that she was carrying the food to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr, and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam smiled and told her, indeed, Allah has given you in exchange for this, two belts in paradise. So it's not just a name in which she takes pride,
it's a name that speaks to a very specific reward that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has promised her, that you will carry two belts in paradise, which obviously means libasul jannah, which means the clothing of al-jannah, which means that she is amongst the people that was promised paradise. And so it's significant to say that she's one of those that was promised paradise as well, obviously, through this unique incident with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So when they made the hijrah, Asma' radiAllahu ta'ala Anha took the risk as a pregnant woman, a heavily pregnant woman, of constantly going and sneaking food to Abu Bakr and to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Her brother, Abdullah, was in charge of trying to hear some of the news of the people of Mecca. So she stayed back. And you can imagine the danger here and the hardship of her staying back in Mecca and trying to coordinate with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu in Ghar Thawr. And the news reaches Abu Jahl, that Asma' radiAllahu ta'ala Anha is aware of the location of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr As-Siddiq radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And it's important to mention here that, you know, at this point, Abu Jahl is not targeting some of the Muslims. He's going after the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself. So this is the point in time in the seerah where the Pharaoh of this Ummah, Abu Jahl, the Fir'aun of this Ummah is trying to kill them all. He's killed men and women. He's killed people that belong to powerful tribes. He's killed those that were enslaved. He's killed people right and left at this point. He's obviously the architect of the boycott. And he is the architect along with the Shaytan himself of the plan to attack the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam with various tribesmen so that no one tribe will share the blame of the murder of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
I want you to actually sit with that for a moment and imagine what it's like for Asma' radiAllahu Anha to be alone in Mecca at that point. The Muslims have left and to get a knock on the door and to know it's Abu Jahl, right? He's the size of Umar bin Al-Khattab radiAllahu Anhu. Asma' radiAllahu Anha has seen him kill people. And she knows that he has reached the point of where he is killing anyone in front of him from the Muslims. And she's pregnant with her son, heavily pregnant, and she has no one to protect her. So Abu Jahl knocks on the door. She answers the door. Abu Jahl demands from her, where is your father and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam? She refuses to respond. He asks her again, his face became red. He's full of anger. Where is Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr? Asma' radiAllahu Anha says, I don't know. I'm not going to tell you anything. And at that point, he slaps her so hard. And she never forgot that slap, subhanAllah. I mean, she's a pregnant woman being slapped by this huge man, the pharaoh of this Ummah. He slapped her so hard that her earring fell and she lost her earring from that slap and demanded once again, where is Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr? radiAllahu Anhu and Asma' radiAllahu Anha with her sabr, with her patience, refuses to tell him. And he does not kill her and lets her go in those moments. So subhanAllah, this was a difficult moment for Asma' radiAllahu Anha. And at that point, she is leaving after they have assured the safety of Abu Bakr and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as she's leaving. There's actually a conversation that's narrated between her and her grandfather, Abu Quhafa radiAllahu Anhu. Now Abu Quhafa did not become Muslim until the conquest of Mecca. So, you find the family of Abu Bakr radiAllahu Anhu embracing Islam early on.
