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
147
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Saffiyah Bint Abdul Mutallib (ra) : A Warrior Aunt
Saffiyah Bint Abdul Mutallib (ra) raised a lion in her son Zubayr. She was the closest sibling to another lion: her brother Hamza Ibn Abdul Mutallib (ra). To understand what came out of her home, it is crucial to examine her incredible story of strength and resilience.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Everyone, welcome back to the first Alhamdulillah Rabbal Alameen. We took a break so that we could have the series for those left behind. I pray that it was beneficial to you all. I hope that inshallah ta'ala you gained from it and it gave you a lot of perspective and also some practical tips on how to grieve and grow. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on our loved ones and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to develop that perspective and that purpose and that thrust towards pleasing Him so that we may join our loved ones around our most beloved one Sallallahu alayhi wasalam wa janatul firdaus. Allahumma ameen. So here we are back to the first as promised inshallah ta'ala. We're going to try our best to knock out 40 episodes before Ramadan inshallah ta'ala. We'll see if we're able to succeed in doing so. But bi'llahi ta'ala we'll continue at some point after Ramadan as well. Now as I come to the biography today, this is sort of an outlier in the sense that the person that we're covering today is not one of those first 15 or 20 or even 25 to accept Islam. But her son, Az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam radiAllahu ta'ala anhu is one of the first to accept Islam. And as I was looking at the story of Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, I realized that you really cannot appreciate the story of Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu unless you really know and appreciate the biography of his mother who we're talking about today, Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib radiAllahu ta'ala anhu because she is an extraordinary figure. She is very unique and her personality is so prominent in the personality of Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And her influence on Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu just comes out through almost all of the heroic episodes
that we find in the life of Az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So I decided to start with the mother and inshaAllah ta'ala we're going to talk about Safiyyah. Then we will talk about Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu separately. Then we will talk about Asma bint Abi Bakr radiAllahu anha wa an Abiha, the wife of Az-Zubayr, Asma, the daughter of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with her. We'll talk about her inshaAllah ta'ala and each one of them requiring their own episode. And as I always say, we cannot do justice subhanAllah, especially when you're talking about Al-Asha' al-Mubashshireen, the 10 promised paradise. Az-Zubayr radiAllahu anhu could be 10 lectures all by himself. You haven't even started talking about his sons, Abdullah, Urwa. There's so much to talk about here. But let's start with the mother inshaAllah ta'ala. And when we start with Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib, I actually wish I could have a live crowd in front of me because I like to do this test with my students. How many uncles of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and aunts of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam can you name? Okay, so I want you as you're with me to think about that. What are the names that come to mind? And I'm going to imagine that I have my live audience right in front of me. And the first one that will come up will either be Hamza radiAllahu anhu or Abu Talib or Abu Lahab. Right, those are the three that are most prominent in the Seerah of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. The fourth one, Al-Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala anhu as well. Right, so if you go through the four most famous uncles of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, again, Abu Talib, Abu Lahab, Al-Abbas, and of course Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. But what if I was to tell you that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam had about 12 uncles, okay? Not even getting to his aunts, 12 uncles in the life of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Some of the scholars say they were 10, 11, or 12, but it's a lot of uncles. And remember the father of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was to be sacrificed. Right, that's a whole story.
Abdullah, the father of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was to be sacrificed. But Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la protected him as he protected Ismail alayhi salatu was-salam as well. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la made of him a great nation. So who are the uncles of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam? These are the sons of Abdul-Muttalib. First and foremost, you have, of course, Abu Talib. And Abu Talib's real name, because if you remember when we went through the life of Ali radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, we talked about how Abu Talib had an incredible naming scheme. Okay, Abu Talib named his sons with great meanings and his daughters with great meanings. But Talib is his oldest son. So he's Abu Talib. His real name was Abdi Manaf. Okay, so Abu Talib is Abdi Manaf, which of course is a common ancestor. When we talk about many of these great tribes in the life of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So Abdi Manaf is Abu Talib. Then you have Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, Al-Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, Abu Lahab, of course. And Abu Lahab's name was Abdul-Uzza, Abdul-Uzza. So Abu Lahab's actual name is Abdul-Uzza. Now, who are the other uncles? You have an uncle of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam by the name of Az-Zubair, all right? Which gives you some insight into the namings. You start to see that aside from the name Muhammad SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, most of these names are found in the uncles and the aunts, and then they're transferred to the children. So he has Az-Zubair as one of his uncles. He has Al-Harith as one of his uncles. Al-Mughira, Al-Muqawwin, Dhiraar, Quthum, and Mus'ab. Okay? Quthum, of course, was also the name of a famous son of Al-Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Okay? So Al-Abbas, and of course his wife, Lubaba, Umm al-Fadl radiAllahu anha, they had their son Quthum radiAllahu ta'ala anhu.
