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
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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
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Miqdad Ibn Aswad (ra) : Better Than A Thousand Men | The Firsts
Miqdad (ra) was one of the earliest Muslims and had a larger than life personality. He was known for his leadership and laughter, and left behind an example like no other.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wasalatu wasalamu ala rasulihi al kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een. Alhamdulillah, it's nice to see the masjid is fuller tonight. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala gather us always upon good, allow us to be amongst those upon whom the angels descend with Allah's mercy and upon whom the tranquility of this world descends and acceptance ascends to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala writes us down amongst those people of Jannah. Allahuma Ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, throughout this series of the firsts, there are certain names that are well known to the Muslims and we sought to go deeper into those names and into the true contributions of those noble people and the status that they have with Allah and the Messenger, salallahu alaihi wasalam. One of them was undoubtedly Hamza, radiallahu ta'ala anhu. Everyone knows the name of Hamza, it is common amongst the Muslims and his story, at least there are certain flashpoints from his story that are known. But then you come to some other names from As-Sabiqoon and Awwaloon and these are the ones that excite me the most that there really isn't much known about them. Their names might be known and there might be something that's associated with them but there really isn't a particular story that you can recall or anything prominent about that person that you can recall despite their status. So this person that we are covering today is undoubtedly one of those names and someone subhanallah who I hope by the end of this inshallah you're going to have a deep love and affection for because this was a person who you don't just have a few snapshots in the seerah about. This is a person who is deeply involved in the life of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and throughout the era of Khulafa al-Rashideen.
Has major contributions and it's not hard to find them although he is not regularly remembered amongst the Muslims. And so there are a few ahadith I'll start off with. Some of them in fact we've already mentioned. The narration of Ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu where he said that the first people to declare their Islam publicly were seven people. The first seven people that were out there saying that they were Muslim that declared their Islam openly were seven people. Can you all give me some names? Who do you think is the first? How about Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam? That's one. Second, not in this particular hadith. Not in this particular narration. Someone mentioned him. He's Abu Bakr radiallahu ta'ala anhu. And then I heard it here. Ammar and his mother Sumayya. And then who else do you guys think about? Ali is not mentioned in this particular narration. Suhaib, Bilal and Miqdat. Okay. Ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu, he says that there are seven people that first declared their Islam publicly. Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam, Abu Bakr, Ammar and his mother Sumayya, Suhaib, Bilal and Miqdat. And some of the understandings of this of course as we've talked about that sometimes these narrations mention a name here but they don't mention a name here is that these are people who were publicly persecuted for their Islam. Their Islam was very well known to the people and they faced consequences because their Islam was well known to the people. Out of all of those names, the name that you probably cannot recall a single incident about is Miqdat. You know about Suhaib, you know about Ammar, you know about Bilal.
These are names that come to mind pretty easily. Another narration from Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas radiallahu ta'ala anhu. He said that the ayah that was revealed, وَلَا تَطْرُدِ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ بِالْغَدَاتِ وَالْعَشِيءِ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَةٌ Do not do away with those, do not turn away from those who invoke their Lord morning and evening, seeking the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He said that this verse was revealed, obviously the context of it is that some of the elites of Quraish told the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam to get rid of certain people around him and then maybe we'll consider being around you. But it's the presence of these slaves and these low people that make it unbearable for us to consider even being in your presence. Sa'd radiallahu ta'ala anhu says that this verse was revealed about six of us. Me, Ibn Mas'ud, Suhaib, Ammar, Bilal and Miqdad. So Miqdad once again in the ranks of Suhaib, Ammar, Bilal. This is actually a common occurrence but amongst those who were considered musta'afeen, who were considered amongst the weak and the downtrodden of society that accepted Islam very early on even though they had the most to lose by becoming Muslim. Now we're going to be talking about Al-Miqdad Ibn Al-Aswad radiallahu ta'ala anhu and let's first start off by saying that his father is actually not Al-Aswad which is why if you go to Google and you search Al-Miqdad you'll see Ibn Amr and you'll see Ibn Aswad and I'll talk about why. Miqdad is from Yemen. Okay, the Yemenis in the crowd are supposed to go, you know, woo, like it's us. Yemen, a beloved people to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam who the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned the fitrah of Ahl Yemen. We just lost our beloved brother Tariq al-Qadri rahimahullah ta'ala