Abu Quhafa, his own father held out and this pained Abu Bakr As-Siddiq radiAllahu Anhu. He wanted so badly for his father to embrace Islam and he would embrace Islam in the conquest of Mecca with his hair fully gray at that point, coming to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But at this point, Abu Quhafa is still hanging onto the idea that this has brought shame to the people of Mecca, shame to the tribes. And he goes to her and says to her that this man, meaning Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has put you through so much hardship. What type of man puts you through so much hardship, through so much adversity? He deprived you of himself and his property. I mean, he left you here, your father left you here, you've been put in this horrible situation and he deprived you. Asma radiAllahu Anhu responds to her grandfather and says he has left plenty for us. He's given us much, right? SubhanAllah, not only has he not been Bakheel, has he not deprived us, he's given us much, meaning what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave us is invaluable. You cannot put a price tag on it. And so she makes her way to Al-Madinah, to Quba. She is heavily pregnant. And of course, as we mentioned, she gives birth to the first of her eight children, Abdullah, and she would have the following children, her and Az-Zubair would have Abdullah, Al-Munthir, Asim, Al-Muhajir, and Urwa, okay, from the boys. And then they would have three girls and guess what their names were, Khadijah, Aisha, and Um Al-Hasan, SubhanAllah. So she named two of her daughters after the two most blessed wives of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Khadijah radiAllahu Anhu, and then Aisha, her sister, radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. So these were the eight children that they had. And as we mentioned, when Abdullah was born, she is the narrator of those moments when Abdullah was born
and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came to her to take Abdullah, to mix his saliva with Abdullah, to carry Abdullah and to make dua for him, radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, and she would have a lifelong journey. She would be there with Abdullah until the moment of his death, and then she would live shortly after him as well, which we will talk about. Now, when she was in Madinah, there are a few incidents that are narrated about her in Al-Madinah. One of them is that she mentions Qutayla, her mother, came to visit her in Al-Madinah during the lifetime of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and again, her mother had held back from becoming Muslim. So Qutayla did not accept Islam, but she wanted to come and visit her daughter, Asmaa, in Madinah. So she didn't know how to react to her mother coming to visit and her mother abstaining from becoming Muslim, and now she's in Madinah. So she said, I went to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and I said, Ya Rasulullah, O Messenger of Allah, my mother has come to visit me, and she desires to receive reward from me. She desires to be in my company. Should I keep a good relationship with her? And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells her to show ihsan to her, to keep a good relationship with her mother. And of course, this is consistent with what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la tells us in the Quran, Awasayna al-insana biwalidehi ihsana, that we have commanded everyone to show excellence to their parents. And even if the parents wa injahadaka ala an tushrika bi shay'a, if they command you to associate a partner with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, la tuti'huma, then do not obey them, and instead keep a good relationship with them, even as you do not obey them in disobeying Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, or associating partners with him. So this is an incident with Qutayla, where the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam tells Asma'a radiAllahu ta'ala Anha to do the same. Now, what was her situation like? It was poverty.
Okay, so you're going to see with the life of Asma'a radiAllahu ta'ala Anha, that she never got a break from struggle. Her entire life was struggle, was struggle. From the very beginning, when she accepts Islam, until the very end of her life, it is struggle, it is tyrants, it is poverty. And she explains the situation. She said, when Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala Anha married me, he had no land, he had no money, he had no servants, he had nothing else. He had just one camel to get some water, and he had a horse. She said, I used to graze his horse, I used to provide fodder for it, I used to look after it. She said, I used to ground the dates for his camel. And besides this, grazing the camel, I would make arrangements for providing it with water, I'd patch up his leather bucket, I would knead the flour, I would do all sorts of things. She said, and I wasn't good at baking the bread, so some of my female neighbors, they would help me with baking the bread because they were sincere women. So we had nothing, we lived in absolute poverty. And this connects to the end of Zubayr's life, right? Where they just lived a life of debt. So she said, and I used to carry on my head the date stones from the land of Zubayr, which the Prophet radiAllahu ta'ala Anha had given to him as a waqf, as an endowment. And it was a distance of two miles from Medina. This is actually another narration as well that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam gifted as Zubayr radiAllahu Anhu, a land that he could benefit from, because he didn't have anything. He's so busy with battle and so busy, being a general in the army of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he didn't have anything. And so she said, I just go and collect whatever date stones I could. And she said, one day I was carrying the date stones on my head, and I happened to meet Allah's messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, along with a group of his companions. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam saw me, you can imagine the scene, the difficulty that she is in.
And if you remember the story of Fatima radiAllahu Anha, this is a testimony to sincerity, by the way, right? Fatima radiAllahu Anha was struggling, and she's the daughter of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Asmaa radiAllahu Anha struggling, she's the daughter of Abu Bakr radiAllahu Anhu. This was the life of struggle that these people lived. And they did not take from the wealth of the Ummah, take from the wealth of the nation and bestow it upon themselves. So this is Asmaa, the daughter of Abu Bakr, who the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam had told on the Hijrah, when he saw her carrying the little food that she did in her waist belt to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr, that Allah would give her a different waist belt in Al-Jannah. And he's seeing her in this way. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he got down and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam made his camel sit down. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam invited Asmaa radiAllahu Anha to sit on the camel. And she said, I felt shy to go with the men. And I remembered Az-Zubair radiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu and his sense of gheerah, his sense of jealousy and his sense of honor. And he was a man that had the most gheerah. So I didn't, you know, not only did I feel shyness, but I also, you know, was worried about how Az-Zubair radiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu would take it, right? Of, you know, me riding on the camel of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam with all of the men in that situation. So I, you know, I basically looked at the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and he understood, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam had high emotional intelligence. He understood my shyness, my reservations to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. He didn't say anything. He simply got back on his camel and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam proceeded along with the men. So she said, I went to Az-Zubair radiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu and I said that the Messenger of Allah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he saw me as I was carrying date stones upon my head and there was with him a group of his companions. He told his camel to kneel so that I could mount it. But I felt shy from him and I remembered your gheerah.
