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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Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
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Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
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Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
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Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
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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
Suhaib Ibn Sinan Al Rumi (ra): From Persia, to Rome, to Paradise
What pushed Suhaib the Roman to travel the world, and what was he willing to sacrifice once he realized there was more to this life than trade and adventure? Suhaib al Rumi was the last of the first seven to publicize his Islam and one of the first to be promised Paradise.
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. Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu was salamu ala rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So tonight inshallah ta'ala we're going to be talking about the last of the first seven to show their Islam publicly, to display their Islam publicly according to the narrations that we have cited when speaking about Bilal and Khabbab and Ammar. And his character is one of my favorites to cover because he really is a character subhanAllah and has such an endearing personality that comes through even as you're reading about him in the books. About what made him so endearing to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and the companions. His charisma, his humor, his journey to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam which was so unique. And that is Suhaib ibn Sinan ibn Malik al-Rumi radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Suhaib ibn Sinan is a companion whose journey is similar to Salman al-Farisi radiAllahu ta'ala anhu in that it brings together what was taking place with the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire and then of course what was taking place in the home of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in the heart of Mecca. Because Suhaib ties all of those things together with his own personal journey much in the way that Salman radiAllahu ta'ala anhu does. However Suhaib's is a lot less conventional if you will from the very beginning. Salman radiAllahu anhu who we'll talk about in detail. His journey starts off at home in the Persian Empire as a Persian. His father was a ruler, a leader amongst the Persians. Suhaib ibn Sinan was actually an Arab. And so you wouldn't know that if you read Suhaib al-Rumi you would
assume he's Roman. And we'll talk about why there's an assumption that he's Roman. Suhaib ibn Sinan is actually an Arab. And his father was an Arab named Sinan ibn Malik. And his father was so intelligent, was so advanced that on, it appears to be a trade route with the Persian Empire or something along those sorts. The Persian Emperor of the time, Kisra, appointed him to govern a city on his behalf. And so he's an Arab governor in a city by the name of Al-Ubulla. And he's an Arab governor of a Persian city on behalf of the Emperor and Suhaib is growing up in that city. And this city is now by the way part of Basra because remember that Iraq was encompassed under the rule of the Persian Empire at the time. So Suhaib is an Arab kid growing up amongst the Persians but his father is a leader amongst the Persians which is very rare in and of itself. And Suhaib was one who was particularly loved by his parents. And to make this even stranger, Suhaib was an Arab whose father was a governor in the Persian Empire who looked like a Roman kid. So he had white skin, he had blonde hair, and so he looked like a Roman but he was an Arab and he lived amongst the Persians where his father was a governor. It gets more confusing if you will, or not confusing but it gets more adventurous as you go through his story. Suhaib was only five years old when his mother took him out for a picnic in a city that is in what was Ninaway, where Yunus Alayhi Salam is from, where the Prophet Jonah is from. So in Ninaway in Iraq, they said it was an area by the name of Athani. And as Suhaib's
mother was playing with him, a group of Roman soldiers attacked that city and they took a large number of captives including Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So SubhanAllah, whether it was Khabbab ibn al-Arat who was kidnapped, sold into slavery, purchased from the slave market, ended up in the presence of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, or of course the beloved of the Habib SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, Zayd ibn al-Harith radiAllahu ta'ala anhu who once again came through Suq al-Uqad into the house of Khadijah radiAllahu anha, into the possession of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and freed by the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. All of these people have this story and this is why it's just so important for us to understand SubhanAllah, we don't know what's at the end of our story. Each one of us has this unique story and the twists and turns that are happening in life are ending up at a certain journey and clearly with Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala was planning in his favor and things are taking place in a very interesting way. So Suhaib is kidnapped as a five year old from the Persian Empire, or from the rule of the Persian Empire, taken back with the Byzantines, separated from his mother in the slave markets. His mother was sold to one master, slave master, who would take his mother away and he'd never actually see his mother again, he never saw his father again. Suhaib was sold to another slave owner and Suhaib would remain in the land of the Romans and he looked like a Roman. An Arab kid whose father was a governor in the Persian Empire, kidnapped by Roman soldiers, would remain as a slave amongst the Romans for about 20 years. And Suhaib said that I would be, you know, I would serve with one master and then I would go to another. And because he looked like a Roman and he was in the Roman territories
now, Suhaib picked up the language of the Byzantine Empire, so he learned how to speak Greek and Suhaib completely forgot Arabic. Okay? So SubhanAllah, there's a story now for many of those whose parents are from different countries maybe and have resided in this land and they don't speak the language of their parents, Suhaib lost his Arabic language, he really lost his Arabic identity, his Arab identity as he was amongst the Romans in their lands. So Suhaib grows up knowing that he is from amongst the Arabs, which is significant to his story, but he looks like a Roman and he is a slave in the Roman lands and he speaks the language of the Romans and he, you know, he constantly craves or longs to be amongst his people, right? To connect with his roots because he never actually had that. Being in the Persian lands, even though his father was royal amongst the Persian Empire, Suhaib remained disconnected from his roots and now of course being taken into slavery and sold over and over and over again for two decades. Suhaib longs for, you know, for that ability to connect to his roots. So Suhaib looks for an opportunity to escape from slavery and to head for the land of the Arabs and he chooses Mecca and there are two, you know, parts of the story. None of them are actually fully authenticated as to what would have brought Suhaib to the land of Mecca. There are some that write that Suhaib had heard about the church leader speaking about the awaited prophet in Mecca, which of course in the land of Ashsham there was talk of the prophet. So that's one possibility. Some of the historians, they say that it was because Mecca was a place of asylum. It was a place of escape, a place of pilgrimage and a place of asylum. So Suhaib wanted to escape to Mecca and treat it like
a place of asylum. So he escaped slavery from the Romans, makes his way to Mecca. Here you have an Arab kid that was born in Persia, enslaved by the Romans, looks like a Roman, looks like the Romans now, escaped now to Mecca. And when he arrives in Mecca, he is either purchased initially by Abdullah ibn Jad'an or he is immediately taken as a halif, as one who is indebted to him, as one who is under the protection, the guardianship of Abdullah ibn Jad'an. Abdullah ibn Jad'an was the richest man in Mecca. He was a person who was well known for not just his wealth, but for his generosity. And he takes Suhaib al-Rumi again, whether he took him as a slave initially and freed him and made him to be under his protection or immediately took him under his protection is not for certain. But it is important to understand Abdullah ibn Jad'an's story. Abdullah ibn Jad'an was the cousin of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, the richest man in Mecca, a powerful man because of his wealth. Hilf al-Fudhul, which would have guaranteed the protection of the likes of Suhaib, Hilf al-Fudhul took place in the house of Abdullah ibn Jad'an. He was the one who finances all of what took place in Hilf al-Fudhul. He was well known for his generosity to people that were suffering in neighboring lands. And so, you know, when the people of Sham were suffering, Abdullah ibn Jad'an sent 2000 camels to the people of Sham and loaded them with all sorts of goods so that they could have their needs fulfilled. People used to call from the roof of the Ka'bah to the poor to tell them to come and to take their fill of the provisions of Abdullah ibn Jad'an. So Abdullah ibn Jad'an was a man who was very wealthy, who was very powerful because of his wealth. And he takes
in Suhaib al-Rumi. And the reason why Suhaib is called Suhaib al-Rumi, even though now he's amongst his people, is because even until the day he died, Suhaib did not speak like an Arab. He spoke Arabic, but he always had a Roman accent, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, even when he passed away. So he looked like a Roman because of his appearance. He had blonde hair, he had fair skin. And he spoke Arabic always with a foreign accent, like one who was not native due to his upbringing, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. But with that being said, he had a character that made him particularly endearing to Abdullah ibn Jad'an. So Abdullah ibn Jad'an turned him into his representative. He taught him trade, he taught him how to be a merchant, he taught him how to engage the marketplace of the Arabs. Suhaib was sharp, he knew