who was everything that you'd want to see in the characteristics of a person of Yemen, the good character of the people of Yemen, the fitrah, the good nature of the people of Yemen. So you had people that came from Yemen without even being called, right? There are famous stories about people in Yemen that embraced Islam very early on. Miqdad was from Yemen. He's from Hadhramaut in Yemen and he ended up in Mecca under some very peculiar circumstances. He was amongst his tribesmen and he was a big man and I'm going to talk about his physical features in a bit. And while he was in Yemen, he got into a fight with one of his tribesmen and in the midst of fighting with one of his tribesmen, he accidentally killed the man. And after accidentally killing that man from his own tribe in Yemen, he got so scared of being caught that he ran away to Mecca. So he actually came to Mecca, al-Miqdad ibn Amr ibn Tha'laba, he came to Mecca seeking protection from anyone in Mecca that would give it to him. So he comes to Mecca, this is before Islam of course, and he goes to the different tribes and he says, who will give their brother from Yemen protection? So he goes to Banu Zuhra, which was the tribe of Sa'd radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, and a man by the name of al-Aswad gives him protection. His actual name was al-Aswad ibn Abdi Yaghuth al-Kindi. Al-Aswad ibn Abdi Yaghuth al-Kindi, like Yaghuth, one of the idols mentioned from the people of Nuh alayhi salam. Al-Aswad ibn Abdi Yaghuth al-Kindi, he gives Miqdad protection and Miqdad ends up being one of those who's protected by Banu Zuhra, particularly al-Aswad. And al-Aswad gets so close to Miqdad that eventually he adopts him as his son. So he says, from now on you're no longer just a halif, you're no longer just someone who's protected by my tribe, you are my son. So they took him to the central place, of course, around the Kaaba,
and he announced that this man, al-Miqdad, is now no longer al-Miqdad ibn Amr, he is my son, al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad. So that's why you'll find the confusion in his name, because he had his actual father in Yemen, and then the man who adopted him in Mecca after he fled Yemen after that conflict that he had with his fellow tribesmen. Now, what was his physical appearance like? Sometimes with the Sahaba you don't find much information about their physical appearance. It's actually really interesting, because sometimes they'll have a long bio, but very few details about their physical appearance. Sometimes they'll have a very short bio, and then a lot of details about their physical appearance. Which just shows you that the biographers focused on different things, but al-Miqdad had a very prominent physical appearance. So the way he's described everything about Miqdad stood out physically. Everything about him stood out. He was extremely tall. He was extremely muscular. He had a big belly, alim al-batin. He had a whole lot of hair. He was extremely dark, like a shiny black color. His skin was extremely dark. His beard, he used to dye it blonde. His eyes were extremely big and round, and his nose was very prominent. So you looked at him and you just saw an extremely unique person, an imposing physical appearance that made him stand out wherever he was. So that's the physical description of al-Miqdad, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And of course the circumstances by which he became al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad in Mecca. Now, how does he become Muslim? We don't have the exact details about when he took shahada and how he took shahada. All we know is that he is one of those people that heard about the Prophet ﷺ and immediately went to him before Dar al-Arqam was even established.
So as soon as he heard about the Prophet ﷺ, either through the rumors in Mecca or through his fellow brothers, Bilal and Suhaib and Ammar, those that belonged to that class, because we know that people in Mecca socialized amongst classes. So al-Miqdad, even though he was technically the son of al-Aswad, he also belonged to a lower class. He never would really be considered amongst the elite in Mecca. So those are the people that he socialized with. He found out about the Prophet ﷺ, he went to the Prophet ﷺ, and he immediately embraced Islam. And he kept his Islam secret for a bit, because he was really vulnerable for multiple reasons. One of them is that he has no tribe to protect him. The other one is that his father who adopted him might undo the contract and disown him basically and leave him even more vulnerable than he already is. Lo and behold, when his father who adopted him, al-Aswad, finds out that he has become Muslim, he tortures him publicly and drags him and curses him and spits on him in front of the public. So the humiliation now of the person that took me in and protected me, and he's spitting on me publicly, he is disowning me, he's calling me a bad omen, a curse in society, someone who brought nothing but horror to my household, to my family. And that's why Ibn Mas'ud, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, continues in that narration, he says, the seven people who first publicly expressed their Islam, Rasulullah ﷺ, Abu Bakr, Ammar, his mother Sumayya, Suhaib, Bilal, and Miqdad, he said Allah protected the Prophet ﷺ through Abu Talib, and Allah protected Abu Bakr, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, through his tribe. Abu Bakr was not beaten publicly, right? They would beat him privately. We've already established this because he was considered amongst the nobles.