Az-Zubair radiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu said, Wallahi, the thought of you carrying the date stones on your head is more severe a burden to me than you riding with the Messenger of Allah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Like I'm more hurt by the fact that you were seen that way. This is embarrassing and it's hard to know that you were seen that way and that you're under such stress and such burden with that hardship. And that's what's hurting me right now. Not the gheerah, not the jealousy or the honor or anything of that sort. So she said that I led this life of hardship until Abu Bakr radiAllahu Anhu sent me a female maid who took upon herself the responsibility of looking after the horse. And she said, I felt as if she had freed me from slavery. That SubhanAllah, that one addition into our household to help me out with that was like freeing me from slavery. So she's saying that her life felt like the life of a slave before that because of the difficulty and the hardship that they had lived in. And she's going to live a very long life radiAllahu ta'ala Anha. And she's going to live with her son, Abdullah ibn Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala Anhuma. But before I get that, it's really interesting. When you go through the ahadith that Asma' radiAllahu ta'ala Anha narrates from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, there are a few interesting ahadith because they speak to the situation and the hardship that they were in at the time. One of them, Abdullah ibn Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he talks about this incident in which the verse was revealed. Thumma latus'alunna yawma idhin AAanil na'eem That on that day, you will be asked about your blessings. On that day, you'll be asked about your na'eem, your blessings. And Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, what delights, what na'eem,
what blessings are we going to be asked about? And it's only the two, al-aswadan, al-tamru wal-ma' the two black ones, which means the dates in the water. And it was said to him, thumma innahu sayakoon that yes, you'll even be asked about those blessings, the dates and the water, which is all that they had. There's also a narration where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says to Asma radiAllahu Anhu, she comes to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and she says, I have nothing of my own except what Zubair brings to the house. Should I spend out of it? You know, do I give it in sadaqah? And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells her to give and do not hoard or else your sustenance will be hoarded. Do not withhold or else Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will withhold from you. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam encourages her to give sadaqah. Another time, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says to her very powerfully, he says, la tuhsi fayuhsi Allah azza wa jalla alayki. Do not count or else Allah will count what he gives to you. Don't count or else Allah will count what he gives to you. Meaning when you give sadaqah, the ideal state of ihsan, the right hand gives in a way that the left hand doesn't even know. Right. Give freely for the sake of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Don't count or else Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will count with you. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam encouraging Asma'a radiAllahu Anha to continue to give sadaqah. She mentions that we were commanded to free slaves at the time of the khusuf and khusuf at the time of the solar and the lunar eclipses. So it's really interesting because you see, obviously, you know, what came about later on in their lives. But this was the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam speaking to them about their situation, that obviously that the life of ease that they would live would be the life of ease in paradise, not the life of ease in this life. And Asma'a radiAllahu Anha never got to taste that ease in this life, but certainly she tasted it in the hereafter.
Now, with Asma'a radiAllahu Anha, you know, if you remember Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib fighting in the battle, you know, and you could imagine the scene of Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib in Uhud holding the spear and then in Khandaq attacking the men and sending off an entire army because they thought there was an army of men on the inside. Asma'a radiAllahu Anha is also one of those who picked up a sword in the Battle of Yarmouk and fought alongside the Muslim warriors. So Asma'a radiAllahu Anha in her nature was extremely courageous and brave. And seeing the the way that the Muslims were outnumbered by the Romans, there was a group of women and children even at that time that fought alongside the army against the Byzantines on that day. And she's noted as one of those that fought alongside the other Muslims on that day. With Asma'a radiAllahu Anha, you know, I want to mention a few things and then we'll get to Inshallah Ta'ala, probably one of the most difficult moments to actually talk about in Muslim history. And I really do mean that it was a moment that actually shook the faith of a lot of people at the time. And it's a reality that tragedy was the ending of so many in this life of these noble people. But of course, only to see the ease of the hereafter, bint Anay Ta'ala. Asma'a radiAllahu Anha, you know, just to think about the way that she was buried, you know, just to think about her womb for a moment. Okay, her womb was the womb that bore Abdullah ibn Zubair, the khalifa of the Muslims who governed from Mecca, the great shaheed, the great leader, the great scholar, Abdullah ibn Zubair, and the great scholar, Urwa ibn Zubair. And I want you to think about this. Almost, you know, every lesson that we will go through, in fact, I would venture to say maybe every single biography we're going to cover, a chunk of it comes from Urwa ibn Zubair on behalf of his aunt Aisha.