how to engage with the Arabs, he knew how to cash in on major deals. And so in the process, he himself, in his own right, became very wealthy. So Suhaib is very wealthy, but he has no one to really protect that wealth because Suhaib is not from one of the tribes in Mecca where he could be protected. And so his protection, his protection solely rests, his tribal protection, solely rests in the power of Abdullah ibn Jad'an. Now when Abdullah ibn Jad'an passes away, Suhaib is just a rich man in Mecca who trades, who buys and sells and trades. And he doesn't really have that protection. So if things are to go wrong, if there's any type of instability, Suhaib would be the first one to have his wealth taken away from him because he is not protected the way that many of the others are protected. Now, did he know the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam before Islam? There's a narration where he actually
says, Sahibtun Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam qabla an yuha ilayhi, that I accompanied the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. I've been with the, I knew the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam before revelation had come to him. And this could be in two capacities, either through the house of ibn Jad'an, who again, Halfa al-Fudur was in his house. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, after he married Khadija radiAllahu Anha in particular, was looked to by the nobles to solve their issues, to judge between them. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was the youngest member of Halfa al-Fudur of the treaty that was made, the pact that was made in the house of ibn Jad'an. So that's one way. And the other way is trade, right? So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, of course, himself was a merchant and Suhaib was a merchant. So they would have come across one another, perhaps through some of the trade that they were both engaged with. Now, Suhaib hears about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam calling to Islam. And Suhaib caught onto this because Suhaib was deeply perceptive in the marketplace. And so, you know, he's very sharp, he's very perceptive. When he hears the murmurs about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's call, it immediately lands in his ears, in his heart. He becomes very curious. He hears before most of Mecca has heard that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is secretly gathering with a small group of people in Dar al-Arqam to teach them about this new religion of his. Suhaib has experienced the character of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Suhaib did not grow up in idol worship the way that the Meccans did. So as far as his previous religious background, it's important to understand this. Suhaib was exposed to Zoroastrianism in Persia. He was exposed to the religion of the Romans, the Christianity of the Romans, the Byzantines. And he was exposed to the idolatry of the
Arabs. He's kind of seen it all. It doesn't seem like he had a particular attachment to any one of those practices, any one of those faiths or ways of practice before. But he hears about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He's experienced the nobility of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam both in the house of Ibn Jad'an, perhaps in trade. And he hears that Dar al-Arqam is where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is gathered. This narration that I'm about to share with you is so beautiful because I want you to actually imagine the scene, right? If you were watching a movie and things were taking place so perfectly. Who narrates the story of Suhaib's Islam? Ammar ibn Yasir radiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu, Wa'an Ummihi Wa'an Abihi. Ammar, the son of Sumayya and Yasir. He says that I found Suhaib, Laqeet Suhaib Ibn Sinan Ala Baab Dar al-Arqam Wa Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Feeha. He said, I and Suhaib both arrived at the door of al-Arqam at the same time where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was inside. And he was teaching Islam to the handful of people that were around him. So Suhaib and Ammar arrived to come and accept Islam at the exact same time. These two legendary figures in Islam. So Suhaib and Ammar arrive and Ammar says that when we both got to the house of al-Arqam, Ammar said, I said to Suhaib, Matha Turid? What is it that you want? What are you doing here? And Suhaib said, well, what do you want? You know, what are you doing here? Right? So they're both feeling each other out to see if they've heard the same news about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and his few followers in Dar al-Arqam that are speaking about Islam. So Ammar says, I said to Suhaib, you know, I'm intending to enter upon Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and hear what he has to say. Neither of them are Muslims before they go