He says, as for the other five, Quraysh would force them to wear these large coats of iron and they would drag them under the hot sun and they would beat them routinely. So he was amongst this group of five and that's where the context of this narration of Ibn Mas'ud, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, comes from, and I want you to remember this in a later conversation Miqdad has with the tabi'een. Like you think that was easy for the five of us to be dragged and we were known as the five that would be tortured by the likes of Abu Jahl and the powerful ones from the tribes. Each person comes and takes a turn. And what Ibn Mas'ud, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, points out is that you didn't even need to be like a master to them or from a certain tribe to beat them. If you were having a bad day and you were angry and raging and you saw these five people in public, you would just go and take your frustration and beat on them like punching bags. So Miqdad said, I suffered the worst of persecution in the early days of Islam alongside Bilal and Suhaib and Ammar and Khabbab and these types. And during that time, all they did was they spent their time around the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam trying to learn as much as they could and they endured patiently the persecution that came their way. They really couldn't do anything. These were not a people that were in a position to do anything for Islam in the early days except to struggle for it. And then we find that he is amongst those that made hijrah to Abyssinia, to Habesha, to escape persecution and then he would make hijrah to Medina as well. And so we don't have stories about anything regarding Miqdad in Mecca. All we know is he's from those illustrious companions who made the hijrah twice, once to Abyssinia and then to Al Medina. And the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam made him a brother in Al Medina with a man by the name of Jabbar ibn Sakhr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu from the Ansar, Jabbar ibn Sakhr. Now, a narration from the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam
from Bureidah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu that the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, InnaAllaha azzawajal amarani bi hubbi arba'a wa akhbarani anahu yuhibbuhum. SubhanAllah. Allah commanded me to love four people and Allah told me that he loves these four people. And he mentioned Ali, Al Miqdad, Abu Dhar and Salman. Again, talk about illustrious company. Ali radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, Abu Dhar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, Salman radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and Al Miqdad radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Now we start to get into the stories about Al Miqdad and some of them are very beautiful and powerful stories. One of them is the story of his marriage, which shows you again how the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam was breaking traditions of jahiliya, of ignorance. One time Al Miqdad was sitting and Abdurrahman ibn Auf radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was there and Al Miqdad was known to be a jokester. He used to joke a lot. He had very heavy jokes and we have the most famous incident between him and the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam has a major joke from Miqdad within it. So Abdurrahman ibn Auf radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, who we know, mashAllah, Abdurrahman ibn Auf always set himself up. Came to Medina, right, within a week, figured the souk out, became a merchant, a tradesman, got married, had the first wedding in Medina. So Abdurrahman ibn Auf tells Al Miqdad, hey, you know, why don't you get married? And Miqdad says, that's a great idea. How about you marry me your daughter? So whether it was the way he said it to him or the circumstances of it, Abdurrahman ibn Auf didn't like that. He got up and he went home. Right, he didn't like the way that Al Miqdad said that. Allah knows why. It's not clear from the incident, but what is clear is that Miqdad was upset that Abdurrahman got up, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, and walked away from him like that. The Sahaba had these types of arguments sometimes and these types of incidents, right, and they always went back to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. So he went to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, upset. He said, you know, Abdurrahman ibn Auf said, why don't you get married?
So I see a lot of young people here, like, feel vindicated, like all these people that come up to us and say, when are you going to get married? Like, leave me alone. Right? Miqdad said, you know what, fine, you want me to get married? Marry me your daughter. That's how he responded to Abdurrahman ibn Auf. Please don't do that to anyone here. I don't want any fights in the masjid. I'm not the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, okay? So if you guys break out into a fight, I can't solve that for you. But he goes to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, the beauty of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. The Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, he said, you know what, how about you be my relative? And Miqdad said, how, ya Rasulallah? His daughter is all married. The Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam at that point has married off all of his daughters. So he doesn't have a daughter to give him. So he said, come with me. I'm going to marry you to my cousin so that we can be in-laws. So the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam took him to a woman by the name of Duba'a bint Zubair ibn Abdul Muttalib. Duba'a bint Zubair ibn Abdul Muttalib. Duba'a bint Zubair ibn Abdul Muttalib, the cousin of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. The first cousin of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And she was a woman of status, a woman of beauty, a woman of great faith, great intellect, a person that would be sought out. Rasulallah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam takes Al-Miqdad with him. And the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam goes to the house of Duba'a and proposes marriage on his behalf. And he makes that relationship happen. So Al-Miqdad became, this is the story actually of how Al-Miqdad radiAllahu ta'ala anhu got married. And people think, oh, Banu Hashim, and you know, we got to consider this and consider that. And, you know, that works great for other people. This was just natural instinct for the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. You know what? Come with me. I'm going to get you married to my cousin. And we can be in-laws. Married him to one of the most noble women in Al-Madinah at the time.
And in fact, the very famous hadith of what to say in Ihram for sisters who go to Hajj and Umrah, if they're unable to perform their Hajj and Umrah for reasons outside of their ability. So something happens to them and they're unable to perform the Umrah or the Hajj due to their Ihram or they have to stop. This is the hadith actually of Duba'a asking the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, saying, Ya Rasulullah, I'm sick. I don't know if I'm going to be able to complete the Hajj. I don't know if I can actually go out. So her and Al-Muqdad were going out with the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam told her to perform the Hajj and said, Go out with the intention to complete the Hajj and say as you are making the intention that, you know, or put the stipulation, Allahumma mahilli haythu habastani. Allahumma mahilli haythu habastani. That, oh Allah, I will finish my Ihram at the place that you stop me. So I will discontinue my Ihram wherever you stop me if I'm unable to perform my Hajj or my Umrah. So this is what we teach in the fiqh of Hajj and Umrah. We learn this actually from the wife of Al-Muqdad ibn al-Aswad radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Now, what is his particular status with the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, beyond the love that the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam has for him, the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam saying that Allah loves him, that Allah commanded us to love him. He took part in all of the major battles with the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And he is particularly noted for his stance in Badr. Ali radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he says, wa ma kana minna tharisun yawma badrin ghayra al-Muqdad ibn al-Aswad radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. There was only one horseman on our side in the battle of Badr and that was Al-Muqdad radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Remember, the Muslims were not ready for an all-out battle. They got sucked into it, baited into a battle.
