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
52
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
125
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
126
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
146
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
147
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Ayyash ibn Abi Rabiah (ra) - The Guilt Trip That Led To Captivity | The Firsts Shorts
Ayyash ibn Abi Rabiah (ra) was the brother of Abu Jahl. He was tricked into coming home out of love for his mother only to spend years in captivity for his refusal to disbelieve.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakatuhu everyone. Welcome back to the first shorts where we are covering some of the early Muslims who don't have much to their biography, but so much for us to learn from in terms of the quality of their iman and their stories. And SubhanAllah, today we're covering someone who has a tragic story followed by a tragic story, followed by triumph. And that is a man by the name of Ayyash Ibn Abi Rabi'a radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and he is the cousin of Umar Ibn Khattab radiAllahu Anhu. So we're still people that were close to Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And Ayyash radiAllahu Anhu is someone who there are several verses of the Qur'an that InshaAllah ta'ala by the end of this short lesson, you'll have a greater appreciation for those verses because so many of those verses are related to Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. Ayyash is not only the cousin of Umar Ibn Khattab, his full name being Ayyash Ibn Abi Rabi'a Ibn Al-Mughira, but he's also the half brother of Abu Jahl. He's the half brother of Abu Jahl, the Pharaoh of this Ummah, the Fir'aun of this Ummah. And he specifically his half brother through the same mother. So both of them had the same mother and Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu used to love his mother. SubhanAllah, imagine this mom who has a companion as a son and has Abu Jahl, the Pharaoh of the Ummah as her son as well. And Abu Jahl is the key persecutor tyrant of the Muslims and Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu is someone who embraced Islam very early on, shortly after Dar Al-Arqam. And he's one of those who made hijrah to Abyssinia as well on the second trip. So he's one of the first Muslims, but he didn't go on the first hijrah, but he went on the second one. Some of the biographers say that that's either because he embraced Islam sometime after the first hijrah to Abyssinia, or it's because due to his lineage,
due to the position that he had in society, being from two powerful tribes through his father and through his mother, there really was no need for him to migrate at first, but then as the situation intensified, he needed to make that migration. So Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu made the hijrah along with his wife Asma bint Salama radiAllahu ta'ala Anha. So both he and his wife are considered amongst the first. SubhanAllah if you start to notice, there are these names that keep on coming up, Fatima, Asma, Atika, over and over and over again. And so Asma is a common name, and she is one of the Asmas, and she is one of the first Muslims as well. So Ayyash and Asma make their way to Habasha, and their son Abdullah ibn Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhuma was born there in Abyssinia. So they're one of those families of Muslims that actually gave birth to children in Abyssinia, and that child would grow up to be a narrator on behalf of his parents radiAllahu ta'ala Anhum Ajma'een. So this is the story of Ayyash and Asma and their son in Abyssinia. Now they come back to Mecca to join the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam on the hijrah to Al-Madinah. And Ayyash being a close cousin of Umar ibn Al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, joins Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu on the hijrah. So this is where the most famous story about Ayyash takes place. He was with Umar ibn Al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, and as they were on their way, Abu Jahl caught up to them. Now again, Abu Jahl was smarter than to make a move on Umar radiAllahu Anhu. You don't mess with Umar ibn Al-Khattab radiAllahu Anhu. So this was a situation where they did not want to attack him in the presence of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. But what he says to him is he says to Ayyash that your mother is sick, your mother is sick. Our mother is sick. And he has with him by the way, as well, Al-Harith ibn Hisham. So they're three brothers now together.
So he says, you know, Al-Harith ibn Hisham and Amr ibn Hisham being Abu Jahl, say to Ayyash that your mother is sick and she is prolonged in her illness because of your Islam. So guilt tripping him to say that your mom is getting sicker because of your Islam. And she has taken an oath that she will not eat or drink. Wala tastaghilu min shabs And she will not even take shade. Meaning she's going to sit outside and she's going in the hot Meccan sun and she's going to starve herself and dehydrate herself until you come back to her. SubhanAllah, imagine how tough this was. You remember when we talked about Miqdad radiAllahu Anhu like when you talk about these early Muslims, you know, you think I wish I could have been a companion. But imagine what that did to his heart, right? Like my mom, who I love very much is going to die because of me. So they're guilt tripping him. Now, Amr radiAllahu Anhu sees that this moved Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'a radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And Amr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu says to him, don't do it. He says, listen, your mother, when it gets hot and the lice starts to creep up in her head, she'll go inside. And when she gets really, really hungry and really thirsty, she's going to eat, she's going to drink, don't do it. So he keeps on warning Ayyash, don't go with them, oh Ayyash, you know, on top of that, they make these offers. Amr radiAllahu Anhu said, listen, I'll take care of you. I'll send what needs to be sent back, but don't go back with Abu Jahl and Al-Hadith, they're up to no good. Eventually, however, Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he says to Amr, ya Amr, this is my mother. I need to obey my mother. I have to go back to my mother. And I'm not going to renounce Islam, but you know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that you obey them, you show them al-ma'ruf, you show them kindness, just don't obey them in renouncing your religion. Let me just go check up on her. Let me convince her to eat and drink. Let me convince her to go inside. Let me assure her that I'm okay. And I'll come back.
