The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khawla Bint Hakim & Uthman Ibn Madhun: The Righteous Couple | The Firsts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Trendsetters, Revivers, and Strangers
Who are The Firsts? To kick off the lecture series, Sh. Omar Suleiman describes the 5 categories of firsts in the Qur’an and Sunnah.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. I want to welcome you all to this. Alhamdulillah, it's been a very long time since we've had our weekly classes. And so tonight, inshallah, we embark on one of those journeys. I told myself that the next class that I would do would be an eight week or a ten week, but this one's probably going to be about three years. So inshallah, brace yourselves. And I hope that we are all consistent. And it's really, I want to frame the series in this first class that we have tonight, inshallah, and framing it in different ways, framing it because if we only study history to admire people, then we're never going to be a part of making history ourselves. And if we see a hadith of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, where he talks about these amazing, distinguished human beings on the Day of Judgment, and we don't aspire to be amongst them, then we're not reading those ahadith properly. And so what is this idea of the firsts and this idea of sabiqoon, forerunners, which is only one category of firsts? So what we're going to do inshallah throughout the next couple of years, at least I would say, is we're going to take different people and different groups and study them only in the context of them being the firsts. So what does that mean? So if we do a halaqa on Bilal radhiallahu anhu, the first muadhin, we're not going to do the biography of Bilal, but only the implications of him being the first muadhin and diving deep into that. If we do a halaqa on Nuh alayhi wasalam, the first messenger of God, then we're only going to study the implications of him being the first rasool and so on and so forth. If we talk about the firsts in regards to those that did incredible things throughout Islamic history, we're going to talk about them within that context. We might talk about groups at times. So if we talk about the first muhajireen, the first to migrate, to flee with their religion, then we will talk about them in that context.
And there are also firsts that exist in the Quran and the sunnah as categories for us to aspire to. So the first person to enter into paradise with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, the first person to be dressed on the day of judgment, the first people to be brought near to Allah on the day of judgment, all of these different types of firsts as they exist within the ahadith as well as categories that we can aspire to also. So it's a long series and we're not going to go chronologically, but instead diversify insha'Allah the different ways in which we talk about these firsts. And bi-idhnaya ta'ala I pray that it will be beneficial. And so we start off first and foremost asking Allah for this to be a blessed series and for us to benefit from it. And as we hear the first that we cannot become, we ask Allah to allow us to follow in their footsteps. And as we hear of the first that we can become, we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen. And so tonight we're going to do five categories of firsts as they exist within the Quran and the sunnah. And yes, you have to take notes if you weren't intending to, to get the full benefit of the series. And so the first group that we have within these categories are as-sabiqun. As-sabiqun, as-sabiqun, the forerunners. And so let's start off with them and how Allah talks about them. These are people that are forerunners to good. They rush towards the good when they hear about it or when they see it. They don't wait for anybody else to lead them that way. They don't drag their feet. They don't look around. They immediately rush to do good. And there are different ways in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about these people in the Quran. Allah says, أُولَٰئِكَ يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْخَيْرَاتِ These are the people that rush and compete for good. They are in constant competition with one another and in constant competition with themselves,
challenging themselves to get to higher levels. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, بَادِرُوا بِالْأَعْمَالِ الصَّالِحَةِ Rush to do good deeds. And so this is generally the category that the scholars refer to as عِلُوَّ الْهِمَّةِ People that have higher ambitions, that are driven, that do not wait for an environment to drive them, nor do they wait for anyone else to outdo them. But instead they are self-motivated and driven because they know that this is pleasing to Allah. And so they rush to be amongst those who would be the first to please their Lord. And they're described in two ways. And the scholars talk about why the Qur'an mentions السَّابِقُونَ الْمُقَرَّبُونَ The forerunners, the forerunners, verily they are the ones who are closest to their Lord on the Day of Judgment. So why would Allah mention the سَابِقُونَ twice? And what's the difference between them and أَصْحَابُ الْيَمِينَ The people of the right hand. See there are three different categories that Allah mentions in regards to people on the Day of Judgment. Allah mentions the people on the left, not all of you. The people on the left as in on the Day of Judgment. The people on the right, inshaAllah all of you, may Allah make it all of you and you as well. The people on the right. And Allah says that the majority fall within these two. The people on the right, the people on the left. And then Allah mentions this small group of people of السَّابِقُونَ, of forerunners. They are not to the right or to the left, but they are directly under the shade of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They're directly under his throne. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned seven groups of people who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would shade under his throne on the Day of Judgment. And you know, we're not going to go into detail, but the point is that there's this small group of people that outdo everybody else.
