The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
128 / 152
44
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
58
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
Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl (ra): The Pious Son of Pharoah | The Firsts
He was the son of the Pharoah of this Ummah who fought the Prophet ﷺ and his companions even up until the opening of Makkah. But through a journey of many twists and turns, came back to the Prophet ﷺ as one of his most loyal companions. His story of selflessness and martyrdom is ever inspiring and impactful.
The Firsts is a weekly video series that chronicles the lives of the Sahaba (the companions of the Prophet ﷺ) during and after the time of the Prophet ﷺ.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. I would like to ask the Mayor of Yemen, al-Shaytaan al-Jamis al-An'am, al-Rahman al-Rahim, al-hamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wa al-'udwana illa a'la al-dhalimeen, wa al-'aqeebatu lil-muttaqeen. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barak ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam, taseeman kathira. InshaAllah tonight, before we get started with our halaqa, with our lecture on Ikram ibn Abi Jahl, we have a brother who's going to be embracing Islam with us, so I'd like to welcome Carson, if you can come up. You didn't change your mind, did you? Okay, so I'm going to have you repeat after me. Say, ash-hadu an la ilaha illa Allah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasul Allah. That was perfect. All right, in English now. I bear witness that there is no God worthy of worship or unconditional obedience except Allah, and that Muhammad is his final messenger. Takbir. Congratulations. We want to welcome you to the community. Welcome to Islam and welcome to the Valley Ranch Islamic Center, so this is your community from now on. And after I finish the lecture, if you're still around, they're all going to hug you, so in the meantime, you're welcome to have a seat. And everyone, please do welcome your brother. May Allah bless you, keep you firm and steadfast and protect you, and allow this journey of yours to be blessed all the way through. Allahumma ameen. InshaAllah tonight, dear brothers and sisters, we're going to be continuing with the first, and we're going to be speaking about the son of the
pharaoh of this ummah. And it's very interesting when you have someone who has such a prominent position in Islam as being the fir'aun of this ummah. And it shows you, what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, that there are multiple pharaohs throughout history, right? You have the pharaoh that we know, you have the fir'aun, and then we have our fir'aun as an ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, as a people, and that of course was Abu Jahl, Amr ibn Hisham. And we're going to be talking about his son Ikram radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum, but it's important to note that as time goes on, as generations go on, you always have pharaohs, and you always have tyrants, and then you have heroes that rise up against those tyrants, and you have people that come from the households of those tyrants that turn out to be of the greatest heroes, and of those who carry and possess some of the greatest virtues in Islam. And tonight, as we talk about Ikram radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum, it's personally, I'm going to say personally, one of my favorite stories from the Companions, and there are many of them that are like my favorite. But I'll just tell you that if none of you name your kids Ikram after this, then I consider that I failed in properly conveying the virtue of this man Ikram radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum. Many of you hear the name Ikram in the books of Tafsir, and this is not the same Ikram radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum in the books of Tafsir. This is one of the great Companions of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, who comes literally from the worst man in the seerah of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, the ultimate villain in the life of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. So he talks about Khalid radiyaAllahu anhum ibn al-Waleed ibn al-Mughirah. Al-Waleed, a horrible human being. Khalid radiyaAllahu anhum goes on to become Sayfullah, the sword of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We talked about Amr radiyaAllahu anhum ibn al-'As. Al-'As, such a horrible person that we could have spent a whole lecture just on
the verses of Quran about him. But tonight we talk about Ikramah, the son of Abu Jahl. And I literally, I have to say this, if I was to talk about what ayat, what verses in the Quran speak about the evil of Abu Jahl, it literally would take me an hour. Why? Because Abdullah ibn Abbas sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam identifies over 80 verses, zero, 80 verses in the Quran that were revealed in response to the evil and the tyranny of this particular man. It's enough to say that in Surah al-Alaq, the first verse is revealed to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, read in the name of your Lord who creates, that the second half of that Surah from verse 9 onwards is about Abu Jahl. Actually speaks to the Pharaoh of this Ummah. Do you see the one who forbids, who forbids righteousness, who stomps on the necks of the believers, who breaks people's collarbones, who murders people in the vicinity of the sacred Kaaba, who violates every single established norm prior to Islam and after Islam, his cultural and tribal norms, to oppress and to mutilate and to brutalize the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions. أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يَنْهَى عَبْدًا إِذَا صَلَّىٰ أَرَأَيْتَ إِن كَانْ عَلَى الْهُدَىٰ أَوْ أَمْرَ بِالتَّقْوَىٰ أَرَأَيْتَ إِن كَذَّبَ وَتَوَلَّىٰ Do you see this person, this person who forbids righteousness, this person who denies, who lies. أَلَمْ يَعْلَمْ بِيَنَ اللَّهَ يَرَأَىٰ Doesn't he know that Allah sees him? كَلَّا لَئِلَّمْ يَنْتَهِي لَنَسْفَعَمْ بِالنَّاصِيَةَ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that this is a person that's going to be seized by the forelock, a man who will pay for his sins because of the horrors that he inflicted on the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and the most vulnerable of the companions.