As they were just attacking a caravan that had stolen their goods. The Mushrikeen on the other hand had tens, hundreds of horses, right? The Muslims didn't have any horses with them. They had one horse. Al-Muqdad was the only person on a horse on the day of Badr. And so the Sahaba used to call him the first horseman fi sabirillah. He's the first person to ride a horse in the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this battle of Badr. And that's obviously because of his skill. Skill on a horse in particular and the way that he was able to command the army. So the Prophet ﷺ put him in charge of the left flank of the battle. But it wasn't just his physical strength. It was also the way he boosted the morale of the Muslims. Ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he says, and this is in Bukhari. He says, shahidtu min al-Muqdad mashhadah la'an akuna sahibahu ahabbu ilayya mimma udira bihi. He says that I witnessed from Muqdad radiAllahu ta'ala anhu a scene which would have been dearer to me than anything had I been that person in that particular scene. He said he came to the Prophet ﷺ. At al-Nabiya ﷺ wa huwa yad'u ala al-mushrikeen. He came to the Prophet ﷺ when the Prophet ﷺ was telling us that we would have to fight the polytheists. What is he talking about? When the Muslims knew what was coming to them at Badr, that they were actually going to face a whole army, that was a moment where they could have froze and said, you know what, let's run away to Medina and get out of here. Let's hurry up and flee and avoid the wrath of the mushrikeen, the disbelievers from Mecca. And that moment, you know, is a crucial moment. Who's going to say what first, right? When the Prophet ﷺ says, you know what, let's fight them. At that moment, someone's statement could break the morale of the Muslims or someone could make the morale of the Muslims. So Ibn Mas'ud says, as soon as the Prophet ﷺ said that, he said, Miqdad stood up and
Miqdad had a loud voice, a booming voice. Everything about him, subhanAllah, was prominence. You looked at him, he spoke everything, prominence. So his voice was booming. So he stood up and he said, Ya Rasulullah, la naqulu kama qala qawmu Musa idh hab anta wa rabbuka fa qatila. Ya Rasulullah, we're not those people like the people of Musa ﷺ who told Musa ﷺ, you and your Lord go forth and fight. Wa lakinna nuqatilu am yameenika wa am shimarika wa bayna yadayka wa khalfak. But we will fight on the right of you and the left of you and in front of you and behind you. We have you from all directions, Ya Rasulullah. We're not going to tell you go forth and fight and leave you back. And when he did that, Ibn Mas'ud radhiAllahu ta'ala said, faraytun nabiyya sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam ashraqa wajhuhu wa sarrahu. He said, I looked at the Prophet ﷺ's face and his face became so bright with joy and happiness. You could see how pleased the Prophet ﷺ was with Miqdad radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and the way the sahaba, you know, if you're in that gathering then and you heard Miqdad say that, you're like, yeah, you're right. We're not the people of Musa. We're not Bani Israel. We're not, no, we're going to stand up and fight with you, Ya Rasulullah. We're going with you, Ya Rasulullah. So Ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu anhu said the way that he made the Prophet ﷺ smile and the Prophet ﷺ always smiled alayhi as-salatu wa as-salam, but the happiness he brought to his face, I wish that could have been Miqdad that day. I wish I could have been the person that brought that to the Prophet ﷺ. And so once the battle went forward and Miqdad was one of the heroes of Badr, they said in every direction you looked, you saw the mala'ika and you saw Miqdad. You saw the angels and you saw the horse of Miqdad in the battle of Badr. Every direction you looked, he was with his horse and he was fighting fi sabirillah. In the battle of Uhud, Miqdad, because he was skilled in many different ways, Miqdad was also one of the archers. However, he was not one of the archers that came down.
Remember, some of the archers came down, some of them stayed on the mountain. So he was one of those who held his position even after most of them had come down in the battle of Uhud, which left them in a particular situation. However, this is the most famous incident of Miqdad and it is the most beautiful incident of Miqdad, actually one of the most beloved incidents about the Prophet ﷺ when you really want to know the character of the Prophet ﷺ with his companions. And in fact, if you go to the books of Sirah and they say the incident of Miqdad, they're talking about the incident I'm about to say to you. So if no other incident is mentioned about him in the books, this is the one that will be mentioned about him. Al-Miqdad says that there was a day that I was with two of my companions and he said we were so hungry that we were starting to lose our vision and our hearing. Allah Akbar. A person of that stature, who is of that seniority, and this is the struggling in Medina. He said we were so hungry we started to lose our vision and to lose our hearing. So he said we presented our situations to the Sahaba but they were not capable of hosting us either. People were struggling at that time. So it was during a time of hardship. And Allah knows maybe it was around the time of Khandaq or something else, but a time of hardship. So no one hosted us and the hunger was getting to us and this was the point where we were most desperate. Then the Prophet ﷺ saw us. So the Prophet ﷺ picked up the three of us and he told us to follow him. So he took us ﷺ to one of his hujurat, one of his rooms. And the Prophet ﷺ, he only had at that point three goats and from those three goats all of the family of the Prophet ﷺ would drink and that would be the only provision that they had.