And they are chosen amongst أَصْحَابُ الْيَمِينَ So they are necessarily part of the believing group of people but at the same time, they have excelled even beyond the majority of the believers and those that would enter into paradise. And from the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is that every mu'min will eventually enter into Jannah. Every mu'min will eventually enter into Jannah. But these are the people that are the first to Allah's shade on the Day of Judgment. And these are the people that are the quickest to their مراتب, to their stations in paradise. So Allah mentions them twice, السَّابِقُونَ Two, the forerunners, the forerunners. And the scholars talked about this usage of language, the forerunners, the forerunners. Some of them said they rush to Allah in this dunya, hence they will be rushed to Allah in the akhira. They rush to Allah in this life, and so they will be rushed to Allah in the hereafter. And so you think about the people getting out of their graves on the Day of Judgment, and the angels that drive them to their place that literally, the سَّابِقُونَ and the شَهِيدُ, the driver and the witness amongst the angels that take you to your place. No one wakes up on the Day of Judgment and you know, is able to pull up an app that tells them where to go. There's no Waze or Google Maps on Yawmul Qiyamah. You wake up and you are taken to your place. And so these people, may Allah make us amongst them, they are driven to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right away, meaning the angels just immediately escort them and they rush them to Allah quickly, right? And so they find themselves immediately in the protection of Allah and they know it. And so in this dunya, they rush to Allah. In this world, they rush to Allah. In the hereafter, they are rushed to Allah. Okay, so that's one way of looking at it, a very beautiful way of looking at it. In a practical sense, some of the scholars divided it into two.
They said سَابِقُونَ are of two types. The forerunners are of two types. One of them is that they are the first to respond to good. So it refers to إِجَابَة, refers to the response time. And so Allah mentions in the Quran, لا يَسْتَوِي مِنكُم مَنْ أَنْفَقَ مِنْ قَبْلِ الْفَتْحِ وَقَاتَلُ أُولَٰئِكَ أَعْظَمُ دَرَجَةً مِنَ الَّذِينَ أَنْفَقُوا مِنْ بَعْدُ وَقَاتَلُ That those of you that embraced the faith early on, before the Fath, before Mecca comes under the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, in the most inconvenient times, under duress, and fought alongside the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, were driven out of their homes with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, spent their money in the cause of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, lost everything for this. Those of you that joined first are not like those of you that joined afterwards. That the muhajirun, the early believers are unlike anyone else. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has reserved the special rank for them. وَكُلًّا وَعْدَ اللَّهُ الْحُسْنَةُ But Allah does not exclude anyone. Everyone has their own customized reward from God. So even if someone might say, well, that's not fair. I wasn't in Mecca and I couldn't be like Hamza. Well, you might have been like Abu Jahl. So say alhamdulillah that Allah knows where He put you, what time He put you in and how He put you in this time. But the point is that there are these people that immediately accepted the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam or were very early on in accepting faith and facing the consequences of that. For us, that also means when you hear of a good, when someone calls you to good, whether that someone comes in the form of a human being or it is the angels that prompt you towards good, or it is hearing the verses of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or hearing that internal pull, that fitrah inside of you that calls you towards good, that natural disposition towards good.