The line of the seerah that we have is Urwa, the son of Zubair and Asma'a narrating from his maternal aunt Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala Anha. And giving us all of what we have from the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wa sallam. So, you know, all of those ahadith about Aisha radiAllahu anha on the inside. Most of that is Urwa sitting with his aunt, the sister of his mother Asma'a and gathering that knowledge of the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wa sallam and giving that to the rest of the ummah to benefit from. So can you imagine how much we owe that womb, subhanAllah, owe that woman of Asma'a bint Abi Bakr, how much ajr she has bearing the child of Urwa ibn Zubair that gave us so much of this that we talk about today. So just the legacy, those hidden gems and those things that we don't take into consideration, but Allah subhanAllah ta'ala certainly writes it down, writes down the footprints and atharahum and writes down the legacies of these people. That is embodied in every lesson that we're going through, through the womb of Asma'a radiAllahu anha and the son that she raised that would go and learn from Aisha radiAllahu anha. And by the way, Aisha radiAllahu anha loved Abdullah ibn Zubair like her own child. And it was such a love that she had for him that she asked the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam, what kunya she should take. You know, you have Abu so and so and Um so and so. And Aisha radiAllahu anha did not have any children. And the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam said, you should be Um Abdullah after your nephew Abdullah because he's like a son to you, right? So take the kunya of Um Abdullah, even though you don't have a son named Abdullah because that's how close Abdullah ibn Zubair was to Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala anha. And of course, Asma'a radiAllahu anha has a closeness to Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala anha. And, you know, that gives us this incident where we have, you know, a woman in Asma'a radiAllahu ta'ala anha
at the age of about a hundred years old, talking to her son. So, you know, fast forward through all of this, this woman that's operated in the background and done so much for this Ummah. And you have the incident of her son being murdered at the hands of Al-Hajjaj at the Kaaba. Now, when the Kaaba, when Abdullah ibn Zubair, who had declared Khilafah in Mecca for over a decade, was in Mecca and the Kaaba was attacked and Mecca was attacked, that shook the hearts of many people, right? Just the imagery of that. You know, you think about the COVID era and we saw, you know, what it's like to see the empty Haram and what that does to the hearts of the believers. Imagine when the Kaaba was attacked, right? And Abdullah ibn Zubair was attacked. What that would look like. So he stands bravely at the side of the Kaaba. And one of the things that, just to give some pretext to this, Asma'a narrates from Aisha quite a bit. So Asma'a radiAllahu anha narrated from Aisha radiAllahu anha that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned about the shape of the Kaaba. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, do you know that the Kaaba was built differently by Ibrahim Alayhi Salam? Aisha said, what do you mean? And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Ibrahim Alayhi Salam built it as a rectangle and the door was on the ground. And people used to enter from one door and enter out of the other door. When Quraysh rebuilt the Kaaba, they built it in the shape that you see today because they did not have enough money that was free from, you know, interest and usury and gambling and prostitution and the other things that they used to do. So they just built the semi-circle there and they did not complete the Kaaba as a rectangular shape and they moved the door up so that they could prohibit people and only allow the elites to enter into the Kaaba. And Aisha radiAllahu anha is asking the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam like, Ya Rasulullah, aren't you going to change it? And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam mentions, they're too close to the days of ignorance.