So the Prophet ﷺ had no bread, he had no meat, he had no dates at that time. All he had was the milk that would come from these three goats. So the Prophet ﷺ he told me, al-Miqdad, he said, ya Miqdad, he said go ahead and milk these three goats and get whatever you can for them, for you and your companions. And the Prophet ﷺ said, arba'ti aqsam wa ja'al li qisman. This is the important part. Rasulullah ﷺ said, I'm starving too. So the Prophet ﷺ told Miqdad, milk the udders of all three goats, one for each of you and then save something for me and I'll be right back. All right, so Miqdad has clear instructions, milk the udders, get enough for you and your two companions and one for the Prophet ﷺ. So he said the Prophet ﷺ gave me that order, he said I did that, I milked the udders, I divided whatever I was able to get from the goats into four, I gave to my two companions, I took one cup, I covered it for the Prophet ﷺ so when the Prophet ﷺ gets home, the Prophet ﷺ would be able to drink from it and I drank my share. He said that what ended up happening, my two companions drank, I drank, they went to sleep, I was still hungry. So he said it didn't suffice me. So basically he said the Shaytan came to me and I'm looking at the portion I took for the Prophet ﷺ and that cup of milk looked so good. This is the man who stood up in Badr, right, who got tortured in Mecca, stood up in Badr but subhanAllah what hunger does to a person, right? He's like I was staring at that cup that I prepared for the Prophet ﷺ and he said the Shaytan came to me and he actually starts to tell us in this narration what the Shaytan started to tell him as an excuse. He said that the Shaytan came to me and I started to talk to myself, it may be that
the Prophet ﷺ passed by one of the houses of the Ansar and surely they would have given him some food so he's been out for a long time so I'm sure someone gave the Prophet ﷺ something to drink, something to eat. So he said I'm sitting there and I'm looking at it and he said the Prophet ﷺ is taking a long time, I'm not falling asleep, I'm hungry. He said eventually I went and I said Bismillah, I drank that cup of milk, the one that I saved for the Prophet ﷺ, I put it down, he said I laid down and he said the Shaytan came to me and said, what did you do? So he's giving us the way the Shaytan does waswas to a person. He said you are destroyed, the Prophet ﷺ is going to come back and he's going to find that you disobeyed him and that you drank from his milk, you might as well flee from the community right now before he catches you and he kills you. So all these thoughts are going through the brain of Miqdad, what is Rasulullah ﷺ going to do to me? So he said then the Prophet ﷺ came home and I was laying down in the room and clearly from the narration there were no women in this particular room, it was just those three companions and he said that the Prophet ﷺ when he used to come into a room, I mean Adab and Nabi ﷺ, one of the mannerisms of the Prophet ﷺ, he said he would greet the home with a voice that was audible enough that the one who was awake would hear him and the one who was sleeping would not wake up. The Prophet ﷺ did not come in and say, Salam alaikum, wake everybody up. He would say, Salam alaikum, whoever was there, who was already awake heard him, whoever was sleeping would stay sleeping. So he said the Prophet ﷺ came in, he said, Salam alaikum and my other two companions were sleeping and I was under the blanket and he said I was such a big man that the blanket could barely cover me and I'm looking at the Prophet ﷺ like, ya Allah, I'm in trouble. So he said that the Prophet ﷺ looked at us, he pretended like he was sleeping, he
was kind of looking at him and he said then the Prophet ﷺ started to pray and he said he performed Salah for a while and then once the Prophet ﷺ finished Salah, he looked at the cup, the cup was empty, Miqdad said I'm in trouble now, he's about to make Dua against me because the Prophet ﷺ raised his hands. So you imagine he looked at the cup, the cup was empty, he said the Prophet ﷺ raised his hands and he said this is it for me, Khalas, I'm done and then he says the Prophet ﷺ said Allahumma ata'im man ata'amani wasqi man saqani, oh Allah feed the one who feeds me and give drink to the one who gives me drink. So Miqdad says oh my God, an opportunity, this whole situation just changed. So Miqdad said I jumped up, he said I took a knife and I went towards the goats with my knife, like I need to hurry up and feed the Prophet ﷺ and then he said then I was about to slaughter the goats and I realized why would I slaughter the goats if we're taking milk from the goats and that's all that we have. So if I slaughter them, then the meat is going to, you know, we'll use the meat but then we won't have the milk of the goats anymore and then he said and just as I was about to do that, he said the udders of the goats were all full, subhanAllah, as if no one milked any of the goats ever before. I found all three of the goats had full udders. So he said I took bucket after bucket, gallon after gallon, I milked the goats and milked the goats and milked the goats and he said I came back to the Prophet ﷺ with these gallons of milk, so proud, right, so happy, so excited. I know I'm going to get the opposite of what I thought I was going to get. I'm going to get the dua of the Prophet ﷺ. He said so the Prophet ﷺ finished the salah, maybe it was his witr, some other salah. He turned around. The Prophet ﷺ did not ask why was my cup empty before.