What is the wait time that it takes for you to answer? How long does it take for you to actually activate? Right? When you hear it, do you run or do you hesitate? And one of the beautiful things that we find from the pious predecessors, they mentioned when Allah talks about dunya, when He talks about the worldly life in the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, فَمْشُوا فِي مَنَاكِبِهَا۟ Walk patiently, walk on the surfaces the way that Allah has decreed for you to do so. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about the khayr though, أُولَٰئِكَ يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْخَيْرَاتِ They are people who rush towards that good. So what's the hesitation time? Is there taradud? Is there hesitation? In that same surah, in surah al-Hadid, because you might say, well, I couldn't be from amongst those who were from ashab al-muhajirun, I couldn't be from amongst those first believers. So where do I stand? When Allah talks about the believers and the hypocrites on the day of judgment, Allah mentions the believers responding to the hypocrites that are asking them, أُنظُرُونَ نَقَتَبِسْ مِن نُّورِكُمْ You know, wait for us and give us some of your light. قِيلَ اَرْجِعُوا وَرَاءَكُمْ فَلْتَمِسُوا نُورًا And they tell them, go back to where you're coming from and find a light over there. And most of the scholars say that means go back to the dunya, go back to the world if you want, and try to kindle your light there. Because you kindle your light for the hereafter in this world. And so whenever they are wondering, they're calling out and they're saying, أَلَمْ نَكُن مَعَكُمْ Wait a minute, weren't we all together? We were all sitting in the same places, we belonged to, I mean, we knew each other, right? We were all مؤمنين, what happened? أَلَمْ نَكُن مَعَكُمْ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ وَلَكِنَّكُمْ فَتَنْتُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَتَرَضَّصْتُمْ وَارْتَبَتُمْ
It's really interesting, the order. فَتَنْتُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ You corrupted yourselves, you spoiled yourselves. The Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, when he made the call, initially in Mecca, people, some people thought about, you know, I need to respond because this is truth. Some people thought about, well, wait a minute, what about my idols, my businesses, my prominence, my corruption, my authority? So it wasn't about a recognition or a failure to recognize the truth in the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. It was about what are the consequences of actually accepting this truth. And so, you know, you had the Abu Bakr, and you had the Abu Lahabs, who were like, hold on, if I submit to this, that means my money, my prominence, my corruption, my subjugation of people in the name of these idols, all of that is gone. And so, تَرَبَّصْتُمْ وَارْتَبَتُمْ refers to the holding back, you hesitated. So فَتَنْتُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ refers to the act of corruption of self. تَرَبَّصْتُمْ وَارْتَبَتُمْ means you were just about to accept it and then you held back. You got cold feet. So the hesitation is condemned as well. And Allah subHanahu wa ta'ala when He taught, in the beginning of Surah Al-Hadid, Allah talks about people that corrupt themselves and then Allah subHanahu wa ta'ala talks about the difference in rank in accordance with how quickly people responded to the call. Then when Allah talks about, fast-forwards to the day of judgment and Allah talks about this conversation between believers and hypocrites, Allah mentions two reasons that the believers give to the hypocrites that they corrupt themselves which refers to the evil or they hesitated to the good. They thought, you know what, I'm gonna do this tomorrow. So can you imagine there were people in Mecca when they heard the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, there were people who probably went to bed at night and said, you know what, tomorrow I'm gonna go to Muhammad salAllahu alayhi wa sallam and accept faith and I'm gonna change this, I'm gonna leave this. And then they woke up in the morning
and said, no, never mind. And because of that, they never became sahaba, they never, they're forgotten or put behind. There are companions, there are people that existed like that in the ranks of Abu Jahl, right? There are people that were swaying between two and they would hesitate. Imagine if Umar bin al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, when he heard the message that next time, when he read Surah Taha, right? In the house of his sister and recognize this as divine revelation. If Umar would have said, you know what, this is, I'm gonna go home, take some time, think about this for a few days. He might have decided tomorrow to go kill the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam again. But Umar radhiAllahu anhu said that I'm going to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. No, I'm gonna respond. So the lag time in responding to good is what's actually being spoken about in terms of subbaat, in terms of assabiqoon, assabiqoon. If you're in a race, you can pace yourself, run a little bit slower so that you can end it in the right way. But if you decide to just sit it out for a little bit and say, I'm gonna take a break for 10 minutes, I'm just gonna sit on the side, you're not winning that race, you know? And you might just quit. So constantly in that pursuit of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So this is the first one in regards to ijabah, assabiqoon, in regards to response time. The other one, the scholars say assabiqoon, assabiqoon. They said the first one, assabiqoon ilal khair, the second one, assabiqoon, who run away, minashar, who run away from evil. So the first group are the forerunners to good. The second group are the first to run away from evil. Okay, to abandon an evil. And that's why some of the scholars say the forerunners are mentioned twice. Allah says in the Quran and Surah Al-A'raf, inna allatheena taqaw, itha masahum ta'ifun minash shaytaani tathakkaroo. That verily those who are pious, when they feel an impulse from the shaytan, they immediately remember, tathakkaroo. faithahum mubusiroon.