So a lot of these names are common in the seerah, but we don't know much about the uncles of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam except the four that I mentioned because of how prominently they featured. Most of these uncles, of course, passed away before Islam even came to be, before the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam received revelation. And we know that the only two of them that embraced Islam with certainty are Al-Abbas and Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Okay? So those are 11 uncles of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, and some of the scholars say there is a 12th as well. Then you have the aunts of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, the paternal aunts of the Prophet Alayhi Salatu Wasallam. And their names are Safiyyah, of course, who we're going to talk about today. Then you have Umm Hakim, then you have Atika, and then you have Ummayma, and then you have Arwah, and then you have Dharwah. So these are the six aunts of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Now, the only aunt of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam that we know embraced Islam without a doubt is Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So of the uncles and aunts of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, all of them that I've listed here, 17 of them, the three that we are certain embraced Islam are Hamza Al-Abbas and Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib. May Allah be pleased with them. The scholars also mentioned Atika and Arwah as having embraced Islam. Arwah, scholars like Imam Ibn Abdul Barr rahimAllah ta'ala actually establishes it authentically that Arwah as well accepted Islam. So if Atika and Arwah embraced Islam as well, the aunts of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, what we know is that the only one of the aunts of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam who with certainty embraced Islam and then featured prominently in the seerah
is the woman that we are speaking about tonight, Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And there are a few reasons for that. The most obvious of them is her age. Safiyyah was only a year older than the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And some of the scholars say the exact same age as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So she was born in 569 or 570 at the same time as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So there is the age, the closeness of her age to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So she's the last of the girls. She also was very close to Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Hamza of course was the same age as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. We'll talk about Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib radiAllahu ta'ala anhu of course in his own episode, his glorious biography. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala be pleased with him. So you've got Safiyyah and Hamza being around the same age as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So Safiyyah grew up with the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. She was, even though she was his aunt, she's really more like his sister SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And the thing that she is most prominent for in terms of her family relations is her closeness to Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Now they were born within a year of each other. And Safiyyah, you know, you find her biography revolves around Hamza radiAllahu anhu as much as it revolves around Az-Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, her own son. So she loved Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib greatly. Then you have the connection of Safiyyah bin Abdul Muttalib to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam from her husband's side. So the first person that she married was a man by the name of Al-Harith ibn Harb. And that is also the father of Abu Sufyan, the brother of Abu Sufyan. So Al-Harith ibn Harb is the older brother of Abu Sufyan.
So she was initially Abu Sufyan's sister-in-law. And then he passed away, Al-Harith ibn Harb passed away, and she married Awam ibn Khuwailid. Awam ibn Khuwailid. Of course, as Az-Zubair ibn Al-Awam, Al-Awam ibn Khuwailid is also the brother of our mother Khadijah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Okay, so now this is getting very close. Not only is she like the sister of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, even though she's actually his aunt, she is married to, she is the sister-in-law of Khadijah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, the wife of the Messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So she's really close to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam now, not just through her blood, but also through her marriage. Her and Al-Awam ibn Khuwailid had three sons. They had Az-Zubair, they had As-Sa'ib, and they had a young boy named Abdul-Ka'ba who died very young. When Al-Awam died, Az-Zubair and As-Sa'ib were just young boys. And so Safiyyah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu would actually raise her kids as a single mom, which is again going to factor quite a bit into her personality. Now you look at the life of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he knows that experience alayhi salatu wasalam. But the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was tested in what? His mother also passed away when he was six years old. So you find multiple, you know, stories of people whose fathers passed away due to war, due to battle, due to the difficulties of the trade routes that they would go out. Some of them would die on the way to or from a Sham or from Yemen when they would go out. But with the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, you see that he lost both of his parents alayhi salatu wasalam, his father before he was even born. And of course, his mother Amina when he was only six years old alayhi salatu wasalam.