And had I not, you know, known that this would unnecessarily disrupt things, I would have changed it, but the people are too close to the days of ignorance. So Isma' narrates this Hadith, Abdullah ibn Zubair when he became the Khalifah of Mecca, he changed the Kaaba back to the way the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam described it, as Ibrahim Alayhi Salam had actually built it. And the Hadith that the greatest Jihad is Kalimatu Haqq Inda Sultanin Ja'ir, a word of truth in the face of a tyrant, Isma' radiAllahu anha stood in front of Abu Jahl and spoke of word of truth, as a pregnant woman all by herself, completely vulnerable. And then as a 100 year old woman stood in front of the face of one of the most brutal tyrants the Ummah has ever seen in Hajjaj and spoke a word of truth to him, not fearing anyone but Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So this woman was a special woman. And here you have the situation when Abdullah ibn Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala anhuma, he comes to Isma' radiAllahu anha, his mother, and it's one of the most heartbreaking conversations that you see between a son and a mother. These two people that had lived long lives serving Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And Abdullah ibn Zubair comes to talk to his mother and seek advice about whether he should give up or not. Like, should I just surrender to these people? Or should I keep fighting? And Isma' radiAllahu ta'ala anha says, Wallahi, a dignified strike with a sword is more beloved than a humiliating lash of a whip. Keep your dignity. This 100 year old woman and she's saying, look, we lived through Abu Jahl. We lived through the Pharaoh of this Ummah. Keep your dignity and keep going. And he says, aren't you going to be sad about me, oh, my mother, right? Because there was such a closeness between Abdullah ibn Zubair and his mother
who's living at that time. And she says, innama ahzanu alayka ya bunay law qutilta fee batil I would feel sad for you, oh, my son, if you were killed in falsehood. Alhamdulillah all praises be to the one who made you in a way that Allah loves and in a way that I love as well. And she says to him, ikhtarib minni ya bunayya li atashammama ra'ihata Come close to me, oh, my son, so I can feel your body and I can smell you for the last time. Because she knows he's going to be killed and Abdullah ibn Zubair knows he's going to be killed. And he hugs her, he kisses her hands, he kisses her feet, he kisses her head, and he holds on to her and they hold on to one another crying. You know, the last time a mother and son will embrace one another in this world. And she says to him, ma hadha allathee talbisuhu ya bunay What are you wearing, oh, my son? And ibn Zubair says that, you know, this is my armor on the inside. And he said, I wore it to make you comfortable, like to let you know that I'm keeping myself covered. And she responds and she says that, you know, this is not ma hadha ya bunay li basum man yuridu shahada That's not the dress of a person that is about to be martyred that seeks that shahada in those moments. And Abdullah ibn Zubair continues and says, I'm afraid, oh, my mother, that they're going to kill me, they're going to mutilate my corpse, they're going to hang me. And she says, oh, my son, the sheep is not harmed by the skinning after the slaughter. Continue forth with your clear vision, with your sight and seek the aid of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And she told him to wear his clothes tight so that his awrah is not exposed. And Abdullah ibn Zubair, he's going out to be killed. And he knows that he has no chance in front of this tyranny at this point. And on his way out, the last conversation between him and his mom,
he tells his mother, do not stop making dua for me, please do not stop making dua for me. And the sight is him walking out of the house and she raises her hands to the sky and she makes dua for him. And he took a bath, he wore his kafan, you know, ready for death in that moment. And indeed, he was murdered, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, by the Kaaba, mutilated by the Kaaba. And al-Hajjaj, this brutal tyrant, crucified him by the Kaaba. And Abdullah ibn Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhuma, who narrates very sadly, he says, I remember in Medina the day that Abdullah ibn Zubair was born and the Muslims chanted Allahu Akbar. And I remember, and now I'm seeing a day that Abdullah ibn Zubair is killed and people are chanting Allahu Akbar. And he's saying those people are the best of all people, these people are the worst of all people. SubhanAllah, look at the difference. They chant Allahu Akbar and the Muslims that were chanting Allahu Akbar on the day that they held the body, the baby of Abdullah ibn Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala anhuma and went through the streets. And Asma' radiAllahu anha is coming out to see the body of Abdullah ibn Zubair, similar to the way that Safiyyah was going to see the body of Hamza. And Abdullah ibn Umar tries to stop her and says to her, Inna hadhihi al-juthath laisa bishayq wa inna al-arwaha aindallahi azza wa jal SubhanAllah, another connection to the series about death. He says to her, Listen, these bodies are nothing. The souls are with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So what's it going to do to you to go and see the body of your son, Abdullah ibn Zubair? And she said, wama yamna'uni waqad uhdiya raasu yahya ibn zakariya ila baghiya min baghaya bani israeel She said, what would stop me when the head of Yahya alayhi salam, John, the son of Zakariya. John, the head of Yahya was gifted