Amr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu remained skeptical of the intentions of Abu Jahl and Al-Hadith. So Amr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he says to him, well, look, if you're going to go and I can't stop you, then take this camel of mine, because Amr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu had a healthy and a fast camel. And if they make a move on you, then jolt, get out of there as quickly as you can. So Amr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu says, take my camel in case you need to get out of there very quickly. Ayyash takes the camel of Amr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, and then on the way to Mecca, at that point, Abu Jahl has a plot with Al-Hadith that gets him off of, that gets Ayyash off of his camel. And as soon as Ayyash gets off of his camel, Abu Jahl and Al-Hadith jump on Ayyash. They didn't attack him in the presence of Amr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, because now they can outnumber him. Now they can crowd him. They jump on top of him, they chain him up, and then they take him back to Mecca in chains. And SubhanAllah, at that point, the persecution is so severe on him that there is a wonder about him, that if he renounced his faith, as he went back to his mother, and if he is in this situation, does he have hope? So some of the ulama say, this is where the ayah, Qul yaa ibadiyalladheena asrafoo AAala anfusihim la taqnatoo min rahmatillah innaAllaha yakhfiroo aldhunooba jameeAAa innahu huwa alghafoorur raheem Say, oh, my servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair from the mercy of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, because Allah forgives all sins, and Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is all forgiving, most merciful. So you have a path back. So that's one of the explanations that this ayah was speaking to those who were forced back out of Islam. And so Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala anhu maintained his Islam, even though for a moment, he relented as he was being persecuted just under the pressure, but Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala anhu remained in Mecca. Now, this is such an important point of the story
that I'm about to share with you here. We talked about Abu Jandal, not too long ago, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, and his situation. Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was not someone that was able to escape Mecca and come back to Medina. From that point that he was captured on the way to the Hijrah, all the way until post-Hudaibiyyah, he remained under torture in Mecca. He remained under torture in Mecca. And Abu Huraira radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he narrates, and it's actually very profound, SubhanAllah, who's narrating from Abu Huraira. Abi Salama narrates from his father that Abu Huraira radiAllahu ta'ala anhu said, that I heard the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam kana idha qal, when he would say, samiAAallahu liman hamida, in the last rak'ah, in Salatul Isha, of Salatul Isha, he would raise his hands and he would say in Qunoot, Allahumma anji Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'a, Allahumma anji Walid ibn Walid, Allahumma anji Salama ibn Hisham, who is the, you know, so this is Salama who's being told by Abu Huraira that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam used to make du'a for you. Allahumma anji mustad'afina min al-mu'mineen, and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would say, oh Allah help Ayyash, oh Allah help Walid, ibn Walid, oh Allah help Salama ibn Hisham, all three of them who were being persecuted in Mecca for their belief, and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam could not get them to Al-Madinah, Allahumma anji mustad'afina min al-mu'mineen, oh Allah, help the weak believers, the oppressed believers, oh Allah save them, rescue them. And then the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Allahumma anji mustad'afina min al-mu'mineen, now wata'ataka ala mudar means, oh Allah, inflict the tribe of mudar, he's speaking about the people of Mecca, with drought, Allahumma ja'alha saneen, ka sanee yusuf alayhi salam, oh Allah, make it years upon them, years of drought, like it was upon the people of yusuf alayhi salam.