into that house. Right? So Ammar says, you know, I heard that Muhammad is here and I want to hear what he has to say. Suhaib said, I'm here for the exact same reason. So they knock on the door of al-Arqam together. Al-Arqam enters the door, they enter in and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is there. Fa arada alayna al-Islam fa aslamna. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam presented Islam to us and we accepted Islam. So Ammar and Suhaib accepted Islam together at the same time. Now we know, as we talked about Khabbab and Ammar and Bilal and Sumayya and Yasir, that they were going to be tortured in unique ways. We know that the powerful, the elite amongst Quraysh would be tortured privately by the elite of their own tribes. Suhaib is a very unique situation because Suhaib has no protector. He has no master. He has, Abdullah ibn Jad'an is dead. So he's gone. He's fair game to Quraysh and he's a tempting target because if you attack Suhaib you can take his wealth and right now with the anti-Islamic fervor that's going to grow in the climate in Mecca, the hostility towards the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and his followers, who's going to stand up for Suhaib in a society where they would have been hesitant to stand up for him in the first place? Who would stand up for him as a Muslim now in that society? So they leave that house as Muslims and they're going to be forever tied together. And I think Suhaib is fair game to Quraysh. When Quraysh finds out about Suhaib's Islam and Suhaib did not hide his Islam, he's amongst those who first made their Islam public, he's fair game to Quraysh. Meaning anyone, anyone could torture Suhaib. Any one of the elites. If it was Abu Jahl one day, Umayyah the other day, it didn't matter. Any one of them could pluck Suhaib from the streets of Mecca and go and torture him for a few days and no one
would say anything to him. And the connection of Ammar to Suhaib is constant. The connection of Ammar and Suhaib to Bilal and Khabbab is constant. As the narrations tell us in the books of Seer, كان عمار بن ياسر يعذب حتى لا يدري ما يقول وكان سهيب يعذب حتى لا يدري ما يقول. That Ammar and Suhaib used to be tortured until they would not know what they were saying. So they would be beaten to a point of incoherence. They'd be tortured, hung out in the sun, whipped, dehydrated, starved, and each one of them would be tortured to a point that they no longer were even aware of their environment. So they would be tortured to a point of being disoriented. And then you find, you know, some of the hadith and some, you know, that we've narrated thus far, the hadith of where the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is told to abandon this lot, this group of people. And this group of people included Bilal and Khabbab and Ammar and Suhaib. So it was those types. They were considered the lower ones of Mecca. Not low because of his wealth, low because Suhaib did not have a tribe in that area to protect him. So Suhaib was disregarded by the people of Mecca, even though he was an Arab, even though he, you know, he was wealthy because he didn't have a tribe. And there is a beautiful narration from the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam from Abi Umama. And though the authenticity of it is questionable, it's in all of the books of Siyar because it speaks to something very powerful about the subbaq, about the forerunners. That the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, as-subbaq al-arba'a, that the forerunners are four. The first four, the forerunners are four. Ana sabiq al-arab, wa Suhaib sabiq al-rum, wa Bilal sabiq al-habasha, wa Salman sabiq al-furs. So he said SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam that the forerunners are four. I am the forerunner amongst the Arabs. Suhaib is the forerunner amongst the Romans. Bilal is the forerunner amongst the Abyssinians. And Salman is the forerunner amongst the Persians. So even though Suhaib, by the way, was of course again, as we said, an Arab in his blood, but because he lived amongst the Romans, he spent his childhood amongst the Romans, he grew up amongst the Romans, he looked like the Romans, he spoke like the Romans. He essentially was a Roman when he came to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and so the name fit him as Suhaib. Suhaib al-Rumi radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu as he embraced Islam under those circumstances. Now, the hijrah comes. And when the time of the hijrah comes, Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was one of those who was basically barred from society. And he was also barred from the ability to make the hijrah alongside the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So he talks about this. He says that I try to migrate, but Quraysh basically chained me up and they locked me up. So while Khabab was freed and Bilal was freed, Suhaib remained in the state of uncertainty because there was no way to actually free him. He wasn't someone that you could go and purchase his freedom. He just had to remain in this status of limbo amongst Quraysh this entire time. So he said that, you know, I was always held back by Quraysh and he hid his wealth. This is also an important part of the story. He hid his wealth. So Suhaib has his wealth somewhere that Quraysh is unaware of, hidden. And if you know the story of Abdullah ibn Jadaan, it fits because ibn Jadaan got rich because he discovered some treasures in the caves on the outskirts of Mecca. And Suhaib says that I was watched by the guards of Quraysh 24-7. I mean, it was consistent watch for me.