This was the man who took out the slaves who became Muslim in Mecca and created a torture camp for the public to see and who took a spear and stuck it through Sumayya radiAllahu anha, the Abyssinian woman, to make an example out of her, that tortured the slaves in public, that called for people to humiliate the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam in every way, that incited in every way. The man who made life unbearable for Muslims in Mecca, the man who actually started the boycott against the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, that led to the death of Khadija radiAllahu anha, his wife and his uncle, Abu Talib, the man who plotted the assassination of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam during the Hijrah, who came up with the master plan on how to kill the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. So this is a brutal tyrant and I want you to imagine that in the background of this brutal tyrant, who is the chief of Banu Mahzum, who the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam called the pharaoh of this Ummah, is his son Ikramah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And Al-Dhahabi rahim Allah says, كان من رؤوس الجاهلية كأبيه He was from the heads of the ignorant ones, just like his father. And he was the successor of his father. So here's the scene. I want you to play all of those scenes of Abu Jahl oppressing the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, spitting, torturing, killing. And I want you to imagine Ikramah by his side, assisting him in every way, watching in every way, because he was deemed the successor of Abu Jahl, meaning Abu Jahl is the head of Banu Mahzum, the rival tribe that wants to kill the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam simply because he belongs to Banu Hashim. Ikramah is the son that is being groomed to be the successor, the chief of Banu Mahzum. So when Abu Jahl presumably takes power in Mecca, his son Ikramah is the crown prince.
Just to give you the visual, there's also something else to keep in mind here. The Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam saw something even in the pharaoh of this Ummah. What did the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam see in Abu Jahl? What did he see in him? Anyone tell me? No, he saw positive things in him too. He saw his potential to be a leader. Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam made du'a, O Allah, give victory to Islam, to the more beloved of the two Umars to you, Umar ibn Khattab or Amr ibn Hisham, who is Abu Jahl. Meaning the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam recognized that this man is a leader. If he changes his heart and if he takes that strength and he puts it to good use, he could be one of the greatest leaders of the Muslims. Now here's the plot twist. What the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam saw in him, if he would become Muslim, would become the reality of Ikramah almost two decades later. Because Ikramah had the qualities of his father. He was big. He was strong. He was wise. Abu Jahl's nickname was actually Abu al-Hakam, the father of wisdom. But he became the father of ignorance because of his blind rage towards the truth. He was eloquent. When you saw Ikramah, you saw his father. And subhanAllah, it's really interesting because Umar and Abu Jahl, right, are pretty much the same prototype before Islam filters them out. Umar had a son that was a copy of him, Abdullah ibn Umar. Abu Jahl had a son that was a copy of him, Ikramah. And out of these four, the only one that's going to die in ignorance is going to be the father of ignorance who was given chance after chance. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam was so patient with him. For over a decade, calling him to Islam, calling him to stop his transgressions against the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. So here is Ikramah growing up in this environment with his father, the Pharaoh. Now I'm going to put up this chart really quick.
And this is going to be one of those things that the students who want to actually go back and look at the family tree inshAllah ta'ala can do so and appreciate. Can we put it up? Okay. I wanted to just put together a little chart that shows you the connection between Ikramah and Khalid. So there are other kids that are involved here. But at least by looking at this, you can visualize the relationship between Ikramah and Khalid, Ikramah's wife, and Al-Harith ibn Hisham. So if you look at the top there, you'll see Al-Walid ibn Al-Mughirah and Hisham ibn Al-Mughirah. So the two elders that make up Banu Makhzum. Their children, on one side you see Khalid radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, and his sister Fatima bint Al-Walid. On the other side, from the children of Hisham ibn Al-Mughirah, there are other kids and we've spoken about them. You see Amir ibn Hisham, who is Abu Jahl, and Al-Harith ibn Hisham radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Al-Harith ibn Hisham is going to show up in the story of Ikramah at the very end. So he's Ikramah's uncle, Abu Jahl's brother. Al-Harith was one of the main enemies of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam as well. He fought the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam all the way until Fatih Mecca. And then he became a Muslim on the day of the opening of Mecca as well. So he fought the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam for 20 years. Along with Abu Jahl. So Ikramah is the son of Abu Jahl, obviously. And he's married to a woman named Umm Hakim bint Al-Harith, who is both, as you can see, the daughter of Al-Harith ibn Hisham and the daughter of Fatimah bint Al-Walid. So Al-Harith ibn Hisham marries Fatimah bint Al-Walid. You know what you get out of this? It's funny because like my brother once made this comment about the Arab families. A lot of them are not family trees, they're family spirals. So Banu Makhzum was marrying inside the tribe, right? Maintaining the lineage of Banu Makhzum inside the tribe.