And so their vision is sharpened, they have deep insight, they say, no, I'm not falling for that. So the shaytan strikes them for a moment, masahum. You know, some people the shaytan gets in and masahum ta'ifun minash shaytaani. An impulse strikes them, shaytan says, look. And they go, no, no, tathakkaroo faithahum mubusiroon. They remember God and so they remember Allah. And so suddenly they can see properly, right? So they're able to overcome that and they are able to remain focused. And so they are saabiqoon, away from evil, right? Forerunners too good, forerunners away from evil. Some of the scholars mentioned some other beautiful interpretations just for the benefit of it. Ibn Sirin rahimahullah ta'ala said, assaabiqoon assaabiqoon allatheena salloo lilqiblatayn. The forerunners, those who prayed towards Jerusalem and Mecca, because they're a special group of people. And he expanded that concept of muhajireen because he said, the best of the muhajireen or the best of the people of Mecca are those who accepted the Prophet's sallallahu alayhi wasallam right away. The best of the ansar, the best of the people of Medina are those who sacrificed in the first 16, 17 months of Medina, which is when the Muslims were still praying towards Jerusalem. So he said, assaabiqoon assaabiqoon. Both of these people, if you think about the early converts of Mecca and the early converts of Medina, they're both saabiqoon is what he's saying. They're both forerunners because both of them sacrificed everything, both groups sacrificed everything. So if you're in Mecca and Islam has grown now, okay, fine, after the conquest, after Fathah Mecca. If you're in Medina and you're the ansar, maybe if you're one of the later converts in Medina, you're waiting this out a little bit to see how it goes. But those that accepted within the first 16, 17 months of Medina, which is when the Muslims were still praying towards Jerusalem, assaabiqoon assaabiqoon. Kama qala ibn Sirin rahimahullah ta'ala. Some of the scholars said, assaabiqoon assaabiqoon.
Those, the forerunners being the first who get to the masajid. The first ones to the masjid. And that'll be a category that we talk about. And they said, the awwalahum khuroojan fee sabirillah. And those are the first ones to go out in the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the first, as you know, is a practical way for us as well, okay. So these are assaabiqoon, the forerunners. The second category of firsts are the trendsetters, the trendsetters. Jabir ibn Abdullah radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu he reports that there were some desert Arabs, poor Bedouin Arabs, that showed up in front of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and the companions. And they were barely clothed. They only had a little bit of wool to cover themselves. They had no food. They clearly were malnourished. And think about the site, right. You're in Medina, community is getting established. And then you have these group of people. The assumption from the hadith is they're not Muslims. They are unknown to anyone, not from any prominent tribe. So you know how if you're from Syria and there's a Syria fundraiser, if you're from Pakistan, there's a Pakistan fundraiser, from Palestine or from Somalia, but then it's like another group, we always struggle. Well, the sahaba, they saw this group of people, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam looked at them and he told the companions to saddaqo, hurry up and spend on them in charity. Jabir radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu says that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam saw the hesitation and the slowness and the pace of the people. So he said the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was disappointed. His face looked clearly disappointed. Now this wasn't zakat or mandatory, but the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam he expected a quick response. He said, look at these people, they're in need, quick, go run, spend on them. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
saw that they weren't really that motivated. So he looked disappointed salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Then he said one of the ansar came to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam with a purse. Full of silver and he put it in front of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So some of the companions saw that so then they all started to go home and they started to grab their bags and put jewelry and put their coins in and come to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. He said until you could see the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's sadness turn into joy on his face. He went from disappointment to being pleased salallahu alayhi wa sallam, seeing suddenly the pace that he's used to from the companions. Like this is what I expected of you. This is the pace that we're used to. If you're at a fundraiser, you know, there's always that, you know, if you've never done a fundraiser, you might not really get the implications of this. But if you're doing the fundraiser and you're looking out at people's faces and then you start off with that amount of people like man, who's going to be that guy? Who's going to do that? And then the first hand goes up and then other people. Okay, you know, it's natural human instinct, right? But there's something about this. So this person was not just a sabiq. He set the trend because the implication of the hadith people were doing what he did when they started to come and they started to bring their gold and their silver. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam captured the moment and he said, من سن في الإسلام سنة حسنة فعمل بها بعده كتب له مثل أجر من عمل بها ولا ينقص من أجورهم شيئا. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, whoever introduces a good practice in Islam. Now in Islam here does not mean introducing a foreign practice into Islam. It means a practice that's already within Islam, right? Sadaqah is an established practice in Islam. So he introduces a practice that is already within Islam in that he's the initiator of it.
Okay, فعمل بها بعده and it was followed after that person. Now بعده can mean in that moment, 10 seconds later, can mean 10 minutes later, can mean 10 years later. The point is you did something and someone after you came after you and said, I'll do the same thing, was motivated by your doing and did the same thing. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said that they would have the reward of the one who followed it without the reward being diminished in any respect. And so both the initiator, the one who set the trend as well as the one who did it after that person have the same reward and it does not diminish the reward of the follower in any way whatsoever. So this means that if you are looking in the lifetime of the companions of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and someone did something good and we do it as a result of that, we use that practice as a trend that was set within the faith that that person gets the reward every time. So if someone cleans up the masjid and they remember the woman that used to clean the masjid, if someone removes something harmful from the road and they remember the unnamed person in the hadith that removes something harmful from the road, if someone gives water to a thirsty animal remembering the story of that unnamed person who did so, that person, think about how amazing that is, tens of thousands of years later sitting in their grave and is receiving a reward from Dallas, Texas because someone did it and remember, thought about that person. See how amazing? And that's why the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said it does not diminish that person's reward in any way whatsoever. Okay? So it's just this idea of continuing that reward. There are other forms of trendsetters that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned within the same category. He said in another hadith from Ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, من دل على خير فله مثل أجل فاعله
Whoever guides others to an acts of goodness will have a reward similar to that of its doer. The scholars here mentioned that this is a person who is not even, you know, who is suddenly, who's setting an example in a very subtle way. It's not setting a trend in a very obvious way, but in a subtle way, but someone sees that and someone starts to act upon that good. Finally, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said من دع إلى هدى Whoever calls people to good. Meaning you actually call people to good. So you're the one to actually preach it, right? And you call people to do something good. كان له من الأجر مثل أجور من تبيعه لا ينقص ذلك من أجورهم شيئا That he would have the reward equivalent of those people who follow that guidance. So if you, you know, خيركم من تعلم القرآن وعلّمه The best of you are those who learn the Quran and then teach it. So you learn something good and then you speak that good. You actually say it and people take that advice, that nasiha from you. You set the trend, you get the reward. Of course, you have to try to practice it yourself, but it started and initiated from the guidance that came from your mouth, from calling people. دلّة means example. دعا means you actually called. And the point is, is that you set the trend and so the people follow you in that trend and you have the reward of that as well. So those are the first two categories. The first ones are the forerunners. Second ones are the trendsetters. The third group are the strangers. الغرباء The strangers. And the strangers are described in different ways within the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ said, بَدَأْ لِلْإِسْلَامُ غَرِيبًا وَسَيَعُودُ غَرِيبًا كَمَا بَدَأْ فَتُوبَى لِلْغُرَبَاءِ That Islam started off as something strange. And so it will return back to being something strange. فَتُوبَى So there's a valley and paradise, a shore,