I was locked up and unable to go and join the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and his companions. So he said, then the time of hijrah came. And he said, when the time of hijrah came, the companions had gone forth. And when the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu were to make the hijrah, I was supposed to be the third amongst them, but Quraysh blocked me. So SubhanAllah, he was looking forward to accompanying the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu on that journey of the hijrah, but he was unable to do so. So he said, Quraysh blocked me, I was locked up, and their intention was to forbid me from doing the hijrah altogether. Sohaib said, every single Muslim had left Mecca, all of those who intended to make the hijrah had left to make the hijrah, except for me. I was stuck in Mecca all by myself, accompanied by the guards of Quraysh, unable to do anything in regards to my situation. He said, so one night, remember Sohaib was a very smart man, radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he said, one night I pretended to have diarrhea, okay? So he said, I would stand up, I'd sit down, I'd hold my stomach, and I kept on requesting to go and answer the call of nature. So I kept on telling them, I've gotta go, I've gotta go, I've gotta go. And he said that, I did it so many times that night that they lost attention to me, that one of the times, they got sick of watching me as I'd go out to use the restroom, they lost sight of me. So he said, I immediately went to, and I went to use the restroom, or I pretended to go and use the restroom, he said, I took off, and I started to make my way to Medina. By the time they realized it, I was already advanced, somewhat to the outskirts of Mecca. So he said, they caught up with me, and I was on top of a mountain, or on top of a hill, actually,
and I saw them coming at me, and I said to them, Ya ma'ashar al-Quraysh, inni min armakum wa la tasiruna ilayya hatta armikum bikulli sahmin ma'i. He said, listen, O Quraysh, you know that I am amongst the most skilled archers amongst you, and he's pointing his arrows towards them. He said, wallahi, I will take every single one of these arrows, and I will pop each and every single one of you, and you will not arrive at me. So he's threatening them with his bow and arrow, and he's on top of the hill, so he could technically strike that group of people that came to him. So they call out to Suhaib, and they say, you came to us with nothing, and became wealthy on our account, and now you think we're just gonna let you get away? You came to Mecca as a slave, and you became rich in Mecca, as a representative, as the halif of Abdullah ibn Jadaan, and you think that we're just gonna let you come to Mecca, get rich in Mecca, and now you're gonna leave, and get out of Mecca with all of your wealth? So Suhaib thought of a compromise. Suhaib says to them, listen, I will leave Mecca just like I came to it. If that's your concern, I'll leave Mecca just like I came to it. You no longer have any use of keeping me here and torturing me, right? So he says, if you want my money, dalaltukum alayhi, then I will tell you exactly where all of my hiding places of my wealth are, and you will be able to go and to take all of that money. And the condition is that if I tell you where all of that money is, then you have to let me go to Medina. You have to let me go to Medina. So Suhaib told them exactly where his money was, and they said to Suhaib, you know what? Fine, you know, go ahead. Now Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala anhu is able to leave Mecca, having given up everything that he earned in his time in Mecca.