So Khalid is Ikramah's cousin, or Khalid rather, yeah, he's Ikramah's cousin. And Ikramah is married to his cousin, Umm Hakim. So there's a lot of relationship between Ikramah and Khalid radiAllahu ta'ala anhum, as well as his wife, Umm Hakim. And there's a lot of enmity towards the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam within this family. And so this is a whole family that's bent on defeating Islam. On fighting the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and making sure they eliminate Islam in every single way. So let's go on inshAllah ta'ala now to where this all takes a turn. Ikramah himself inherits the hatred of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. He hates him because his father hates him, right? And for all of those years, the transgression is all coming from his father towards the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and the weak Muslims. And Ikramah is assisting in that. And even other non-Muslim leaders would tell Abu Jahl, calm down, you are way too much. You're hurting, you know, you're violating all of our standards. You're giving us a bad name. Your torture is going too far. This rage, however, in Ikramah's life towards the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is going to take a turn in the battle of Badr in particular. Battle of Badr, obviously, Quraysh surrounds the Muslims. They think that they're going to wipe them out. They outnumber them in every way. They're already celebrating. Abu Jahl is leading the army of Quraysh against the Muslims. And I'll give you the story, first and foremost, from Abd al-Rahman ibn Auf radiAllahu anhu's perspective. Abd al-Rahman ibn Auf said, I was standing on the side of the Muslims, obviously, on the day of Badr. And I looked to my right and to my left, and I had these two teenagers. And I looked at them and I was like, I wish I had like some serious men that were next to me. Like, why am I between these two teenagers?
So he said, tamannaytu an akuna bayna adla'a minhuma, he's like, I gotta admit, I was hoping that I'd be between like two serious warriors. Like why am I between these two kids? So he says, faghamazani ahaduhuma. So one of them tapped my shoulder. So I looked at him and I said, what is it? He said, ya'am. He said, uncle. Hal ta'rifu aba jahl? Which one of those is Abu Jahl? Can you imagine it? Like a teenager like taps someone and is like, which one of those is Abu Jahl? So I told him, ma hajatuka ilayhi ya'abna akhi? What do you want with Abu Jahl? Like, what are you going to do to Abu Jahl? Realize Abu Jahl is the size of Umar. He's a mountain of a man. What are you going to do to Abu Jahl? He said, ukhbirtu annahu yasubbu rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He's a madani kid. He's never met Abu Jahl in Mecca. He said, I heard that he used to abuse the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He said, I'm going to find him. And he said, when I meet him, one of us is going to survive that meeting, but not both of us. The other kid taps his shoulder and says, which one is he? Abdurrahman ibn A'uf points him out. So these two kids are known as the two mu'ads, Mu'ad ibn Amr ibn al-Jamuh and Mu'ad ibn Afrah. Two young mu'ads, may Allah be pleased with them both. Two young teenagers that were there in the battlefield to defend the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam on that momentous occasion. And Abdurrahman ibn A'uf says that in the Battle of Badr, they both struck Abu Jahl from both sides. They came at him from both sides, but he was so big that he fell to the ground. And even though they both struck him clean hits, he was still alive. And Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiyallahu ta'ala anhum, who was physically, right, the shortest of the companions. He climbs up onto Abu Jahl and looks him in the eye, realized that Abu Jahl one day almost killed ibn Mas'ud for just reading Quran around the Kaaba.
He stepped on his collarbone and broke it, beat him unconscious. And now ibn Mas'ud radiyallahu anhum stands up on him and looks down at Abu Jahl. And Abu Jahl looks at him and says, لقد ارتقيت مرتقا صعبا يا رويع الغنم. You have climbed a difficult climb, O shepherd of sheep. Little shepherd, what are you doing? Who do you think you are to climb on top of me? And he asks ibn Mas'ud, ذي من الغلبة؟ By the way, who's winning the battle? You know, I'm not able to fight anymore, but I want to know who's winning the battle. And he said, الغلبة لله ولرسول الله يا عدو الله. Victory is to Allah and to the Messenger ﷺ, O enemy of Allah. And ibn Mas'ud radiyallahu anhum finishes him, right. And the Prophet ﷺ comes to the pharaoh of this ummah who died like the pharaoh of Moses, right, in a humiliated way. And one of the sahaba even saw him being dragged into the earth as if it was something angelic. Like Moses, like Musa ﷺ drowned the pharaoh of his day. And the Prophet ﷺ called out to him. And he said, هل وجدتما وعد ربكم حقا فإني قد وجدتما وعدني ربي حقا. Have you found the promise of your Lord to be true for I have found the promise of my Lord to be true. He said, يا رسول الله هل يسمعون. They said, O Messenger of Allah, did they hear you? And the Prophet ﷺ says, ما أنتم بأسمع لما أقول منهم ولكنهم اليوم لا يجيبون. Prophet ﷺ said, They can hear just as well as you can hear. But today they're unable to say anything. All those days of taunting and cursing and beating and torturing. And now the pharaoh dies a miserable fate. Pharaoh of this ummah dies a miserable fate. Now Ikramah, he inherited hatred. When he sees his father on the battlefield, he shouts and he starts shouting rage at the Prophet ﷺ.