Miqdad says ya Rasulullah, here's the milk. So he said I put the milk forth to the Prophet ﷺ, the other two companions remained sleeping by the way, right. I put the milk forth. He said the Prophet ﷺ drank and the Prophet ﷺ told me drink. So he said so I drank and then I drank to my fill and I passed it back to the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ drank more milk and the Prophet ﷺ said to me go ahead and drink and then Miqdad radiAllahu ta'ala said then I burst out laughing. He said dhahiktu hatta saqattu ala dhahri. I laughed so hard I fell on my back. And the Prophet ﷺ is looking at me like what is going on with this person. So he said Rasulullah ﷺ is looking at me and Rasulullah ﷺ says ihda sawatika ya Miqdad, is this one of your jokes O Miqdad? What did you do? Because he was known to joke, remember is this one of your antics? What did you pull here O Miqdad? Miqdad can't collect himself. He said I'm on my back laughing at this entire situation. So he said I told the Prophet ﷺ everything that happened. I told Rasulullah ﷺ, I admitted to the Prophet ﷺ what I did and I admitted to the Prophet ﷺ how I felt when I heard his dua. Allahumma aata'im man aata'amani wa sqeem man saqqani. I got the answer to the dua and the Prophet ﷺ he smiled and he said this is only from the mercy of Allah and he said now wake up your two companions so they can drink from milk as well. So subhanAllah at that point Miqdad said there was so much milk I could wake them up and I did not care who would drink from it at that point. I got the reward from the Prophet ﷺ. So this is subhanAllah considered this is known as the incident of Miqdad with the Prophet ﷺ, the most famous incident with the messenger which shows us so much about Miqdad as well as the Prophet ﷺ and the mercy of Allah ﷻ. And the way shaytan tries to make a person despair.
Like Miqdad says I could have been doomed I thought I was done I thought to get up and just run away from the Prophet ﷺ. But instead look how Allah ﷻ opened the door for Miqdad. And Miqdad narrated some of the ways that the Prophet ﷺ performed these miracles in many different situations with the poor people in which he mentioned that in one of the situations I was with ten people that included the Prophet ﷺ and we had one goat that barely produced milk and the Prophet ﷺ produced from that goat enough milk that all of us were able to drink in groups of ten. And many other narrations of the sorts. The Prophet ﷺ continued to choose Miqdad as a leader in many different expeditions and subhanAllah one of the things that we find is that Miqdad did not like the way that people treated their leaders and he feared that it would mess with his ikhlas with his sincerity. So he actually asked the Prophet ﷺ to never put him in a position of leadership again because he was worried about his niyyah he was worried about his intention being compromised in the process and he would not even be an imam in salah. He wouldn't even lead the people in prayer because of how much he feared for his intentions after he saw the way that the sahaba were starting to put people on a pedestal as they were leaders. So another unique personality subhanAllah another incident that happened famous incident you may have heard the hadith where the Prophet ﷺ said that if someone if these flatterers people that flatter you people not that say thank you and that say nice things to you know people that over praise you and flatter you the same people that will back bite you behind your back will you know flatter you in front of you. The Prophet ﷺ said when these type of people come to you throw dirt on them like get away from me right. And there is a literal parts of that but of course it's more of just the like I don't want to hear this just shun that don't let people go overboard with you show them some displeasure in your face show them that you're not okay with it.
So al-Muqdad was once with Uthman and one of these people came to Uthman and he started to praise him and praise him and praise him and flatter him and flatter him and flatter him. So al-Muqdad got so sick of him he went and he grabbed some pebbles and then he went and he sat right in front of the man on his knees and he started to throw the pebbles at the man as if he was one of the Jamarat. And Uthman said what are you doing al-Muqdad? He said look the Prophet ﷺ said when you see these people that shower this flattery on you and praise on you then throw dust on them right like send them away these people are no good. So that was the character of al-Muqdad and when the verse of Tabanni by the way where Allah ﷻ mentioned which is of course applied most to Zayd ﷺ who went from Zayd ibn Muhammad to Zayd ibn Haritha when that verse was revealed then Muqdad went back to being al-Muqdad ibn Amr. So he is both al-Muqdad ibn al-Aswad as well as al-Muqdad ibn Amr and the books mention him with both names. So the virtues as we mentioned he was in both hijras he played a role in all of the battles with the Prophet ﷺ. He was one of the few people that played a key role in the conquest of Egypt and Ashsham. So he was in all of the major battles in regards to the opening of Masr, the opening of Egypt as well as the opening of Ashsham including the liberation the opening of Palestine may Allah ﷻ allow us to see it in our lifetimes as well. He was also a Quran reciter and he used to love to recite the Quran before and during the time of battle. SubhanAllah it's so unique to remind the people of Allah. So before the battles you would hear al-Muqdad and he would be walking through the ranks of the Muslims reciting the verses of the Quran in a very loud way and there was not a single battle that he would not do this.
