Angels In Their Presence | Season 2
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Has a du’a ever saved your life? Many of us have experienced life-changing du’as, but few so literally as Zayd ibn Harithah (r), a Companion so steeped in his conviction in Islam that even an attempt on his life could not stop him from prayer and supplication. And when an angel armed with a spear came to his rescue, the benefit of his conviction in the Most Merciful became crystal clear.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. I think people forget sometimes that though the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was alone in Ta'if for many of the moments of Ta'if, there was one companion that was with him and that was Zayd ibn Haritha radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. So imagine being there for the worst moments of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's life. When the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is being mocked in the worst way, when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is being humiliated, when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is being hit with stones and shoes, Zayd radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was the one who was with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in Ta'if and was actually trying to stop the stones as they were coming towards the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and also took a beating himself. He's also that one companion that was entrusted with accompanying the family of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam on the hijrah. So Fatima radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, Um Kulthum radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, Saudah radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, they all went with Zayd ibn Haritha to Al-Madinah and of course he himself, his position with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he was Hib Rasulillahi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He was the loved one of the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and that's a lofty position to have because what it tells us is that loving Zayd is a sunnah. If the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam loves him so much that he is the beloved one of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, then to love him is a sunnah and it's a great way of enjoying closeness to the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So this story that I'm going to share with you, it's a narration from Al-Laith ibn Sa'd, it's recorded as well by Ibn Abdul Barr and Ibn Kathir and Al-Bidai wa-Nihaya, that Zayd ibn Haritha radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu once rented a mule from a man in Ta'if. So he's out on this journey and he asks to rent this mule to ride. And the man tells him that, okay, I'll rent it to you for such and such price, but at the same time, I have a shalt, I have a condition. He said, what is the shalt?
He said, I need you to take me to a particular place. After we get to this place, you can drop me off there and then we'll agree upon a time that you'll be able to ride and you come back and you'll pay me and that'll be the end of that. So it seems like a pretty normal transaction, right? So Zayd radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu says, so I agree to the condition and this man from Ta'if tells me, go this way, go this way, go this way until we ended up in a very strange alleyway, right? This is something that you might actually be able to relate to in that sense. We end up in a very strange alleyway. And when we got to this alleyway, I see a bunch of dead bodies. This is a very dark and scary situation. So Zayd radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, I realized as soon as we got there, what the man was about, right? That basically the man led me to this place. He was going to rob me. He was going to kill me and he was going to throw me with the rest of the dead bodies. So Zayd radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu looks at him and he said, the man, you know, they got off the mule and the man was walking up to him to kill him. And Zayd radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, I said to him, da'ani usalli rak'ateen Look, can you let me pray two rak'ahs before you kill me? SubhanAllah, this becomes a sunnah by the way of sorts. When you see many scholars in history that would ask as they were about to be killed by their tyrants, give me a chance just to pray a couple of rak'ahs. Let me pray two rak'ahs to Allah subhanAllah. Let the last action be salah. Okay, if you're going to do this anyway. So the man says to him, he mocks him. He says, you think the prayer did any good for these people, right? Did salah do any of these people good? He said, go ahead and pray. Okay, fine. Go ahead and pray. So Zayd radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, so I started to pray. And he said, when I started to pray, the man was not patient with me finishing my prayer. He walked up to me to kill me. So as he walked up to me to kill me, I said, Ya arham ar-raahimin O most merciful of those who show mercy.
And suddenly we heard a voice, la taqtulhu Don't kill him. So he said, the man was surprised by the voice. So he went out to look and see where the voice was coming from. Is there someone that is approaching and that's going to stop him or attack him? But he found nothing. So Zayd radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, I continued in my salah and he approached me again to kill me. And I said, Ya arham ar-raahimin O most merciful of those who show mercy. And he said, the same thing happened. He went out. He looked to see where that voice was coming from. He couldn't figure it out. And he said, the third time he comes to me again to do it. And I say, Ya arham ar-raahimin O most merciful of those who show mercy. And he said, when he did that, and I said that, Suddenly I saw a man coming forward and he had a spear. And at the tip of that steel spear was fire. And this horseman throws the spear directly through that man and it kills him. And then the horseman turns to me. And he says, when you called out, Ya arham ar-raahimin O most merciful of those who show mercy. Qala kuntu fissamaa ssabiaa I was in the seventh heaven. So he's an angel. He's making it clear to him that I'm an angel. I was in the seventh heaven when you called out, Ya arham ar-raahimin And when you called out the second time, Ya arham ar-raahimin He said, by the time you called out the second time, he said, kuntu fissamaa dunya I had just come down to the heaven directly above the earth. And he said, when you called out and said, Ya arham ar-raahimin The third time, he said, I made it to you. By that time, I made it to you. And subhanAllah, that is when he actually killed the man who intended to kill Zayd ibn Harithah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu Who would live of course to become a martyr in the battle of Al-Mu'tah. So this is a powerful example, subhanAllah, not just for Zayd ibn Harithah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu
But in general, the way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protected these companions And it's not just in the battles which we'll talk about But even the idea that when they called out to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with such conviction That the heavens would be moved by the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala To come to the aid of that person, to where this angel comes from the highest of the heavens To support this man who is one of the highest of the companions And the most beloved of Rasulullah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam
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