Now he wants to kill the Prophet ﷺ for personal reasons. Before it was the hatred of Islam that he had because his father was the pharaoh. Now the Prophet ﷺ is قاتل أبي. He's the one who killed my father. And his rage takes a different turn. Ikramah talks about it like this is something that consumes him at this point. He sees the Prophet ﷺ in a different light. And so comes the battle of Uhud. Now comes the battle of Uhud. Here's how it looks. Abu Sufyan is commanding the middle. Khalid, رضي الله عنه, is on the left. He has 700 troops. Ikramah, رضي الله عنه, is on the right. He has 700 troops. And so this is the command of Quraysh this day. And Khalid, رضي الله عنه, of course orchestrated the victory on Uhud for the other side and killed all the archers of the Muslims as well. Ikramah, رضي الله عنه, was one of those who fought fiercely in the battle of Uhud against the Prophet ﷺ. His wife, Umm Hakim, was beating the war drums. So she was one of those that was singing lyrics of death against the Muslims, beating the war drums. So this is a family that hates the Prophet ﷺ severely. So Uhud finishes. Khandaq was meant to be a genocide of the Muslims, right? They tried to surround Medina from every direction and wipe them out once and for all. Ikramah, رضي الله عنه, was not satisfied after Uhud because the Prophet ﷺ was still alive and he said, I will not live if the Prophet ﷺ is living. Muhammad needs to die because he killed my father. That's his mindset. Now he, while this is happening, is the chief of Banu Makhzum. So he actually assumes Abu Jaha's position in society. So in Meccan society, he's really at the top of the ladder now, right? He's really at the top of the ladder alongside Abu Sufyan and Amr ibn As and sort of the
next generation of leaders now. And then Khalid, رضي الله عنه, comes to Ikramah, رضي الله عنه, in Mecca and tells him that he's thinking about converting to Islam. Ikramah, رضي الله عنه, blows up at him. Now remember the family chart? He's Khalid's best friend. He's Khalid's cousin and he's married to Khalid's niece. So Ikramah and Khalid are like this. So when Khalid tells him, I'm thinking about embracing Islam, Ikramah says, you want me to embrace the religion of the man who killed my father? He can only see the Prophet ﷺ in that light. You want me to embrace the religion of the man who killed my father? And Ikramah was the one who called the leaders of Quraysh against Khalid initially, but then stopped the scuffle because it was about to become a bloodbath in Mecca. But he's the one who initially alerted the leaders of Quraysh against Khalid when Khalid went out to become Muslim. Then comes the day of Fatih Mecca, and when the Prophet ﷺ returns to Mecca, we know that the Prophet ﷺ did not want bloodshed on that day, right? The Prophet ﷺ did not want bloodshed on that day. This was going to be a legacy of forgiveness. Forgiveness for the same people who killed the family of the Prophet ﷺ, who killed many of the Muslims, who drove him out of his land. The Prophet ﷺ comes in to Mecca with the same spirit of Yusuf ﷺ, of the Prophet Joseph. And he even repeats his message, there is no blame upon you today. The Prophet ﷺ forgives all of those who killed his family members, all of those who attempted to kill him, and gives a general amnesty to Mecca. But as they're coming in, if you remember from the lecture of Khalid bin Warid ﷺ, Ikramah and Safwan ibn Umayyah are still fighting. So they attack the flank of Khalid. And Khalid is able to ward off their attack,
now on the side of the Muslims. And he kills 12 men, warding off the attack. And Ikramah and Safwan ibn Umayyah flee the scene. So I want you to think about how bad Ikramah is. The Prophet ﷺ has forgiven Mecca, right? The Prophet ﷺ named Ikramah, he said that even if you find him clinging to the Ka'bah, under the cloth of the Ka'bah, take him out. That's how bad he is. This man is plotting against the Prophet ﷺ to the very last moment. So he's forgiving Mecca, he's even forgiving Abu Sufyan. But Ikramah is still attacking, still abrasive towards the Prophet ﷺ. He's blinded by his rage. But after Khalid, now on the side of the Muslims, warded off the attack, Ikramah and Safwan fled to Yemen. And this is where the story of Ikramah in Islam truly begins. The Prophet ﷺ enters Mecca, and he forgives everyone. He offers a general amnesty to Mecca. And this shocks the enemies of the Prophet ﷺ. Because by every single standard, he had the right to take revenge on those who harmed him. Any law of war, he had the right ﷺ to kill the people who killed multiple people, who crucified Muslims, who carried out all sorts of massacres. But the Prophet ﷺ was bringing hearts together. He announces the general amnesty. And this softens the hearts of many of the former enemies of the Prophet ﷺ. Like, wow, he really is different. He really is different. Like, we did all this to him. If we were in his shoes, we know what we would do to ourselves. And so some of the most vile enemies of the Prophet ﷺ enter in upon him to personally seek his forgiveness. And the Prophet ﷺ forgives them. Amongst them, Umm Hakim, who was beating the war drums
and chanting lyrics of death, inciting Quraish to attack the Muslims. And Ikramah has now fled to Yemen. And they don't have a cell phone, right? So you can't call up Ikramah. She knows her husband fled to Yemen, but she's not in touch with him anymore. But she enters upon the Prophet ﷺ, and she introduces herself. And she says, Ya Rasulullah, I'm coming to you as a believer, as a Muslimah, and someone who wholeheartedly affirms your message at this point. And she doesn't just ask forgiveness for what she did. She says, O Messenger of Allah, I've heard that you basically have commanded that my husband Ikramah, my husband is Ikramah ibn Abi Jahl, and I've heard that you commanded that he be taken out, even if he's holding on to the cloth of the Ka'bah. O Messenger of Allah, I'm asking you to forgive him and to grant him safety. And I'll bring him back to you. And I'll make sure that he doesn't harm you. What do you think the Prophet ﷺ says? Without any hesitation, the Prophet ﷺ says he's safe. He has amnesty. So the Prophet ﷺ immediately grants him amnesty and forgives him. So now, Umm Hakim, she has to go find him wherever he's fled, and tell him that the Prophet ﷺ has forgiven you. You're okay now, come back to Mecca. And let's start over. So Umm Hakim has to go on this journey. Ikramah tells the story from his side, what's happening along the way of the journey. Umm Hakim tells the story from her side. Ikramah gets to Yemen, and he realizes we're still too close to, it wasn't called Saudi Arabia back then, of course, but we're still too close to Mecca. I need to get out of here. So the irony of it all is he's going to board a boat to where? Abyssinia. Habesha. Where they persecuted the Muslims and caused them to flee two decades ago.