So he was known for being the person to walk through the ranks of the Muslims before battle and to recite the Quran with his booming voice ﷻ and we even find by the way in the famous battle of Yarmouk that Khalid ibn al-Walid ﷻ when he saw Yarmouk was a huge discrepancy in terms of the size of the army they were facing Khalid ﷻ called for Muqdad and he told him to go and to recite Surah al-Anfal to the troops in the back. And so al-Muqdad starts to walk between the ranks of the Muslims and he starts to recite out loud the verses of al-Anfal to boost their morale to keep them going for the battle and where does he get the nickname of being greater than a thousand people? Umar ibn al-Khattab ﷻ when he sent the reinforcements to Amr ibn al-As as Amr ibn al-As saw an opening to Egypt. Umar ibn al-Khattab ﷻ only mentioned one man. He said look I'm sending you people but amongst them I'm sending you Muqdad who's better than a thousand men. Imagine getting that testimony from Umar ibn al-Khattab. What kind of a man do you have to be to be called better than a thousand soldiers, better than a thousand men by Umar ibn al-Khattab ﷻ but that was how Umar ibn al-Khattab ﷻ referred to Muqdad ibn al-Khattab ﷻ when he sent him alongside Amr ibn al-As ﷻ as he asked for reinforcements. When the fitna broke out he was one of those people who strongly took the side of Ali ibn al-Khattab ﷻ and that is not something that is a lack of honor in any way. Strong supporter of Ali ibn al-Khattab ﷻ throughout the fitna because this was also the position of Amr ibn al-Khattab ﷻ, the position of Abu Dharr ibn al-Khattab ﷻ. So that he was one of those who took a strong side with Ali ibn al-Khattab ﷻ but after the fitna was over he served in the army of Muawiyah ibn al-Khattab ﷻ and was one of
those who was instrumental to the conquest of Cyprus under Muawiyah, the first naval brigade, the one that the Prophet ﷺ said that he saw those first people that would travel by sea, and they had crowns on their heads. He was amongst those people that went out on the day of Cyprus and receives that from the Prophet ﷺ. Now what I'm about to share with you is SubhanAllah this narration, it sums up not just the life of Miqdad, it sums up the sentiment that you might feel when you hear the biographies of the Sahaba and those of you that were going through the meeting Muhammad ﷺ series and you're saying, Ya Allah I wish I could have been there, I wish I could have known him. It sums up that sentiment very well. So this narration that I'm about to share is probably the most important narration of the entire series of the firsts. Listen, Abdurrahman ibn Jubair ibn Nufair, he narrates an incident from his father, al-Nufair, who was one of the Tabi'een. He says that, That we sat with al-Miqdad one day and they were Tabi'een, so they used to love to learn from him. He's a person who had a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge, a person of the Quran, a person of virtue. The Tabi'een saw these Sahaba as heroes. The Sahaba saw them as heroes. So the next generation, these people were next level. The heroes of the Sahaba amongst us. He lived a long life. So Nufair says, we sat with al-Miqdad radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, so he said this man came by and he realized it was al-Miqdad. Al-Miqdad was unmistakable when you saw him. It's like, oh my God, the legend, this is al-Miqdad, right? Let me get your autograph, let me do this, let me do that. But he was stunned by al-Miqdad. That's the point, right?
What a beautiful person, what a noble person, someone we've heard so much about. And al-Miqdad hated that praise, right? But the words that he says to al-Miqdad, listen closely, and I'll read it in Arabic first. He said, طوبى لهاتين العينين اللتين رأتا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم طوبى لهاتين العينين اللتين رأتا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم How blessed are these two eyes that got to lay themselves on the Prophet ﷺ. Like, ya Allah, Miqdad, you're so blessed, you're so lucky, you got to see the Prophet ﷺ. So he said طوبى لهاتين العينين اللتين رأتا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم والله لو ددنا أنا رأينا ما رأيت. I swear by Allah, I wish we could have seen what you saw. Okay? Now this is a long narration, so I just gave you the beginning in Arabic, so those that want to look up the full narration in Arabic, it's easily found. But I'm going to give you the response of Miqdad. What do you think the response would be? Ya, you know, الحمد لله رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم was beautiful, it was amazing to be from the Sahaba. Let me show you my sword from Badr. Keep giving you the insights into how it was to be amongst the Prophet ﷺ, right? It's a beautiful sentiment. Ya Allah, we wish we were Sahaba. We wish we could have been there the day of Badr. We wish we could have been there these days with the Prophet ﷺ. Miqdad stood up and he responded to him and he said, what makes you people wish to be present at a time that Allah made you absent from without you knowing what you would have been had you been present?
What makes you wish to be present in a time that Allah made you absent from and you don't know what you would have done had you been present with the Prophet ﷺ? And he says, I swear by Allah there were people who were present during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, but Allah threw them headfirst into Jahannam because they did not accept him and they refused to believe in him. Would you people rather not thank Allah that you were born as people who only know Allah as your Rabb, who only know Islam as their religion, and who believe in everything that Rasulullah ﷺ brought? Like you Tabi'een, you have it so lucky, children of the Sahaba. You were born and your parents loved Allah so much they gave it all to you. You didn't have to fight the way we had to fight. You didn't have to be put in those coats of iron the way that we were put in those coats of iron and dragged, me and Bilal and Suhaib and tortured the way we were tortured. All you knew your whole life was Allah as your Lord, Islam as your religion, Muhammad ﷺ as your messenger. And he said, Wallahi, we bore hardships that no other generation bore. I swear by Allah that Allah sent Rasulullah ﷺ during a time that was more difficult than any other time in which he sent prophets. It was a time in which the succession of the prophets had long been paused and where people were so ignorant that they saw no religion better than idol worship. The only thing they could come to was to make these stones and worship them. That's how far in jahal, how steeped in ignorance these people were. And he says, then Allah sent the prophet ﷺ bil furqan, with the furqan meaning the Quran, the criteria. And he said, with that furqan Allah differentiated truth from falsehood. And upon that furqan even parents and children were divided.