glad tidings to the strangers. Glad tidings to the strangers. The strangers are people who follow unpopular truths. The strangers are people who adopt unpopular truths. Okay, so it's actually bucking a trend. You're actually, the trendsetter is the one who sets the trend in good. The stranger, most of the explanations of this, الَّذِينَ يُسْلِحُونَ إِذَا فَسَدَنَاسٍ Those who rectify themselves when everyone around them or when people around them are becoming corrupt. So they don't actually follow the trend of corruption. So think about this in a systematic way. You think about the forerunners, forerunners to good, forerunners away from evil. And then you think about the trendsetters. They set good trends and people follow them. And then you think about the strangers, they stay away from negative trends that have become dominant. Okay, and so they too are rewarded by virtue of that. Abdullah bin Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he narrates that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam took me by my shoulder and he said to me, كُنْ فِي الدُّنْيَا كَأَنَّكَ غَرِيبٌ أَوَ عَابِرُ سَبِيرٌ Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a wafer. Wa kaan ibn Umar radiAllahu anhuma yaqool, and so ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him and his father would say, اِذَا أَمْسَيْتَ فَلَا تَنْتَظِرِ الصَّبَاحِ وَإِذَا أَصْبَحْتَ فَلَا تَنْتَظِرِ الْمَسَاءِ If you go to sleep at night, then do not expect the morning. And if you wake up in the morning, then do not expect the evening. And so it does refer to this idea of urgency as well that typically people follow popular corruption out of pressure. And because they do that in a way to fit in or to go with the flow in regards to what they feel like
will give them, will rectify their worldly affairs or give them a smooth sailing in regards to their dunya. But if you're thinking about your hereafter and you're putting that in front of you, then you will not be afraid or intimidated or pressured to sacrifice something that will elevate you in the hereafter because of something that is dominant in this life. Okay, so these are the strangers, al-ghuraba. There are different ahadith, the Prophet ﷺ said that indeed the religion will creep into the Hijaz just like a snake. It will return back into the Hijaz. Referring to al-Madinah, that when people end up in corruption that the religion will return in its pure form and creep into that. And the Prophet ﷺ said that the religion will cling to it just like the female mountain goat would cling to the peak of the mountain. And then the Prophet ﷺ says, اِنَّ الدِّينَ بَدَأَ غَرِيبًا وَيَرْجِعُ غَرِيبًا فَطُوبَ لِلْغُرَبَاءَ الَّذِينَ يُصْلِحُونَ مَا أَفْسَدَ النَّاسُ مِنْ بَعْدِي مِنْ سُنَّتِي This hadith is in Tirmidhi and there is some debate about it, but it still establishes secondary evidence and give some explanation to the concept of gharib here, the concept of being strange. The Prophet ﷺ said, Indeed the religion began as something strange and it will return to being something strange. And so a valley in paradise for the strangers who correct what the people have corrupted from my sunnah after me. And so the ghurabat here refer to people that rectify that corruption as well. So there is an activity to that as well. And Allah mentions this idea that the majority is not always good. That this idea of the majority is not always good. And there are two ways to look at the majority. The Prophet ﷺ mentions the majority
in regards to the majority of what the ummah is upon. Okay, and the Prophet ﷺ talked about this idea of clinging to the jama'ah, clinging to the group. But the majority as in popular trend, وَإِن تُطَعَ أَكْثَرَ مَن فِي الْأَرَضِ Allah mentions that if you follow the majority of what the people are upon, what is found on this earth, يُضِلُّكَ عَنِ السَّبِيلِ then they will lead you astray. And so this group is the strangers and they are number four. And the last group are, I'm sorry, they're number three. So what are the three categories now? Forerunners, trendsetters, strangers. Forerunners, trendsetters, strangers. Okay, the fourth one now are the revivers. المُجَدِّد, المُجَدِّد, the one who revives. And it constructs itself on the previous hadith that I just mentioned this idea of a person who corrects and rectifies what is lost from the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and brings it away from corruption. The reviver is a very interesting concept in the deen. Because the Prophet ﷺ says, إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَبْعَثُ لِهَٰذِهِ الْأُمَّ عَلَىٰ رَأْسِهِ كُلِّ مِئَةِ سَنَةٍ مَن يُجَدِّدُ لَهَا دِينَهَا That Allah sends at the top of every 100 years, at the top of every century, a reviver that revives from the religion what is lost of it. That revives from the religion what is lost of it. This is interesting because, number one, is this one person? Is it a fard or is it jama'a? Is it plural? Is it singular or is it plural? There are some people that have tried to, you know, restrict it to the singular. And so, you know, there have been books written.