Amr tried to run away there. And now Ikramah wants to flee to Abyssinia and beg the Najashi for refuge. The successor to the Najashi, of course. The successor to Ashamah for refuge. So Ikramah says, I get on a boat in Yemen to cross the sea to Abyssinia, to modern-day Ethiopia. And he says that while I was on the boat, on this boat with all these people, they're strangers, this huge storm comes and the boat starts to turn right and left and we all thought we were going to die. And he said, then the people that were with me in the boat, the captain calls out and he says, يَا قَوْمْ أَخْلِصُوا لِرَبِّكُمْ وَالدُّعَاءَ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يُنجِي هَا هُنَا إِلَّا هُوَ Says, oh my people, sincerely pray to your Lord because no one will save anyone here except for Him. And he's like, God, I'm surrounded by Muslims here too, right? They're everywhere. These believers are everywhere. And so he said, I'm looking around and these people start praying to Allah. They start supplicating to Allah. And what does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, subhanahu wa ta'ala actually uses this in the tafsir of the ayat. That if they are riding in the boat and the ship starts to shake, دَعْوَ اللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ You know, a certain thing overcomes you where you connect to your one God, right? Everyone calls out to Allah when the turbulence strikes, right? You see the most sincere du'a on the plane, when the plane starts shaking. Everyone makes du'a to Allah at that moment. Everyone calls on a God. So Ikramah says, everyone around me is praying to Allah. And he said, and I realized at that moment, if Allah is the only one who saves us on the sea, then surely he's the only one who saves us on the land. So he actually traces faith entering his heart to that moment. He says, that's where there was a turn for me. Like Allah was sending me a message.
Like if only Allah protects us when we're on the water, then it's only Allah who protects us when we're on the land. In any case, the boat shook so violently that Ikramah said it came back to Yemen. So he never actually made it to Abyssinia, to Habesha. And his heart has changed a bit, right? That experience, a near-death experience changes you, right? His heart has changed a bit towards Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, towards God. Umm Hakim, on the other hand, is coming to Yemen as a Muslim. The story has plenty of twists and turns, by the way. Umm Hakim had a Greek slave from the days of Jahiliyyah, from the days of ignorance. And she said that as we were making our way to Yemen, along the way of the journey, basically the Greek slave tried to seduce her and tried to harass her, right? And so he actually made an attempt on her. And so now this whole journey has changed for her too. She's going out to save her husband. But now the man that she brought to accompany her, to lead the way of the journey, right, harassed her, tried to seduce her. So now this journey means something different. So now she's thinking survival. And she said that while I was fleeing away from him, I found my husband Ikramah in Yemen. I asked about him. I found my husband Ikramah in Yemen. The first thing I told him was that I came with this man, you know, who was, you know, to find you. And he actually made an attempt on me. So Ikramah, this is before they have any conversation, Ikramah went and found the man and killed him. Right away, right? Like that part of the journey is done, right? They haven't even talked about Islamia. They haven't talked about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. The whole conversation is about protecting his wife at this moment and her getting away from a man that tried to hurt her, right? Tried to harm her. And then after that's done,
now the conversation is to happen. So Ikramah is happy to see his wife, Umm Hakeem. He tries to approach her as a husband approaches a wife. And she says, no, no, you can't touch me. He says, why not? She says, I'm a Muslim and you're a mushrik. He says, what? What are you talking about? She said, no, I'm a Muslim now. And you need to save yourself from destruction. Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is a man of forgiveness and generosity and he's showing you mercy. He's telling you you're forgiven. So go back to him. And she basically says to him, look, don't just save yourself from destruction in this life. Because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, did he condition people becoming Muslim to give them amnesty in Mecca, the general amnesty? No, you didn't have to become Muslim. But it was the amnesty and a lot of people became Muslim through that amnesty, right? So she's saying, don't just save yourself from destruction here but save yourself from destruction in the akhira as well. This man is a prophet of Allah. It's enough of fighting him. Enough of this transgression. Come back with me to Mecca as a believer. So Ikramah basically resolves that between what happened on the ship and he's blown away by the forgiveness of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the fact that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is even willing to give him a chance. And now his wife Umm Hakim is a Muslim too. And he's like, I can't live without you. I don't know what's happening here. So he says, finally I told her, let's go back to Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So now the journey continues. Ikramah is coming back towards Mecca with his wife Umm Hakim. What a journey for the both of them. And Ikramah wants to come embrace Islam with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam after harassing him, tormenting him, fighting him for two decades. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, as he's sitting in Mecca, he says to the people that are sitting around him,
he says, Ikramah Ibn Abi Jahl is coming to you as a muhajir and as a Muslim. He's coming to you as a migrant and he's coming to you as a Muslim. So clearly it was divinely communicated to him that Ikramah had a change of heart. So he's telling the companions, look, Ikramah is coming back. And he's coming to you as a migrant and he's coming to you as a Muslim. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, do not insult his father. SubhanAllah, don't hurt his feelings. Don't talk bad about his father. Do not insult his father. The Pharaoh of the Ummah, don't insult him because he says Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that insulting the dead neither reaches the dead or benefits the living. You're not going to get anything out of insulting Abu Jahl in his presence. He's freedom and we're not going to hurt him. We're not going to taunt him. Now SubhanAllah, Al-Awza'i actually says, because Umar radiAllahu Anhu was his cousin, right? Umar is from this family. And Al-Awza'i narrates that Umar radiAllahu Anhu that every time Umar would see Ikramah, he'd talk about how bad Abu Jahl was. He hated Abu Jahl. I mean, everything Abu Jahl did to them. And then Ikramah came to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and complained. This is later on. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Let not one of you curse the dead in a way that you cause grief to the living. It's not worth it. So here the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is telling the people in Mecca, Look, this man's coming back to you. Don't talk bad about his father because you're going to hurt him. There's so much to unpack here. Is Abu Jahl evil? Yes. He's literally the Pharaoh of the Ummah. There are ayat of Quran about him.
