Before we get started, if everyone could please make sure their kids are with them in the Mommy and Me or Daddy and Me room, inshallah. So if everyone could please make sure your children are with you in the Mommy and Me or the Daddy and Me room, bismillah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. You know, subhanallah, when I started this series a few years ago on the first, the biographies that I was most excited about covering were the biographies of people that were completely unknown. And subhanallah, one of the things that happens as we go through the lives of the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that when you study them as individuals, you realize that some of them had enormous impact but were not celebrated as much as they should be. And some of them became footnotes in the stories of someone else. And the man that we are covering today is probably one of my favorite biographies in the entire series because he has literally become a footnote in the story of the most prolific narrator of hadith in history, Abu Huraira radiallahu ta'ala anhu. But his story in and of itself is absolutely legendary and we're going to learn, subhanallah, so much from the twists and turns in his own life and the miracles that happened in his own life as well as his dedication. And I think before I get into his story, it's just a reminder that it's
one thing to have noted influence, it's another thing to have noble impact. And this man likely gets the ajr in our lives on a daily basis and most of us do not know anything about him except maybe the story of how he called Abu Huraira radiallahu ta'ala anhu to Islam. And that man is Tufayl ibn Amr al-Dawsi radiallahu ta'ala anhu. Tufayl ibn Amr al-Dawsi. Tufayl ibn Amr radiallahu anhu's nickname is similar to the nickname of Uthman radiallahu ta'ala anhu. Can someone tell me Uthman's nickname, Uthman ibn Affan? The Possessor of Two Lights. Why was he called the Possessor of Two Lights? Primarily because he's the only man in history to have married two daughters of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. He married Ruqayya radiallahu anhu and she passed away. And then he married Umm Kulthum. Tufayl is known as Dhunnur, the Possessor of Light. And I'll talk about why inshallah ta'ala. But he is Tufayl ibn Amr al-Dawsi Dhunnur, the Possessor of Light. He was the chief of a tribe that is known as al-Daws. Now al-Daws is a tribe that is famous for all of the wrong reasons. They're famous for partying, they're famous for drinking, they're famous for dancing, they're famous for gambling, they're famous for riba, for interest in usury. So they're famous for all of the wrong things. And when you read about al-Ghifar for example, the tribe of Abu Dharr radiallahu ta'ala anhu, al-Ghifari. When Abu Dharr embraced Islam it was like, but what about Ghifar? Like Ghifar are the noted highway robbers. They have a reputation and it's not a good reputation. And so Abu Dharr radiallahu ta'ala anhu survives a beatdown in Mecca because those that are beating him are reminded that he's from Ghifar, watch out. Tufayl radiallahu ta'ala anhu happens to be the chief of a tribe that is not known for stealing but it's an affluent tribe that is known for partying and a great level of
carelessness and recklessness. Now Daws is from a place called Najran. At that time it was known as part of Yemen. So it's a Yemeni tribe as well, just like the Ansar are from Yemen. But if you look at the map, if you all could put up the map inshallah ta'ala, this is where Najran is today in regards to what's Saudi Arabia, right? So it's right, today it belongs to what's actually part of Saudi Arabia, which of course back then these were not the countries that existed. But back then it was attributed to Yemen. So when they used to refer to Najran, they used to refer to it as a Yemeni tribe. And it's subhanallah a very interesting part of Saudi Arabia. Has anyone in here been to Najran by the way before? Anyone? Okay, can you show the picture of Najran? Najran is known to be a place of great greenery. So if you've ever seen Ta'if for example, and this was a trait of Ta'if, a trait of Medina, a trait of Najran as well, that there's a lot of greenery. So it's a place that is actually known for being rich in terms of its resources, a beautiful place, and it's a wealthy place in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. And Tufail radiyallahu ta'ala anhu happens to be the chief of that tribe. Now there's also something else about this tribe. Abu Huraira radiyallahu ta'ala anhu reported in an authentic hadith that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, laa taqoomus saAAa, the hour will not be established hatta tattariba alyatu nisa'i dawsin hawla dhil khalasa. The hour will not be established until the women of Daws dance around Dhul Khalasa. Again, Dhul Khalasa was the idol of the people of Daws. Now obviously back then you had sort of the chief idols, then you had personal idols in people's houses. So Dhul Khalasa was an idol that they used to hold festivals around, they used to sacrifice towards, and their practices were very lewd around that idol. And subhanAllah some of you
might be thinking, it's happening, we're seeing it happen, and indeed subhanAllah anytime you see the rise of fasad, you see the rise of corruption in places where certain types of corruption have become unfamiliar to us, it should make us ponder upon the hour. But by the way, this actually, if you read about the history of Mecca, if you go back to the 1900s, the early 1900s, it's actually reported that the people in that area of Najran, during a famine and a drought, rebuilt Dhul Khalasa, and they started to offer sacrifices towards it. And it was destroyed, and al-Saud attacked them, and it's kind of written in some of the books of akhbar Mecca, of the history of Mecca. Which shows you that, you know, humanity dips, and then it comes back. It dips and it comes back. We just don't know when that dip is going to happen, and people will not return from it until the day of judgment comes. And it's upon us, obviously, when we see fasad, when we see corruption, that's become unfamiliar to reflect, and to say this is, you know, such a shame, such a shame, that you start