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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
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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
126
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
Suraqa ibn Malik (ra): The Bounty Hunter | The Firsts
Suraqa ibn Malik (ra) went out as a disbeliever hunting the Prophet ﷺ for 100 camels, then came back a believer with the bracelets of the ruler of Persia. Dr. Omar Suleiman shares this remarkable story about prophecy even in vulnerability.
The Firsts is a weekly video series that chronicles the lives of the Sahaba (the companions of the Prophet ﷺ) during and after the time of the Prophet ﷺ.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. The next person that we're going to cover is a man by the name of Suraqa ibn Malik radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And Suraqa ibn Malik, his name is Suraqa ibn Malik ibn Ja'sham. His nickname or his kunya was Abu Sufyan. Not the Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, but Abu Sufyan Suraqa ibn Malik. And Suraqa radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu is a bounty hunter. He's someone who knows the desert. He's someone that used to go scout places for battle. And this is a very interesting, you know, profile of a person. You often find that people that are interested in war are not interested in anything else. And this is before and after Islam, subhanAllah. There are people that are just dedicated to the craft of the battlefield. He's one of those people who's only interested in the arts of war, scouting out camps. And he's someone radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu who used to go out there and he could count the amount of troops that were present in a place just by the footsteps, the human footsteps, as well as the footsteps of any animals that were to be found. So Suraqa ibn Malik radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu is a Meccan. And he's someone who lives also to the outskirts of Mecca, around the area where Hunayn will take, where you'll start to see Ghazwat Hunayn. So he's someone that lives also amongst these people that are not city people, right? And of course, that's a profile, once again, that goes out and that traces these things. Now Abu Jahl announces the bounty on the head of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam when the Hijrah happens. Abdullah ibn Uraiqat has come back and now it's known that the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam escaped with Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu anhu and they know that Amir ibn Fuhayrah radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu is with them as well.
So Abu Jahl announces the bounty on the head of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Does anyone know what that bounty was? I already said a little earlier. A hundred camels. Imagine what a hundred camels is like back then. You know, if you think about the most wanted man, right, when they announce like these high bounties, you are the equivalent of a multi-millionaire if you get a hundred camels back then. You're set for life. A hundred of the finest camels. That Abu Jahl is promising that all of the tribes will basically put forth their best. So think about like your luxury cars, your luxury camels, and one man is going to have all 100. And so you had, and the books narrate up to 400 people that are going out and looking for the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Everyone wants to find the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Even if they didn't want to kill him for his theology sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, for his risalah, they wanted to kill him for the bounty. And Abu Jahl said, dead or alive, I don't care if you kill him or if you bring him back to me alive, but the bounty is the same, a hundred camels. So Suraqa, who has ignored the affair of Islam, and again, I want you to think about the profile type. He really wasn't listening to anything that was happening about Islam for all this time. When he heard that, he said, that's me. I've got this. And he was the most competent and capable person of finding people in the deserts and he knows the area. So Suraqa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he goes out and he's a skilled horseman radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. He tells Abu Jahl, I'm going to find him and I'll bring him back to you within three nights. And subhanAllah, he describes the incident. He traced the footsteps and he sees the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam from a distance. And as the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam looks back towards him, the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam makes a du'a against him.
And Suraqa says that suddenly my horse sinks into the ground and it throws me off. And he said, that's never happened to me before. So Suraqa says, that was weird. Something is happening here. Something is strange. Clearly, there's something going on with this man. That's a hundred camels. So he gets back on the horse, goes back after the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. He said, I got closer. He said, this time it sunk worse and it threw me off worse. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is unfazed by the oncoming bounty hunter. He doesn't care sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. He's continuing to proceed. And Suraqa says, so I got on there and I tried it again. And he actually says in one narration that I was kind of confused by the situation. So he said, I pulled out my arrows. And what did the Arabs used to do? Like how did they used to roll dice? They'd cast light, their lots, right? That's how they rolled the dice. Like flip a coin, roll the dice. He's like, should I be doing this or not? And he doesn't have a deen. He really doesn't have a religion. So he's depending on luck here, right? He's depending on some sort of messaging from the arrows. And he said, and I casted the lots and they pointed to the opposite direction. But I still said to myself, a hundred camels. I'm not going to let a hundred camels go. So he said, so I got back on my horse and I pursued and I got so close to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam that I could hear him and he could hear me. So like now we're not even in a distance anymore. Like this is, he's right there. I just have to rope him up sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And he said, and it happened again. The horse threw me off. So he said, I called the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And I said to him, oh, so and so, can you invoke your Lord to let me go? And I promise you, I won't harm you. Like make du'a that Allah frees me and I'm not going to harm you. But I just want to come talk to you now. Like I'm not going to harm you.