But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam understands that Ikramah loves his father. What would be the point of hurting him? What would be the point of reminding him of who his father was and what his father did? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was trying to win hearts here. He's trying to build a community of hearts. And it's important here, which shows us, right, that, you know, sometimes we think of these things in a black and white way, and it's not all black and white. There is complexity here to human emotion that's to be taken into consideration. Especially when you're trying to bring people together, right? So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam knows Ikramah is coming to him as a Muslim. He sees Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Ikramah, and Umm Hakim coming to him. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, from far away, because Ikramah is approaching with a lot of hesitation. Now, if he's on the other side, he'd trick the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, right? He'd kill him right at the spot. So he's approaching with some hesitation. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Marhaban bil raqib al muhajir. Welcome to the migrant who rides towards me. Marhaban bil raqib al muhajir. So he greets him with a lot of love. And some of the scholars say calling him a muhajir is also in a way of saying to him, about time. Because like everybody else around you has migrated to Medina now. And done what they were supposed to do before the Fath, before the opening of Mecca. But here you are coming as a muhajir to your land in Mecca. You're coming back to Mecca as a migrant, seeking safety. Marhaban bil raqib al muhajir. So Ikramah radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu comes to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And he puts his head down. And he stretches out his hand to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And he said, O Messenger of Allah, what is it that I should say? What do I say? Like where do I even start?
So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has him repeat the shahada. And ikramah is highly emotional. So he says to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Ya Rasulullah, ask Allah to forgive me for all those times I fought against you. For all those times I cursed you. For all those times I obstructed the way to you. Ya Rasulullah, istaghfir li. Seek Allah's forgiveness for me. Now by the way, again, like the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam doesn't have to do all this stuff. He could say, look, I already let you go. At least, you know, slap on the wrist. Like you've been at this until the very last moment. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam raises his hands. And he said, Allahumma aghfir lahu wa kulla masiran saara fihi ila mawdi'in yuridu bihi itfa'a nurika wa aghfir lahu maa naala min ardi fi wajhi aw ana gha'ibun anhu O Allah, O my Lord, forgive him for all the hostility he directed against me. For all the battles he fought against me, seeking to put out your light. Forgive him for everything bad he ever said about me in front of me. And everything bad he ever said about me when I wasn't even there. Anything he said about me in my presence. Anything he said about me in my absence. Iqrama radiyaAllahu anhu, his face beams, right, with joy. Like, you know, he got that dua from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, that supplication. And he said, Wallahi ya Rasulullah, I swear by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, laa ad'u nafaqatan anfaqtuha alayka illa anfaqtu mithlaha fi sabirillah I swear by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I will not rest until I spend in the way of Allah everything that I spent against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's way.