So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was making du'a for the persecuted ones in Mecca, and he was making du'a against their persecutors in Mecca, and indeed a drought was inflicted upon them, and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam maintained his du'a and his attachment to Ayyash, to Al-Walid ibn Al-Walid, and to Salama, who is narrating this from Abu Huraira, who was hearing the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam make this du'a for him and those that were like him, such as Ayyash, may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la be pleased with them all, in Al-Mecca. So they were imprisoned in Mecca throughout this entire period, and until the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, so he missed Badr, he missed Uhud, he missed Khandaq, he missed all of those things. And then when the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was made, remember that one of the clauses of that treaty were that if anyone escaped Mecca to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in Medina, they would have to be returned under that treaty. So what does this mean for him? When we talked about Abu Jandal, if you remember, there was a particular man we spoke about, and his name was Abu Basir, radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. Abu Basir was the person the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, if he had an army, this man could cause, he could cause lots of destruction, in a good sense and in a bad sense. But the point is, is that this is a very unique person who was persecuted in Mecca, made his way to Medina, captured again in Medina, killed his captors, and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam basically hinted to him that he should leave Medina, and he should set himself up somewhere else. So what he did was, Abu Basir, was he took a group of fugitives, he helped people escape from Mecca that were being tortured. And what they did was, they stayed out of Medina to not be returned under the clause of the treaty, but they also harassed the caravans that were going between Ash-Sham and Mecca, putting Mecca in a desperate economic situation, where the Meccans who put that clause in the treaty, begged the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to please take in the Abu Basirs and the Abu Jandals of the world. Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'a radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
was one of those who was with Abu Basir, as well as Salama, as well as Al-Walid ibn Al-Walid ibn Mughira. SubhanAllah, so these three men who the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was praying for, as well as all of those that were persecuted in Mecca, they had gathered with Abu Basir, until Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la made a way for them to then join the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in Al-Madinah. So imagine what he went through, SubhanAllah, had he listened to Umar radiAllahu Anhu, right? Then he would have made Hijrah, and Badr, and Uhud, and Khandaq, but look at the path that he has to take back, because of his good intentions, when he heard that his mother was sick, but of course, there is no if, there is only what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la decreed. Here we have a situation where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la put him through that test, and this is where Ibn Abbas radiAllahu Anhu says, so second verse, Arif la meem hasiba an-nasu an yutraqu an yaqulu aamanna wa hum la yuftanoon. He says that the verse, the first verse of Surah Al-Ankabut, do people think that they will simply say they believe, and they will not be tested, refers to this group of people before all else, this group of people, SubhanAllah, who were tested severely for their faith, remained in Mecca tortured, unable to make their way to Al-Madinah, but they did not lose their resolve, and instead they joined the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam when the time came. So this is another verse that some of the ulama mention, is referring to him. Lastly, there's the verse, wa ma kan li mu'minin an yaqtula mu'minan illa khataa That it is not for a believer to kill another believer except by mistake. And what that is referring to, according to the majority of the Mufassiroon, is that when Ayyash joined the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Fath Makkah, okay, and he's with the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he saw a person who used to torture him in Makkah. And when he saw that person who used to torture him in Makkah,
he assumed that he was still a non-Muslim. And his name, according to some of the narrations, was Al-Harith bin Yazid. So when he saw him, he attacked him and he killed him. And he came to know after he attacked him and killed him, that that man had actually repented and had embraced Islam. And he didn't know, and so the ayah came down that it is not for a believer to kill another believer except out of mistake. And here, subhanAllah, you have this situation where it was a mistake, but we trust that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, of course, is fair and just to everyone and is the ultimate resolver of these things on the day of judgment. Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, afterwards continued to play a prominent role in the various campaigns throughout the era of Al-Khulafa Ar-Rashideen, particularly in the time of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. Ayyash joined the legendary battle of Yarmouk. And Yarmouk was the most decisive battle when it came to the Romans, the Byzantines, just as we spoke about Qadisiyyah with the Persians. And he served under Khalid ibn al-Walid, and he served with Ikramah ibn Abi Jahl, and Ayyash and Salama together, who were being persecuted in Mecca. May Allah be pleased with them. Ayyash and Salama, both were a part of the Muslim army at that time. And they were amongst those who were martyred at that time. And there's a famous story of Ikramah ibn Abi Jahl, radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, who of course repented and became a great companion, despite being one of the last to enter Islam, and despite having been an enemy of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, for the greater part of the time of revelation, where the bucket of water is going around, and each one of the shuhada is saying, go to my brother so and so, go to my brother so and so, go to my brother so and so, until the water carrier had gone to each of them. And each one of them had said, go to my brother so and so, until he went back to Ikramah, and Ikramah radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, had died a shaheed,
as well as Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, as well as Salama radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. So SubhanAllah, they had this situation where they were together. And Khalid radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, who was leading that of course, said that they should be buried, that Ayyash and Salama should be buried together, in the same grave, SubhanAllah, because they lived together, they were tortured together, they died together, may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with them. And this was the best of Banu Makhzum, the remnants of those who believed from the tribe of Abu Jahl, and Khalid radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he wept when he led the janazah over them, and he said that these are the best of Banu Makhzum, and there will never be anyone from Banu Makhzum, like these men, again, radiAllahu ta'ala Anhum Ajma'een. So this is Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, the cousin of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, who for the obedience and love of his mother, went through a very difficult path back to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, but then ultimately died a martyr, and of course is one of the first Muslims, one of the people who still we count from Ashab al-Hijratain, the people of the two Hijras, because Ayyash radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu had already made his way to Al-Madinah, before he went back to check on his mother. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with him, and accept his sacrifices. JazakumAllahu khayran, I'll see you all next time, InshAllah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
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