So Safiyyah knows this environment and Safiyyah did not remarry after al awwam. So she decided to raise her two sons, her two boys by herself, as Zubair being the oldest. Now, what type of tirbaya, what type of attitude does she bring to her parenting? And that's what is going to feature most prominently in the story of Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. It is actually her discipline, her discipline. She was worried about Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala anhu being treated cruelly as an orphan in that society. This is so important, so important that she did not want her son as Zubair to be treated differently, to be disadvantaged because he was an orphan. And as you look in the Quran and you see in the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, the emphasis on honoring the orphan, that's because of the way that orphans were overlooked and mistreated in that society. So she wanted as Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala anhu to be independent, to be strong, to be courageous, to be intelligent. So her whole mothering of Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was a very involved mother, a single mother that lives for her child, that spends everything she has on Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, that takes him out to learn the arts of war as a young child. So it was Safiyyah that was going out and taking him out, also summoning Nufal ibn Khuwailid, the other brother of Khadijah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu who was still alive. So the uncle of Zubair to take him out to make sure that he got the exposure of any young man in that society so that he would be strong, so that he would be intelligent, so that he would be courageous, so that he'd be able to handle the pressure of being an orphan.
And subhanAllah, as you start to read these stories about how rough she was on Zubair and how involved she was in his life and the way that she tried to instill a great sense of courage in him and the disciplining, you find these lines of poetry. And Safiyyah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was truly a poet. You can find many poems from Safiyyah ibn Abdul Muttalib radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And one of the things that happened is that Nufal ibn Khuwailid, who we will learn about in a bit, Nufal tells Safiyyah that, you know, you discipline him as if you hate him. You discipline him as if you hate him. And that was very offensive to her. You know, how dare you say I discipline him because I hate him? Of course, I don't hate him. Right? That this type of parenting in this rough society, I had to make sure that he was able to handle himself. So she responded to her brother-in-law, Nufal, who was, of course, the brother of her husband who had passed away. She responded to him with these lines of poetry. She said, man qala qad abghattuhu faqad kadhib. Whoever claims that I hate my own child has lied. Wa innama adhribuhu likay yalib. And I hit him so that one day he can grow up and he can be strong. And lub is like intelligent. He can handle himself. He can, he can, he can, you know, fend for himself in this society. wa yahzimul jaysh wa ya'ti bisalib. And not only am I doing it for him, but one day he will defeat armies all by himself and return victorious with the spoils of battle. That's why I'm so rough with him. Right? And obviously, you know, this is the days of ignorance. There are, there is the roughness of society to the orphan. And there is clearly, you know, for the sake of historical accuracy here to mention it, right,
there's clearly a roughness that Sufiyyah had with Az-Zubayr that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would not recommend a parent to have with their child. But it's to understand the mindset and the environment that Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was born into. So she, she mentions in other lines of poetry, how did you find my son Az-Zubayr? Did you find him to be a fruit or did you find him to be a falcon? Right? She wants him to be strong. She wants him to be courageous. She wants him to fight, you know, for himself to, to defeat armies and to not be intimidated by anyone. Now, of course, SubhanAllah, never did she expect that she was raising Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu to be so intelligent, strong and courageous that he would challenge her with Islam. So SubhanAllah, this was, you know, quite an incident when Az-Zubayr comes home at the age of 13 years old. And Az-Zubayr says that I have accepted Islam. I've accepted the religion of Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wasallam and gone against all of my uncles and the whole family of Abdul-Muttalib and gone against every, everyone and everything in this society to follow what I believe is the truth, the truth of Islam. She was raising him so that he wouldn't be bullied by other kids, so he wouldn't be mistreated and overlooked. SubhanAllah, here is the strong personality of Az-Zubayr and it's the strong personality of Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu that she had a great deal to do with that caused him to accept Islam despite the bullying and the torture that would come his way. So she comes, so Az-Zubayr comes home and tells his mother that I've accepted Islam and she argues with him. And you know, there isn't much here to really, to read explicitly, but it could be, Allah knows best, right? That as she's trying to protect him from society, right? You're already an orphan. You already don't have your father. You don't have any older brothers to take care of you. Now you're going to go out there. You're going to join this religion of outcasts.