So you try to identify who's the reviver of each century. And in the Arabic language here, this hadith is not restricted only to the singular. And so it could be that there are mujaddideen, that there are revivers that exist in one century. And the scholars mentioned in two ways. Number one, they revive different elements of the religion that are lost. Different elements of the religion that are lost. And so Umar ibn Abdulaziz rahimahullah, who is the only agreed upon mujaddid in history, in the sense that, you know, no one assigns a mujaddid other than Umar ibn Abdulaziz. Those that consider this a singular person. No one revives a mujaddid other than him in his century. Umar ibn Abdulaziz revived notions of justice that were lost in this religion. He revived the adl. He revived the sense of justice, right? He revived the practices of his grandfather, Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, in establishing justice in the ummah and bringing it back to a very special place, right? After it had lost its way. But there are two ways here. There could be different revivers in different lands and there could be different people that revive different elements of the religion. The point is, is that you find things that are lost amongst the people that are good practices from the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And a person can actually revive something of it. So Salahuddin rahimahullah ta'ala, for example, no one would argue he's not a mujaddid, but is he the only mujaddid of his time, right? And there's some general... And this is where you get madhhabism at its strongest. If you call a shafi'i a mujaddid, but not Ahmad or Abu Hanifa, but not Malik, what are you suggesting, right? And so this idea of tajdeed, this idea of revival, are people that notice things that are missing from the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
and they bring it back to life. And as a result of that, they bring the religion back to life in that region or in amongst their people and guiding something good, and guiding towards something good. And this is actually subhanAllah, something that we should all look towards, by the way. This idea of tajdeed, this idea of revival in the macro sense, but also the micro sense. If you find a sunnah missing in a context and you decide to revive that good practice, right? Then that is a form of tajdeed. You find something missing. That could be conceptual or it could be something very basic, could be something very basic, right? But the point is that you take that initiative to say, let me revive one of the sunnahs of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in my context, okay? Something simple or something macro, something conceptual or something that's very practical. But let me take it upon myself to be amongst those mujaddideen, to be amongst those revivers. The last category are the distinguished, al-muhsineen. Al-muhsineen are not people that necessarily lead because they're the first to do something. Nor are they reviving something that's necessarily lost. But they do something so well that they are distinguished in that good deed. They're distinguished in that good. And as a result, they are chosen amongst a people because of how well they do something. Because they set themselves apart, and this is sort of the opposite of the ghuraba in terms of, you know, the ghuraba are people that don't buckle to popular trends when that popular trend is in opposition to truth, as they know it. Al-muhsineen are people that aspire,
that aspire in ways that other people would not. And so they always go the extra mile with that good. Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah has a very beautiful way of tying the ghuraba to the muhsineen in this regard, the strangers to the distinguished. Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah said that when a person would have embraced Islam, the Muslims, the Muslims become ghuraba in the sense of broader humanity, right? So they, especially if you're talking about in the context of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. But the point is that aslamu, they submit themselves, they end up, you know, they embrace what alienates them, or they embrace this religion, as a result, they're persecuted. So the Muslims become ghuraba in that sense. And then he said that the mutaqeen, people of piety, become ghuraba amongst the Muslims. The mutaqeen become ghuraba amongst the muslimeen when they stay away from, because taqwa refers to tarq al-maasi. It refers to leaving off sin. When they stay away from sins that have become popularized amongst the