And that's where, by the way, a lot of the mufassiri don't say, this is where the ayah, wa minannasi man yashri nafsahu btigha amardatillah. Some say it was revealed after the torture of Bilal. Some say it was revealed in this incident, that those who sell themselves for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la Suhaib gave away his decades of wealth. He was one of the richest men in Mecca, but in a peculiar situation, because he wanted to join the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in Medina. So Suhaib makes his way to Quba, to join the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and his companions in Quba. And as Suhaib is getting there, he sees the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam sees Suhaib coming forward with none of his wealth, all by himself, looking sick. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam says, Rabihal bay'u aba Yahya, rabihal bay'u, rabihal bay'u. What a profitable transaction, oh Abu Yahya. What a profitable transaction. What a profitable transaction. And this is very powerful because that was the same language that the Ansar used. When they asked the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, what are we going to get in return for taking you in? And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam told them al-jannah. He said, I'm not guaranteeing you anything, but paradise, that's it. I'm not guaranteeing you that Yathrib is going to become a world-class city and turn into Medina, that people will visit it from now on, that this is to your worldly benefit. I'm not promising you victory in battle. I'm promising you al-jannah. And they said, rabihal bay'u, then it is a transaction that is indeed worth it. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is telling Suhaib, rabihal bay'u aba Yahya, everything that you gave away, it was a profitable transaction. And you can imagine, SubhanAllah, on the day of judgment, as Suhaib is enjoying his jannah, right? Rabihal bay'u aba Yahya, what a profitable transaction, oh, Abu Yahya, that you made.
Now, as he goes forward, and some of the narrations say he arrived at Quba at the same time as Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And if you remember when we talked about Ali, Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu went by foot, all by himself, right? After he took on the task of sleeping in the bed of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, discharging his amanat, discharging the trust of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to the people of Mecca, then Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu made his way to Medina by foot, and came to Quba, and his feet were full of blisters, and wounds, radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, because he had to make that journey without any horse or any camel. So Suhaib arrived at the exact same time as Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, so he's amongst the last to arrive at that time. And there's a funny narration that takes place here. And you're going to see a beautiful relationship that develops between Umar and Suhaib, okay? And this narration is at Quba. Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu says, I came to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam starving from the hijrah. I was hungry. I was hungry. I was sick. I was tired. He said, my eyes were red, inflamed. He said, one of my eyes was almost completely, you know, was almost completely shut because it was, you know, inflamed, clearly inflamed. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam told him, you know, come on and eat. So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam had some bread and some tamar in front of him, some bread and some dates in front of him. So Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu says, fa waqa'atu feehi, I just started to dig into the dates and the bread. I started to eat like crazy, right? Just, I forgot myself, and I kept on eating and eating and eating and eating. So Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, Ya Rasulullah, O Messenger of Allah, do you see how Suhaib is eating all of those dates, even though he has a sickness in his eye? Like you think that, you know, when you're really sick
or when you have this inflammation or this is happening, that you wouldn't be that hungry, right? That you'd want to treat your illnesses. So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said to Suhaib, ta'kulu tamran wabika ramad. He said, you're eating these dates when you have that inflammation in your eye. So he says, I said to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam that I'm eating min nahiyatin ukhra, I'm eating from the other eye, from the direction of the other eye, Ya Rasulullah. And so the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he smiled widely. And of course, the laugh of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was a wide smile when he would see Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu in this situation. And you already start to see the relationship between Suhaib and Umar that will develop, that InshaAllah ta'ala will talk about momentarily. So in Medina, Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu says that there was not a single mashhad, not a single battle of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, except that I was by his side, I was in front of him, I was behind him to his left or to his right. But he witnessed a closeness to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in Medina. And he witnessed a particular closeness to Umar bin Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, as we said. And I wanna actually fast forward to Fath Makkah, to the conquest of Makkah. Remember when we spoke about Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, we said that there was a comment that was made to Abu Sufyan that verily the swords of Allah did not reach the neck of the enemy of Allah as they should have. And that was Salman, Suhaib and Bilal, right? And I just want you to remember that inshAllah ta'ala so you can kind of understand the way that these lots are forming amongst the companions of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. That Suhaib had this connection always to Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, to Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, to Khabab radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, and to Salman radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
who shares a unique journey of Islam. And of course, going through slavery to arrive at the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam as well. And of course, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam told Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu who had admonished them for saying that to Abu Sufyan that it might be that you would have angered them. And so you would have angered Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Abu Bakr went to them and he sought forgiveness and they forgave him radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. So let's talk about this relationship between Suhaib and Umar because it's important for a few reasons. One of them is that once we get to the life of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, it's very interesting that Umar radiAllahu Anhu who is this proud, boastful man, keeps showing up as someone who is extremely close to Bilal, to Khabab, to Suhaib, to Ammar, to Salman, and to Ibn Mas'ud by the way, who we'll also talk about, may Allah be pleased with them all which shows you how Islam truly turned these people into brothers across class, across journey, across race, across all of these different things, across tribe of course, more than all of that. So Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu has this narration where he says to Suhaib, Suhaib had come to the area of the elevated lands if you go to Medina. So the area where you find, where Salman radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu's garden was, where some of the Sahaba used to live. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, he said that what a man you are, lawla khisal thalath feek, he said had it not been for three things in you. Right, he said I find no flaws in you oh Suhaib, except for three things. He said number one, he said that you have taken the Kunya of Abu Yahya and you don't have a son named Yahya. So why are you Abu Yahya?