You're going to be dealt with even more harshly. So she tried to fight him to not become a Muslim when he came home and said that he was a Muslim. Not because she hated the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, because she loved her son. And this is something, by the way, I want you to note when we're talking about Sa'ad radiAllahu Anhu and his mother going out and saying, I'm going to starve myself, a hunger strike. And I'm not going to comb my hair. I'm going to let the lice destroy me so that you leave Islam. These mothers were doing that because they thought they were loving their children. They thought that the best way to protect their children was to protect them from at that time, Islam itself. And Allah Azawajal spoke to the sincerity of that, but said, do not obey them when they tell you to disobey Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So she's not doing this out of a hatred for her nephew, who is more like her brother, Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. She's doing it to try to protect her son, Az-Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, and it's a misguided form of trying to protect him. So what does she do when she can't get Az-Zubair radiAllahu Anhu himself to reject this new religion of his? She calls the same uncle who used to, you know, tell her that you're too rough on your son. And she tells him to punish him, to do what you need to do to get him now to relinquish this religion of his. And this uncle is Naufal once again. Naufal had a horrible way of torturing Az-Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, which we will talk about inshallah ta'ala when we talk about Az-Zubair radiAllahu Anhu. But I want to focus this lesson, this first lesson on Safiyyah herself. So Naufal comes in and Naufal, his uncle, is the torturer of Az-Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. So what changed with Safiyyah radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu? How long did she hold out with her Islam? As I said, this is an outlier of the episodes thus far because we've been talking about people who embraced Islam in the first batch.
She accepted Islam the day that Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu became Muslim. There's a lot to say about that. When Hamza became Muslim, it was a game changer. The ultimate game changer was Umar ibn Al-Khattab becoming Muslim. When Hamza became Muslim, that was the first step towards what would be that ultimate ability to stand behind Umar ibn Al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and come out and declare their Islam proudly. So when Hamza takes the religion of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, when Hamza pops Abu Jahl and tells him that I'm on the religion of my nephew, that was the day thus far. Safiyyah herself would embrace Islam and would come to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam to dedicate herself to him. Now Safiyyah, as I said, her life revolved around Hamza as much as it revolved around her son, Az-Zubair. She was inseparable from Hamza. She used to clean his clothes. She used to greet him when he returned from journeys. She used to pick his hair for any lice. She made hijrah with Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. So she loved her brother Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu deeply. And we know that Hamza was a legend of sorts in Mecca. He would come home, all the youth wanted to be like Hamza. She was the one that would immediately greet him and treat him like an older sister, but really like a mother to Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam was so close to her. As she now had embraced Islam, he was so close to her that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed, wa anzir ashiratakal aqrabeen to warn those who are closest to you from your relatives first, who did the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam call out to? He stood up and he called out, Ya Fatima bint Abdul Muttalib, Ya Safiyyatu bint Abdul Muttalib, right?
He mentioned Fatima radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and then he mentioned Safiyya radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and then he mentioned alayhi salatu wasalam, Ya Bani Abdul Muttalib, or children or family, descendants of Abdul Muttalib. Ask me whatever you want from my wealth, I'll give it to you. But la amlikulakum minAllahi shay'a But look, I can't protect you from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on the day of judgment. You know how much I love you? Fatima, first and foremost, who is from the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam and who we've already spoken about was so deeply tied to the heart of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam but the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam specifically named Safiyya radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and said, ask me whatever you want, but I cannot do anything for you in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So Safiyya radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu embraces Islam and she becomes a deeply righteous woman in the life of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. She