Muslims. Isn't that interesting? So they become ghuraba. And you know this, if you're in a, you know, in a Muslim context at times, even amongst your families, right? If you don't do things out of consciousness, out of, you know, truly feeling like this is sinful, then the pressure sometimes that you'll get from other Muslims is more severe than anything that you'd get from people that aren't Muslim. Because it's like, what are you trying to say about our culture? What are you trying to say about our practices? What do you mean? Are you implying? It's like threatening them, because are you saying my islam is insufficient, your islam is sufficient? Right? And so that pressure sometimes that you get for not doing things that have been popularized,
even amongst Muslims that take you from, not from disbelief to belief, but from islam to taqwa, from the external declarations and practices to a place of piety and God consciousness that, no, I'm not comfortable. It doesn't mean you're a jerk. It doesn't mean that you're rude with people. It doesn't mean that you are condescending or judgmental, develop pride. It's that I'm not okay with this and I'm going to abstain because taqwa refers to abstinence, abstaining from sin. I'm going to abstain from this. So you become a gharib even amongst the Muslims. And then Ibn Al-Qayyib rahimahullah said, and the muhsineen, those who excel, the distinguished, are ghuraba even amongst the mutakeen. They become strangers amongst the mutakeen. Because they go above and beyond in doing good that other people will not. And so they set themselves apart. You can't become a muhsin without being a mutakeen. And by the way, this is, it sounds very basic, right? But some people really miss this in practice. How? Because they excel in some ways. And then, you know, the sins of the tongue. So if you think about that woman, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned, who was, the companions came to her and they said about her that, this woman prays her night prayers, she fasts extra days, all these different things. وَلَكَ تُؤْذِي جِرَانَهَا But she has an abusive tongue to her neighbors. So she had ihsan in one way, but she didn't even have taqwa with her tongue. And some people think that having ihsan in some things absolves them of having taqwa in everything. You can't. To become a true muhsin, you have to become a mutakeen first. So you reach a level of taqwa and then out of that taqwa, the same drive that caused you to stay away from what has been popularized,
causes you to long for what has been neglected of good. See that? It's the same thing. Because it's Allah that makes me, when other people say, go ahead, and it's Allah that makes me long for what other people are not even longing. And so the muhsinin set themselves apart with good deeds, distinguish themselves with good deeds, even amongst the mutakeen. And I'll end with this concept. Al-Hafidh ibn Rajab rahimahullah comments on this very beautifully. He says, and this has nothing to do with quantity. Nothing to do with quantity. Wow, nibbali, soft and precise, the point being that the day of pork was when the youth of Baghdad were eating, the distinction here has nothing to do with quantity, but it's all quality. Because he says, Allah says in the Quran, li abluwakum ayyukum ahsanu amala, not aktharu amala. That Allah may test you to see who amongst you are the best with their deeds, not the most with their deeds. Ahsanu is different from aktharu. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz only prayed two rak'ahs every single night in qiyam al-Ir. He did not pray more than two. He never exceeded two. But as his wife said, his two were nothing like all of your qiyam put together. The two rak'ahs of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz were just out of this world, literally out of this world. So it's not the quantity, but the quality then, that longing, that longing. And so the muhsinin then become distinguished even amongst the mutaqeen. May Allah make us amongst them, Allahuma Ameen. So what are the five categories? Let's go through them inshaAllah. The forerunners, number two. The trendsetters, number three. The strangers, number four. The revivers, number five. The distinguished. So these are the five ways in which you become one of the first. May Allah make us amongst them, Allahuma Ameen. And inshaAllah ta'ala from this week onwards, we'll start to actually go through names and
categories and things that we can start to implement in our lives. And I pray that it's a benefit to us all, Allahuma Ameen.
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