And fighting for the cause of Allah just as I fought against the cause of Allah. Like, I'm going to make this up, ya Rasulullah. I'm going to redeem myself, O Messenger of Allah. And he's essentially swearing to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that I want to do everything that I did against you, more for you. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam won his heart. And Islam won his heart. At this point, not only did he become Muslim, as Imam al-Zahabi rahimahullah narrates, his Islam became excellent. And Imam al-Shafi'i rahimahullah said, Iqrama would go on to distinguish himself as a man who endures the greatest trials for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. As Imam al-Shafi'i rahimahullah. And his oath, and this is really beautiful. Ibn Abi Muleyka, he narrates that the oath that Iqrama would take, he wouldn't just say wallahi. He would say, لا والذي نجاني يوم بدر By the one who saved me on the day of Badr. There's something deeply profound about this. The day of Badr was the time that he turned against the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, truly, like his heart was filled with hatred against the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam because his father died on the day of Badr, on that day of the battle of Badr. And he realizes that if I would have died on the day of Badr, if Allah would have decreed that I would be dead on the day of Badr, then I'd be just like my father in the punishment. I'd be just another mini-Firaun, lost in the dustbin of history. But Allah saved me on that day, and Allah brought me to this position. And what an amazing favor from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he would say, لا والذي نجاني يوم بدر I swear by the one who saved me on the day of Badr. You want more about how excellent his Islam became? Al-Hafidh ibn Kathir rahimahullah said, it was said that Ikram never committed a sin from the day he became Muslim. وكان مجاهدا صواما قواما
He was, you know, brave in battle. He would fast long into the days. He would stand long into the nights. And you would see him in the masjid, holding the Quran to his face at times. And he was crying and he was saying, كتاب ربي كلام ربي The book of my Lord, the words of my Lord. Like he completely transformed. And subhanAllah, you have to think about how the rage that he had against the Prophet ﷺ for his father, who was the Pharaoh of the Ummah, was blinding him from the beauty of faith. And when he allowed Islam to enter into his heart, look how much he changed. Which shows you that what the Prophet ﷺ wanted for his father, now was his reality. And it was like Umar ﷺ, whose heart completely changed after becoming or, you know, after being one of the greatest enemies of the Prophet ﷺ. He went around Mecca after the Prophet ﷺ and he disposed of the idols alongside the Prophet ﷺ. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq ﷺ commissioned him on Umam. And when there was the battle of the Murtadin, he was one of those who went out as a commander under Abu Bakr as-Siddiq ﷺ. One of the things that Ikramah regretted so much is that unlike Khalid and Amr, his two friends, he never got to actually be alongside the Prophet ﷺ. Right? He never got that moment. Khalid had his moment in Mu'tah, Amr had his moment in Dhatus-Talasib and beyond, but he never got that, right? The Prophet ﷺ passed away, and he never got to be alongside the Prophet ﷺ in those difficult moments. But now he is commissioned under Abu Bakr as-Siddiq ﷺ. And as Al-Shafi'i ﷺ says,
Ikramah was one of the bravest warriors, strong, brave, and he was someone who would bring about a sense of energy and zeal to his companions in the battlefield. And then it comes down to the day of Yarmouk, the battle of Yarmouk. The battle of Yarmouk, which of course we've talked about in great detail over the last few weeks under Khalid ﷺ, Amr ibn al-'As ﷺ, is where the companions meet in this consequential battle against the Roman Empire. And this was really the game changer, as we've said, between the Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire, and this small group of Muslims. And I want you to imagine this day of Yarmouk now, and bringing it all back together from the day of Uhud. That day of Yarmouk, you have Khalid ibn Waleed ﷺ commanding the army. You have Amr ibn al-'As ﷺ leading. You have Ikramah ﷺ leading one flank. You have al-Harith ibn Hisham, the brother of Abu Jahl, and the father-in-law of Ikramah, plunging into the battlefield and leading with great bravery. So all of these people that once fought the Prophet ﷺ, and those who orchestrated Uhud against the Prophet ﷺ, are now in Yarmouk, and they're all on one side, and they're all righteous and pious men at this point, who have completely changed their hearts. And you have this man, Ikramah ﷺ, the son of Abu Jahl. And Khalid ﷺ who is leading the army, he sees Ikramah ﷺ going deep, and he's breaking swords, and he's taking hit after hit after hit after hit. And Khalid ﷺ has this really emotional conversation with him. He tells him, Ya Ikramah, don't plunge too deeply because your loss would
be a severe hit for the Muslims. We need you. You're going too hard. Like I need you to be a bit more strategic about this. You're going so deep, and we're outnumbered by the Romans here. Like we got to be strategic about this. And the last conversation Khalid has with Ikramah, the two men that were commanding the two flanks on the day of Uhud. Ikramah says to Khalid, Ilayka anni ya Khalid, leave me oh Khalid, falaqad kana laka ma'a rasool illahi ﷺ asabiqa. You have a past where you got to be alongside the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. You got to be there with the Prophet ﷺ. Wa kuntu ana wa abi min ashad din nasi ala rasool illahi ﷺ. And me and my father were of the severest enemies of the Prophet ﷺ. Meaning you had your moment with the Prophet ﷺ. I didn't have my moment. I was his enemy in every single battle we fought. And I never had my moment. You had your moment oh Khalid. And he says, Fada'ni ukaffiru amma salafa minni. So let me expiate for all the evil that I did. Let me expiate for all the evil that I did. At this point Ikramah had donated. He was a rich man. He inherited the wealth of Abu Jahl. Donated that all for the sake of Allah ﷻ. And now here he is in battle and telling Khalid, Khalid you don't know what it's like to be me. You don't know the guilt that I carry. Having fought the Prophet ﷺ in every single battle. And he said the last thing he said to Khalid. He said laqad qataltu rasool Allah ﷺ fi mawatina kathira. Fafirru ana min alroom ilyom. He said I fought the Prophet ﷺ in so many battles. You want me to flee from the Romans today? You want me to flee from the Romans today? I said no way. And he called out. And he said who's going to go with me? And al-Harith ibn Hisham said ana maak. I'm with you. And Daraa ibn al-Azwar said I'm with you. And they went