And he said, it was so hard on us that a person whose heart was unlocked to iman, was unlocked to faith, would see his father or his son or his brother live as a rejecter of the prophet ﷺ and his message. And we knew that they would be thrown into jahannam. SubhanAllah, you know how hard it was for us to see our relatives? I know the converts in here can relate to this, right? I mean like this difficulty, like you think it's easy for us? We looked around and we were suddenly separated from our parents who were persecuting us because we believed in Allah. His own father, Aswad, he loved him so much he adopted him. That's a big move. We saw our fathers, our brothers, our mothers, our sisters. And they fought us for Allah. And we had to see them in that way. And then he said because of that we couldn't experience any coolness in our hearts. Knowing what the destiny of our relatives was. And he said it was then that Allah revealed. Powerful narration. He said that's when Allah revealed, seeing our situation, how difficult it was for us to have to make these choices. To not just undergo the physical persecution, but being separated from our families, tortured by our families. Believing so much in the Prophet, believing so much in what he promised while our families were so resolute in standing against it. And being enemies of the Prophet. And we could never really experience coolness in our hearts and our eyes. We were never really that happy because we thought what about our fathers, what about our brothers, what about those that we love? And that's when Allah revealed.
Allah grant us from our spouses and our children the coolness of our eyes. That our eyes are cooled and our hearts are cooled by what? By their adhering to faith. And let us be to those that come after us. Let us be forerunners. Let us be leaders in faith. To those that come after us. This is probably the most important narration of the series. You think when you look back and you say, oh, if I was there, I would have been right between Hamza and Mugdad. Said which one of them should I take? Of course I would have suffered for the sake of Allah. Of course I would have gone against the grain of society. And endured all of the difficulties that came. Of course this, of course that. Be grateful for the generation Allah put you in. Be grateful for the time Allah put you in. Allah does not bear a soul beyond its scope nor does Allah wrong a single one of us. Allah put you here now in your family, in your community for a reason. Say Alhamdulillah for the time that Allah put you in. Because Allah gave you your unique share of problems, your unique share of opportunities. Your unique exposure to faith, your unique exposure to fasad, to corruption. You have a chance to stand with and for the truth. Allah gave that to you. But don't sit there and look at the sahaba and think, oh, you're so lucky. Guys had it so easy. You got to see the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. That must have been a piece of cake, right? Because you got to see the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and then everything was okay. It was hard. It was hard for them. So Al-Muqdad is saying, I know what you're thinking, but do what you can in your generation. Do what you can with your situation and that's what's going to count.
So radiAllahu ta'ala al-Muqdad, an incredible human being, an incredible companion, the first horseman in Islam. That person that was with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in so many of these different situations. He went on, radiAllahu ta'ala al-Muqdad, and we had three children that survived him. Abdullah, Ma'bad and Kareema that survived him. And they were people of hadith. They memorized a hadith and they narrated hadiths from both of their parents. Al-Muqdad as well as Duba'a radiAllahu ta'ala al-Muqdad. The most famous hadith, interestingly enough, and there are kids so I won't repeat the full hadith. But it's actually interesting because it's Ali radiAllahu ta'ala al-Muqdad needing to ask the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam about an embarrassing question. About whether or not he would need to do ghusl, to take a ritual bath. And he's too embarrassed to approach the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So he tells Muqdad, can you go ask the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam for me? So it's actually, subhanAllah, the most famous narration is a narration of Ali radiAllahu ta'ala al-Muqdad. Which shows you the position he had with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And it's an authentic narration, sahih Muslim, where he asked Muqdad to go ask the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam a question on his behalf. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam gave him an answer that would then go back to Ali radiAllahu ta'ala al-Muqdad. The narration that I mentioned, it's a disputed narration in chain but it's mentioned at the end of Sira' al-Alam an-Nubula. As well as all of the biographies. This hadith in Muslim Imam Ahmad from Buraida radiAllahu ta'ala al-Muqdad. You must love four people, Ali, Abu Dhar, Salman, and Muqdad. Ali, Abu Dhar, Salman, and Muqdad. We bear witness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, or we seek from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to put the love of them in our hearts. And to put the love of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in our hearts. Allahuma ameen. Lastly, his inheritance, which is an interesting narration. Karima, his daughter, narrates that when Muqdad died,
his wasiyya included 36,000 dirhams for al-Hassan wa al-Husayn radiAllahu ta'ala alhuma. As well as 7,000 dirhams for each of ummahat al-mu'mineen, each of the mothers of the believers. So his heart being attached to al-Hassan wa al-Husayn as well as ummahat al-mu'mineen, the mothers of the believers, is very special. And he died in Damascus, in Damascus. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala liberate Damascus and be with our people in Syria as well. Allahuma ameen. Wa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu an muqdad. Allahuma ameen. Wa sallallahu wa sallam wa baraka wa nabiyyina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een. And inshallah ta'ala we have time for a few questions from the audience.
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