And so I don't understand that about you. He said and then you ascribe yourself to the Arabs and you're a Roman. So why is it that you ascribe yourself to the Arab and you are a Roman? And then he said you tend to be extravagant in your purchase of food, you purchase a lot of food. And remember that incident that took place when Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu came to make the hijrah with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam So Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu responded and he says as for the Kunya of Abu Yahya, he said the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam called me Abu Yahya. He said that was something that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to me and so I embraced that name because it was what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam called me. And he says as for the ascription to the Arabs, it is because in fact my father is an Arab and that's how you have the narration of Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu telling his story about how they were an Arab family amongst the Persians. His father became a governor on behalf of Kisra and then he was kidnapped to the Romans and then he made his way back to the Arabs. And he says as for the third one, which is that you are extravagant in your purchase of food. He said I heard the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam say khairukum man ata'mata'am, the best of you are those who feed many people. So Suhaib liked to purchase a lot of food and he liked to feed many people as well, whether it was the poor or whether as some form of keeping people together. So they have this relationship, Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and it shows in the virtue of Suhaib as well. Actually when Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was attacked and murdered. When Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was stabbed and of course we know that Umar lived some time because of his strength radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu despite the severity of his wounds to where he still was able to appoint the Shura. He still was able to give his orders and to make his final requests
for some time after he had been stabbed radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu appointed Suhaib to be the Imam of the Muslims until they would settle on an Imam through the Shura, meaning until they would come up with a Khalifa. And this is huge for many reasons. Number one, it speaks to the virtue of Suhaib, right? In the presence of all of those companions, Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu chose him, favored him to be the one to lead the Salah in the presence of or in the absence of a Khalifa as the Shura would deliberate and would come up with the Khalifa. Number two, Suhaib had a foreign accent. He did not have a native Arab tongue. And so, you know, despite his foreignness, both in terms of his appearance and where he came from and his language, the way he spoke, his foreignness and not having a tribe to ascribe himself to that was known to Quraysh, all of that Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu still appointed him as the Imam of the Muslims as they were deliberating on who the Khalifa would be. So that's one of the great virtues of Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, and it speaks to the culture in Islam, you know, that was created that Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu of course, who, you know, we saw was completely transformed by Islam. His outlooks of the world, his tribal outlooks, all of that was completely transformed with Islam and that shows itself in Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu being appointed as the Imam in his absence. And we also see by the way, that when Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was wounded, that Suhaib wept in the presence of Umar. And as he wept and cried heavily, he shouted out, Wa akha, oh my brother, oh my brother, SubhanAllah, he didn't call out to him and say, oh my Khalifa, ya ameerul mu'mineen, but the affection that he had for Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
he said, oh my brother, you know, my brother is dying. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, ya Suhaib, oh Suhaib, don't you know that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said that the dead is punished because of the lamenting of the living. So he told them to tone down his weeping and his mourning as Umar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was passing away, but that shows you the love that they had. And what an honor that Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was actually the one who jumped into the grave of Umar bin Khattab radiAllahu Anhu and received his body to place it alongside the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And that speaks to, you know, that in and of itself was an incredible honor that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bestowed on Suhaib al-Rumi radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. He would live sometime into the Khilafah of Uthman radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And when the fitna would break out, when the trials and tribulations amongst the companions would break out, Suhaib was one of those who avoided it altogether. He took to the mountains, he purchased his sheep, he did not want anything to do with the internal disputes amongst the Muslims. And so he died in a relatively obscure way despite his lofty status. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, may Allah be pleased with him for the wonderful personality and the journey of this man who is again, one of the first seven to publicize his Islam, the last of whom we are covering in this series. He was, you know, survived by a few of his children. He was married once according to the books to Rayta bint Abi Umayyah. And he had a few children. And that's actually where you find some of the narrations of his hadiths. Like Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, like some of the others that we've mentioned, because he died young and because he did not have the ability to transmit some of the narrations on behalf of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, there are very few that are narrated
from Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. But I was just looking, and one thing that I like to do always is when I look to a companion, especially those that haven't narrated a large body of hadith, I like to see what hadith they did narrate. And you can think about how those hadith affected their own lives. And SubhanAllah, I found one of the most famous hadith of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in regards to tribulation is narrated by this man radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And think about how this hadith fits him. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Ajaban li amril mu'min. How wonderful is the affair of the believer. There is good for him in everything that happens to him. And that is only the case of the believer. Walaysa dhalika li ahad illa lil mu'min. This is not for anyone except for the believer. If prosperity comes to him, if good comes to him, shakara, then he is grateful. Fakaana khayran lah, and that is better for him. And if hardship comes to him, then he is patient and that is better for him. So this very famous hadith that you will hear often talking about hardship and talking about the way we perceive life. This is narrated by Suhaib Ar-Rumi from the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And think about all that happened to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, that happened to Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu in the pursuit of Allah and his Messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Rabiha al-bay' ya Abu Yahya. What a profitable transaction you made, O Abu Yahya, in the process of coming to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and giving everything else up for the sake of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and not thinking about the consequences at any point. Another famous hadith that's narrated from Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam recited the verse, lilladhina ahsanul husna wa ziyada. That for those who have done good is ihsan, for those who have put forth excellence is an excellent reward in return and even more. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, when the people of Jannah enter into Jannah
and the people of fire enter into the fire, a caller will cry out and say, ya ahlul Jannah, O people of paradise, you have a covenant with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la that he wishes to fulfill. And they would respond and they would say, what is it? You know, what, wa ma hu? What is it that Allah wants to give to us? Hasn't Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la already made our good deeds heavy? Hasn't he already made our faces bright? Hasn't he already entered us into Jannah, protected us from hellfire? And then the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, the veil will be lifted and they will gaze upon Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam says, wa fa wallahi, I swear by Allah, ma a'tahumallahu shay'an ahabba ilayhim minan nazari ilayhi wala aqarra bi a'yunihim. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Allah will not give them anything that is more beloved to them or more pleasing to them than being able to look at him, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And so, lilladheena ahsanul husna wa ziyada, the more in this ayah, what is more than Allah repaying with Jannah is the ability to gaze upon Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in al-Jannah. And that was narrated by Suhaib radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la allow us to be in that gathering that gazes upon Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in the highest level of Jannatul Firdaus in the presence of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Allahumma ameen. And lastly, the long story of Ashabul Ukhdud in Sahih Muslim. When you read Suratul Buruj and you read about the people of the ditch, the people who were tortured for saying la ilaha illallah and killed by that oppressive king. That long narration in Sahih Muslim is also narrated by Suhaib al-Rumi radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. So it gives you a little bit of how these companions would have really had certain sayings of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam resonate with them in a very powerful way because they could see it in their own experience. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
allow us to experience Jannatul Firdaus alongside them. Allahumma ameen. InshaAllah ta'ala next week, we'll talk about Al-Arqam and Dar Al-Arqam because that is the home where Ammar and Suhaib found Islam together at the same time. And inshaAllah ta'ala help us to continue to build out the climate in Medina at that time. JazakAllah khayran AsSalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu
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