So the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam makes du'a. He supplicates. And suraqa is able to come up to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and Amr bin Fuhayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And suraqa says, I said to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, It is clear that whatever this affair of yours is, it's going to spread throughout the world. So he said, I want you to write for me a guarantee of protection, aman. That when your affair spreads to my part, that I'm going to be safe. Like I know that whoever you are, I don't know anything about your religion. I don't know anything about your deen. I don't know anything. And he's saying, amrika hadha, like all I know is that this affair of yours, whatever is going on here with you is pretty remarkable and amazing. And I don't know what it is, but I want a guarantee from you that whenever it comes to my area, I'm going to be safe. So what did the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam do? He actually gave it to him. So he asked Amr bin Fuhayr to write him down, amanun min Rasool Allah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Here's your amnesty from the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Like this is your safety license, your contract. Once Islam comes to your area, that hey, I'm good. Like don't mess with me. So suraqa gets it from the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And subhanAllah, he knows that this man is special. He no longer cares about the hundred camels, right? The whole thing about getting a hundred camels no longer matters to suraqa radiAllahu anhu. It's just, don't hurt me when you catch me. Or whenever Allah gives you victory, when Allah gives you success, just don't hurt me. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, of course, if he wanted to hurt him, he would have hurt him right then. He could have took the spear and just killed him right then, right? But the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam has bigger ambitions. He has a bigger way of thinking, sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, and a bigger heart. So the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam gives it to him. And then he says to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam,
وَهَذِهِ كِنَانَتِي فَخُذْ سَهْمًا مِنْهَا فَإِنَّكَ سَتَمُرُّ عَلَىٰ إِبْرِي وَغِلْمَانِي بِمَكَانِ كَذَى وَكَذَى فَخُذْ مِنْهَا حَاجَتَكَ He said, and by the way, here is my arrow, and I've got a place where I have all of my camels, and I have a bunch of servants. Go take whatever you want. If you go show this to them, they're going to know that you're from me. And Ya Rasulullah, go ahead and take all the camels that you want, and take all the servants that you want. It's all yours. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam responded, and this narration is sahih Muslim, قَالَ لَا حَاجَةَ لِي فِي إِبْرِكَ I have no need for your camels. Go ahead. So suraqa turns away from the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, and he makes his way. And this is subhanAllah. Like you think about remarkable conversations. The Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is in the most vulnerable position that he could possibly be in. And he calls out to suraqa, as suraqa is leaving him in the middle of the desert again, when the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is being attacked from all different directions. I mean, all these other people are still out to kill him sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam says, كَيْفَ بِكَ إِذْ لَبِسْتَ سِوَارِ كِسْرَىٰ يَا سُرَاقَ How will it be, O suraqa, when you are wearing the bracelets of Kisra? Kisra is the most powerful man in the world. Literally, the most powerful man in the world at that time, the ruler of Persia. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is telling him, that you're going to one day have in your hands the golden bracelets of Kisra. You know, they had the crown and they had the robe of the king, of the ruler. His bracelets were famous as the most precious and most expensive luxury belongings in the world. And he's saying, the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is saying to me in the middle of a desert,