still never remarries. She maintains her mothering of Az-Zubair radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu she lives with Az-Zubair and Asma bint Abi Bakr who we'll talk about inshAllah ta'ala separately may Allah be pleased with them. And she makes the hijrah to Al-Madinah and Safiyya was no ordinary woman. So we talk about Safiyya trying to raise Az-Zubair to be able to fend for himself. Safiyya radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was a woman that would walk around with a dagger or a sword herself and would seek to defend the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam and has her prominent stories in that regard. First and foremost, it's Uhud. Uhud is such a difficult topic subhanAllah because when you go to Uhud and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed us when we do Umrah or Hajj may Allah azawajal write it down for all of us. You get to go to Uhud and you visit the Shuhada of Uhud
and Hamza radiAllahu anhu of course is the most prominent of the Shuhada, Sayyidu Shuhada the leader of the martyrs of Uhud. Uhud was a harsh day for the Muslims. And since we just finished for those left behind, this story actually ties in quite a bit to the theme of for those left behind. When the news of how many people had been killed in Uhud came forth when people could see from a distance the tens of bodies that were laying there, the women came running to the battlefield to see their dead ones. And the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam remember how much he loved Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and the way that he cried over Hamza radiAllahu anhu. When the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam himself almost died in Uhud, but when the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam saw the body of Hamza, one of the first things he thought about he calls Az-Zubair and he said, Doonak Ummuk, he said, go get your mother Famna'ha and don't let her come here. Do not let Safiyya come and see the battle, the body of Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. I can't have her see what was done to the body of Hamza. Of course, Hamza was not radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was struck by the spear of Wahshi, but his liver, his body opened, his liver chewed by Hind as well, the wife of Abu Sufyan, Hind bint Umayyah, what she did to the body of Hamza. So the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam tells Az-Zubair, go stop her in any way that you can, make sure that she does not make it to where I am right now. I don't want her to see what has been done to her brother Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu who was so important to her. So Az-Zubair goes out to run and to stop her, to stop Safiyya bint Abdul Muttalib. And what is she doing? She's moving forth with a dagger in her hand and she's yelling at the men, she's saying Amarartum a'an Rasoolillah, did you flee from the messenger of Allah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, what is wrong with you all? She's condemning the men for fleeing from the side of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam.
Amarartum a'an Rasoolillah, how could you do that? How could you all flee from the side of the messenger salAllahu alayhi wa sallam? So she's holding a dagger and actually in the narration of Hisham, the Urwah, she was holding a spear in her hand. She was throwing a spear towards the other side. So she's very emotional and she's walking right to the center of the battlefield at this point. And the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam is telling Az-Zubair go stop her. Az-Zubair goes to her and tells her mom, stop. And she keeps moving forward. Az-Zubair radiAllahu anhu grabs her arm, says, mom, stop. And she pushes Az-Zubair and she says, ilayka a'anni, get away from me. And she keeps on going forward. Az-Zubair keeps on saying, ya ummah, oh my mother, please stop. And she keeps on saying, ilayka a'anni. He's begging her to stop. And then finally he says, ya ummah, Rasulullah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam commands you to stop. The messenger of Allah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam commands you to stop. Not your nephew, Muhammad salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. No, I'm telling, I'm not saying this for myself. I'm saying the messenger of Allah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam is saying to you to stop. As soon as Az-Zubair said that it's from Rasulullah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, look at this woman's taqwa, her piety. She says, sam'an wa ta'a. She says, I hear and I obey. So she stopped. She froze when Az-Zubair said that this was an order from the messenger of Allah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And she says to Az-Zubair radiAllahu anhu, she says, lakinni balaghani anna hamza qad qutil. She said, but I heard that Hamza was killed. And she says, if that's the case, wallahi alasbiranna wa ahtasi banna. She said, look, if that's the case, I will be patient and I'll seek the reward. So I just wanna go see Hamza as well. I wanna see if Hamza is okay. Right, because that's her concern as well.