forth and they had a major part to do with the victory on that day of Yarmouk. And it was narrated that Ikramah r.a. suffered over 75 wounds on the day of Yarmouk. His body was wounded in every direction on the day of Yarmouk. And then you have the beautiful ending of this man that comes up in many of the Ramadan fundraisers, comes up in many of the Ramadan khutbas. Because if you read in the books of Tazkiyah, the books of spirituality, there is a chapter called al-ithar, selflessness. And under pretty much every explanation of the hadith la yu'minu ahadukum hatta yuhiba li akhihi ma yuhiba li nafsihi. No one of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. This story will show up almost in every single explanation of this hadith. And it's basically after the battle of Yarmouk, imagine this scene. Ikramah r.a. is laying and he's wounded over 70 times. Next to him, or amongst the wounded that day, al-Harith ibn Hisham, the brother of Abu Jahl, his uncle. And then just a few feet away from al-Harith ibn Hisham, Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'a, who was the brother of Abu Jahl through his mother, right? He shared the same mother with Abu Jahl and Abu Jahl tortured him and brought him back to Mecca, forced him out of Islam and Allah revealed, qul ya'ibadi allatheena asrafu ala anfusihim la taqnatu min rahmatillah. Say oh my servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair from the mercy of Allah. All three of them are now laying amongst the wounded. And the water carrier, he said I looked out to the wounded and the first person I went to was Ikramah. I mean this is one of the Sayyids of Quraysh, one of the leaders, Khalid's best friend. He said I went out to Ikramah and I tried to give him water and Ikramah said go to my brother
al-Harith ibn Hisham, my uncle al-Harith ibn Hisham and check on him first. So he said I carried the water and I went to al-Harith ibn Hisham and al-Harith ibn Hisham said go to Ayyash and check on him first. So he said I carried the water to Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'ah and then Ayyash said go to my brother so and so and so I went to him next. And he said so I went around ten men from the wounded and each of them refused the water and said go to my brother, go to my brother, go to my brother, go to my brother. He said and so I went back to Ikramah and I found that he had died. Then I went to al-Harith and he was dead. Then I went to Ayyash and he was dead and then I went to the rest of the seven men and all of them had died as shuhadah that day. So subhanAllah the ending of Ikramah is the opposite of his father and it shows you the power of redemption of a man and that this man dies as a shaheed and while his father was too blinded by his greed and opposed the Prophet ﷺ, Ikramah becomes the story of ether, the story of selflessness that shows up in the books of Ahadith. But it doesn't stop with him. His wife Umm Hakim radiAllahu ta'ala anha after Ikramah dies, after he's martyred, she marries Khalid ibn Saeed radiAllahu anhu. If you go back in the first playlist and you go all the way down, the first Khalid we covered was actually not Khalid and Waleed. It was this Khalid who was one of the first Muslims. So Khalid ibn Saeed marries her on the night of the battle of Marj al-Safar which is known as the battle at the gates of Damascus. InshAllah brother Ghassan is here from Syrian
form so we hear about Syria and the famous stories of Syria. May Allah ﷻ make it easy for our brothers and sisters in Sham, in Syria and in Palestine and all over. Allahumma ameen. There's a famous bridge in Syria known as Qantarat Umm Hakim, the bridge of Umm Hakim and there's a story from Umm Hakim, the widow of Ikramah ibn Abi Jahl who was also again an evil woman at one time beating the drums of persecution against the Prophet ﷺ and now she's married to Khalid ibn Saeed and she married Khalid ibn Saeed the night before Marj al-Safar and he was martyred in that battle. So she was married to him for one night and she picked up a tent pole and she was able to take out seven Roman soldiers by herself and she survived the battle. So they named the bridge Qantarat Umm Hakim, the bridge of Umm Hakim. And then after Khalid ibn Saeed passes away, the person who marries her is Umar ibn al-Khattab. Umar ibn al-Khattab marries Umm Hakim bint al-Harith and they have a daughter by the name of Fatima bint Umar. So Fatima, the daughter of Umar. Fatima also was the name of the mother of Umm Hakim, Fatima bint al-Waleed al-Mughira. They had this one daughter Fatima and she passes away as well, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, Umm Hakim as a widow of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. They had one son between Ikramah and Umm Hakim whose name was also Umar, Umar ibn Ikramah. He became Muslim on the same day as his father and he died as a shaheed on the day of Yarmouk as well. He's counted amongst the shaheed of Yarmouk and so therefore Ikramah had no lineage that outlived him. But subhanAllah in this story again is an incredible story of redemption. It shows you
the way that a person's heart can change. It shows you that a way, the way that a man who is the son of the most evil that this ummah has seen could become one of its most righteous, could become one of its most distinguished worshippers. It shows you not to lose hope in people. It shows you not to lose hope in yourself. You know when you read a hadith about those that killed 99 people and those that killed, you know people who were forgiven for grievous crimes, you ask yourself, did I commit these evil sins? Did I do these evil deeds? So it shows you the power of your own repentance and it shows you how Allah subhanAllah ta'ala can write the story of a person so differently and what Allah subhanAllah ta'ala saw in the heart of Ikramah radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu that made him so worthy of having this ending of a shaheed in the battle of Yarmouk instead of a death on the battle of Badr fighting the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam alongside his father who was the fir'aun of this ummah. We ask Allah to be pleased with Ikramah, to be pleased with Umm Hakeem, to be pleased with the righteous that have passed before us and to make us amongst the righteous as well. We ask Allah to accept our repentance, to forgive us for our shortcomings, to show us mercy and to put mercy in our hearts and to accept our deeds despite their shortcomings. InshAllah Allahuma Ameen. Jazakum Allah Khaira.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