this fugitive, how's it going to be, O suraqa, when one day you're carrying those bracelets of Kisra? Suraqa looks back at the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and he says, Kisra? Kisra, the son of Hormuz? Like, is there another Kisra that we don't know about here? That Kisra? Like, imagine, subhanAllah, if this conversation is happening in a remote part of the world, and the most powerful man in the world, you're being told that you're going to carry his most precious possession by a person who's a fugitive in the middle of the desert. He says, Kisra, the son of Hormuz? The Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam smiles at him and just walks away. SubhanAllah. Suraqa went out there looking for a hundred camels, and was willing to kill the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, and now he's asking the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam for safety, and the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam just told him that more than the one hundred camels, one day Allah is going to put in your possession the most expensive items in the world. So Suraqa, what does he do? And subhanAllah, it shows you the profile again of people. Abu Ma'bad and Umm Ma'bad, they went to Medina, and Aslamu, they became Muslim and they stayed with the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Suraqa went back to Mecca and held on to that paper. And when's the next time he sees the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam? Fatih Mecca. A decade later, the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam comes to Mecca, and Hunayn is unfolding after the Fatih, and Suraqa comes out and he says, remember this? The Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam remembers. Suraqa says, ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashhadu annaka rasulullah. I knew Allah was going to give you victory. And I bear witness that there is one God, and that you are the Messenger of Allah. And then Suraqa radiAllahu anhu becomes a companion. SubhanAllah, I mean he waited all that time, holding on to that document, to just say, remember this. And what ends up happening, subhanAllah,
as time goes on, the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam passes away, Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu assumes the Khilafah, and his time passes, and then Umar bin Khattab radiAllahu anhu assumes the Khilafah, and the battle between the Muslims and the Persians unfolds, and in one year, the most powerful empire in the world, that was at war with the Romans for over 700 years, falls to the Muslims. Who the Persians looked at and said, the Bedouins of the desert. Like, what are you people going to do to us, right? And we're constantly picking and bullying on the Muslims from different directions, and bothering them, and attacking them. And in one year, Allah subhanAllahu wa ta'ala gave the Muslims victory over the Persians. And Salman al-Farisi radiAllahu anhu, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas radiAllahu anhu, enter into the most luxurious palace of the world, which they used to call, what did they used to call it at the time, does anyone know? They used to call it the White House, basically. It was the White Palace of Medan, which was considered the largest palace in the world at the time. And all of those possessions come out of that palace. Now, when the Muslims came back to Medina, after the conquest of that palace, and this was of course the end of Kisra as well, when they came back to Medina, they're carrying all these belongings. And they're happy to bring it back to Bayt al-Mal, to the treasury, right? These are the spoils of battle, but this is also, subhanAllah, all of these things, these material things. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, what arrives in the lot, here are the bracelets of Kisra. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he goes and he stands up on the manbar, holding up those bracelets. And he says, where is Suraqa ibn Malik? SubhanAllah, I want you to think about this. How many years did this happen before? Where is Suraqa ibn Malik?
So Suraqa ibn Malik comes forward, he didn't even go, he wasn't part of the battle. But this is a prophecy. Ayna Suraqa, where is Suraqa ibn Malik radiAllahu ta'ala anhu? And Suraqa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu comes forward, and Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu puts the bracelets in his hands, and he says, صدق صاحب هذا المقام that the one who had this position, Rasulullah ﷺ, was truthful. الله أكبر Right? Like, look what came true. The most improbable transfer came true, right in front of your own two eyes. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu is showing Suraqa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, these bracelets, and he's saying to him, ارفع يديك Hold up your hands. وقل الحمد لله الذي سلبهما كسر بن هرمز وألبسهما سراقا الأعرابي Say, alhamdulillah, who took these away from Kisra, the son of Hurmuz, and instead gave them to Suraqa, the Bedouin. رضي الله تعالى عنه This was a guarantee from the Prophet ﷺ. So subhanAllah, you're seeing Umar radiAllahu anha, and the effect of that still continues in that conversation in that house, in that tent on the way. And now you have the bounty hunter, Suraqa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, who tried to catch the Prophet ﷺ and instead was found with great barakah and a great blessing that would come to him.
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