So when Az-Zubair confirmed that indeed Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu had passed away, she started to cry and she started to seek Allah's forgiveness. And eventually she was allowed to come up to the body of Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu in the battlefield. And subhanAllah, the narration says she stood all the way until the late night over his body. And what was she saying? SubhanAllah, for those left behind, Allahu akbar, as much as she loved him. She kept on repeating, inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon. Certainly to Allah we belong and to Allah we returned. Allahumma khfirlahu, Allahumma khfirlahu, Allahumma khfirlahu. So she kept on saying, oh Allah forgive him, oh Allah forgive him, oh Allah forgive him. And then she kept on saying, Allahumma inni ahtasi buhu wa indak. Oh Allah, I seek his reward from you. Ahtasi buhu wa indak, I'm seeking the reward for this loss with you, ya Allah. Like it pains her that much. And she even had, she brought the kafan that would be used for Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. SubhanAllah, so you see truly a heart that is connected to her brother Hamza radiAllahu anhu, Sayyid ash-Shuhada. But you see also an exemplary way of grief. As much as she loved Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, she said all the right things. She said, inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon, that to Allah we belong and to Him we return. She made istighfar for him, she sought forgiveness for him. She looked up to the sky and she said, Allahumma inni ahtasi buhu wa indak. Oh Allah, I seek his reward with you. I seek the reward of this pain with you, ya Allah. So that is her relationship to Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And this woman's strength does not show more than another incident that happens in the khandaq. Now, when the khandaq happened, when the battle of the trench happened and the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam,
of course, himself starved. He was pushed to the extreme, as were the companions that had to dig that trench in such a short amount of time with such limited resources and to fight off the largest army that they had ever seen that was coming to attack them. And of course, what also happened to make things worse was that some of the people on the inside, the hypocrites and some of the tribes on the inside, Banu Quraizah, Banu Qaynuqa, Banu Nadir, had conspired with those that were coming from the outside, with the Meccans that were coming from the outside, along with the hypocrites of Ibn Ubayy ibn Salul to attack from the inside. Now, when that happened, Hassan ibn Thabit radiAllahu ta'ala has this narration. Hassan ibn Thabit was a poet and he was not a warrior. So Hassan could not be in battle the way that others could. He was a poet. His way of contributing to the battle was with his tongue. And so he was with the women, the children and the elderly, and they were holed up. And there were two men from Banu Quraizah that had come and they had people behind them to attack, to ambush. And they were trying to find out if there were any men that were amongst that group of women, children and elderly there. And they wanted to see if they were armed or not. Look at this woman. Now, Sufiyyah ibn Abdul Muttalib, as we said, is around the same age as the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Right? So she's not a young woman here. Okay. Hassan ibn Thabit mentions that she pushed him to go forward to fight the man that was coming to check. And Hassan ibn Thabit froze up. He said, look, I can't fight. If I could fight, I would be in the battlefield. I wouldn't be here with you. And Hassan froze up. He didn't know what to do in those moments. So what does she do? Sufiyyah grabs a pole. Okay.
And she hides behind the door. And she waits for the man from Banu Quraizah to sneak in. When the man sneaks in, Sufiyyah hits him with the pole and single-handedly, she kills him. Okay. Sufiyyah radhiallahu anha kills him. And then not only that, she takes the body of the man and she throws it out over, you know, the way the narration indicates is that they were on a rooftop of sorts. So she throws out his body and Hassan is narrating this whole thing over. And so when his body, his dead body was thrown over, the others assumed that there was an army that was on the inside and they all fled. There was only Sufiyyah radhiallahu anha. SubhanAllah, I mean, that is the strength of this woman that she single-handedly protected that entire fortress because of her courage, she made them think that an army was actually there. So this is the woman that produced al-Zubayr radhiallahu anhu. And it will make sense why the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, when he heard this, the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, innaha Safiyyah, that's Safiyyah. Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib is not like any other person. She is her own ummah in that sense. She's her own army, she's her own strength. SubhanAllah, and look at how she was able to utilize that strength in some of the most difficult moments. And that's why al-Zubayr radhiallahu anhu is ibn Safiyyah. The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam would call him the son of Safiyyah because he was like his mother. He inherited the strength and the courage of his mother. And Safiyyah radhiallahu anhu continued to live with al-Zubayr and Asmaa bint Abi Bakr. May Allah be pleased with them. And Asmaa considered Safiyyah to be like a mother to her as well. When the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam passed away, there are several poems that are attributed to Safiyyah eulogizing the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
something very beautiful. She described the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam as a sun that is wrapped up in darkness, yet still somehow shining. A sun that is wrapped up in darkness, yet still somehow shining. Referring to the light of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the light of guidance that he brought to this world. So Safiyyah radhiallahu anhu, she lived through that. The death of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, she lived in Al-Madinah throughout the Khilaf of Abu Bakr and then in the Khilaf of Umar bin Khattab, she passed away. And Umar bin Khattab radhiallahu ta'ala anhu prayed janazah upon her. And she was buried in Al-Baqi' there in Al-Madinah. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la be pleased with Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib radhiallahu ta'ala anha, the one aunt that we know for sure that embraced Islam and that truly put forth her all, gave her all in the most courageous of ways and produced the man that we will be talking about inshallah ta'ala next time, which is Zubayr radhiallahu ta'ala anhu. May Allah Azawajal be pleased with her and accept all of that on her behalf, her children, her grandchildren, and the example that she leaves behind for us all. Allahumma ameen. InshaAllah ta'ala I will see you all next time. JazakumAllahu khayran. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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