to one of the prostitutes of the prostitutes of Bani Israel. So, you know, why am I better than the prophets of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? I know about the way that these bodies are and I know that these bodies are are not what contains the people, but it is the souls that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala contains. And she goes and she goes to the body of her son, Abdullah ibn Zubair, and she demands a 100 year old woman. She says, isn't it time for this? Isn't it time for this warrior to be brought down? Isn't it time for this noble man to be brought down? Isn't it time for him to be to be given a noble death? She she continues to demand that he's taken down and not put in this humiliating way in this fashion. And she goes to speak to al-Hajjaj, the tyrant who killed her son. And she, you know, she marches in, 100 year old woman to talk to him. And he said, you didn't ask permission. She said, how should I ask your permission? You killed my son. And he said, al-munafiq, Hajjaj responds about Abdullah ibn Zubair, you mean the hypocrite? And she said that, you know, she called him a liar. And she spoke back to him. And he said that your son, you know, violated the haram of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the sanctuary of Allah. So I killed him as a sinful violator should be killed so that Allah can make him taste the punishment for what was done to him. Or I'm sorry, for Allah, so that Allah can make him taste the punishment of what he has done. So she said to him, kathakta ya adu Allah, you have lied, O enemy of God and enemy of the Muslims by Allah, wallahi, the one you killed was engaged in Salah. And Siyam, in fasting and prayer. He was a guardian of the deen. He used to respect his parents and love his parents. He was a protector of this religion.
And she said, and if you have ruined his dunya, if you've ruined his worldly life, then surely he has ruined your afterlife. And Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that two liars will come to us from Thaqeef, the last one worse than the first, and he is the murderer and surely you are him, O Hajjaj. So she's challenging him in his face. And he's completely shrunk and humiliated by this noble woman that would go to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in the Hijrah and would serve the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and that spoke a word of truth in front of a greater tyrant in Abu Jahl. And he was unable to do anything with her. And this woman Asma' radiAllahu ta'ala Anha would die in her Ibadah at the age of 100 years old. SubhanAllah. Think about all that she saw in her 100 years, alongside the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, striving for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and going through the hardships that she went through. Her legacy is obviously part of the long legacy of courage that comes from this family and that service to Allah and the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and what she gave to us and her children. But I wanna mention something else about her legacy, by the way, just in terms of the teaching. So SubhanAllah, just as we see that, we have the legacy of Az-Zubayr radiAllahu Anhu but no Ahadith or very few Ahadith that are narrated from him. Asma' radiAllahu ta'ala Anha was a teacher of this Ummah and she lived a long life. And she narrated multiple Ahadith from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and she taught the Ummah, the Fiqh, the jurisprudence of so many different things. So there are numerous Ahadith from her on hijab, on ruqya, on menstruation, things of that sort within women's issues. She wasn't shy to ask the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam some of those questions and she learned them from Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala Anha, her sister as well. So she narrates from Aisha radiAllahu Anha as well.
And she asked the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam things regarding women's issues. And she narrates a lot regarding the hijab and the ruqya and so on and so forth. She also did hajj multiple times. She did hajj with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, she did hajj with Abu Bakr radiAllahu Anhu, she did hajj with her sister Aisha. And she used to teach the Ummah, the Fiqh of hajj in the days of hajj. So she resided in Mecca and you could imagine that for that first glorious generation of Islam, when you would go to Mecca to do hajj, you would find our great aunt in Asmaa bint Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anha teaching the Ummah, the Fiqh of hajj. But she lived that hajj and her heart made tawaf consistently around the Kaaba that she resided next to and she strove for this deen. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la blessed her to maintain her nobility and her dignity throughout this entire life. And just as she told her son that the disgrace is to die upon that, which is falsehood and dignity and honor is to die upon that, which is pleasing to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la maintaining your state, maintaining that connection. And she demonstrated that throughout her life. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la be pleased with Asmaa radiAllahu ta'ala Anha, be pleased with her father, be pleased with Az-Zubair, be pleased with her children, be pleased with Safiyyah bint Abdul-Muttalib, this blessed family. InshaAllah ta'ala, next time we will go into the story of Talha ibn Ubaidullah who is inseparable from Az-Zubair and we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to be pleased with all of these noble ones and to join us with them, the neighbors of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in Jannatul Firdaus. Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllahu khayran Wasalamualikoum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
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