to see idols rise again, you start to see corruption become familiar in the place where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam brought Islam, right? So these are things that we're going to reflect upon, obviously, when we see it. But it's specific to this tribe that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned a sign of the day of judgment in them, and of course that could be in their descendants, and they're a larger tribe, so some of their descendants still reside in Arabia. Now, the story of Tufayl ibn Amr al-Dawsi radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, is that not only was he the chief of his tribe, but he was a person of great presence, a person of great power, a person of great poetry. So just to kind of get the image of the man, he heads a tribe that the Arabs want no problems with. The Meccans have a serious vested interest in making sure that their alliance is strong with Daws, because you saw where it is, where it's located, and that they don't become allies to
the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And Tufayl is exceedingly intelligent, exceedingly eloquent, holds a lot of sway with people. And he used to come to Hajj, of course back then they had the Hajj of the Days of Ignorance around their idols, he used to come to Hajj every single year, and even more. He used to come to Mecca frequently, and he would go to Suq al-Uqad, which was the primary marketplace, he used to trade there, and he used to be one of the poets of al-Uqad, so he would come and people would surround him and they would listen to his poetry. So he holds a huge amount of presence, and you've got to think in the minds of Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab, and their likes, when people who don't live in Mecca come to Mecca, they're going to hear about the news about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, so they want to pre-empt any exposure to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam with their propaganda, especially the powerful people. So they've got a game plan amongst themselves, that when the time of Hajj comes, it's very sensitive now, you've got to go to all of the chiefs that are coming from the neighboring tribes, take them to the side, tell them all these horrible things about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, so that they will not be affected by the Quran. Now he, in particular, was very feared in regards to Islam, because if he becomes Muslim, obviously he gives a certain himaya, a certain type of protection to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, it severs an alliance with Quraysh, he also is an eloquent spokesperson for Islam, should he embrace Islam. So he comes from Yemen, he comes from Najran, and he actually mentions that, you know, as soon as I got there, he was surprised to see that Abu Lahab immediately, and tells you the status of a person, that Abu Lahab is going to be the one that's going to take him to the side, Abu Lahab immediately has this whole reception ready for him, he takes him to the side, and he wants to fill his ears with the propaganda about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, and realize that Quraysh is going to use the tactic that they know
will work for that particular person. Tufayl was a man of his tribe, he loved his tribe being together, he loved the families of his tribe being together, he cares about his people, and so the propaganda is that Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam is a tribe wrecker, he's going to divide the tribe, he's going to divide your families, he's going to pit people against each other, and it's going to cause huge dissent. So they went to him, and Abu Lahab starts, and he says, listen O Tufayl, you are a poet, you are a leader, so they said, listen, we're worried about you meeting this man, because if you meet this man, his words are sorcery, his words are like sihr, his words are sorcery. So be very, very careful, it's a powerful form of sihr. Now usually, what do sahara do? What's a sign of sihr in a family? They tear families apart, right? So they're trying to basically portray the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam as having this voice, or this spell that he casts on people, that suddenly makes a husband hate his wife, that suddenly makes a brother hate his brother, a father hate his son, and so on and so forth. So they say to him, that we're afraid, we're afraid he's going to do to you and your people what he did to us. He's divided husband from wife, he's divided brother from brother, he's divided parents from their children. So they kept on talking to him, and Tufayl says,
He said, they kept on talking to me, and they kept on getting to my head, until I said to myself, I'm not going to enter the masjid, unless my ears are plugged. I've got to have earplugs. So think about like one of those headphone commercials or something like that, like I got to plug my ears, so I can't hear anything when I go to the masjid. So I got to perform my hajj, but I hope I don't run into this man. And if I run into him, I'm afraid his sihr is going to hit me. Right? So I've got to plug my ears. Because the sorcery might affect me. So what did he do? He said that I put kursufa, I put cotton in my ears. I stuffed my ears as much as I could with cotton. And I went to the masjid, and I started to do tawaf. And he said, so I saw the Prophet ﷺ standing up in the masjid, reading and praying close to the Kaaba. And I basically tried to keep a distance from him. But his curiosity got to him. He realized the silliness of this all. So you know, he kind of wants to hear what he's saying. But at the same time, he wants to stay back. So he wants to test the waters a bit. So he gets just close enough. He said, Allah عز و جل refused, except that I would hear some of what he had to say. So I heard some of what the Prophet ﷺ recited. And I said to myself, Like, what a shame this is. And he said, I'm a person who's thabt. I'm a person who's firm, who's intelligent. He said, مَا تَخْفَى عَلَيَّ الْأُمُورُ حَسَنُهَا وَقَبِحُهَا
He said, I can distinguish between good and bad. And he said, Wallahi, I'm going to go and listen to him. And if he's a person who makes sense, if he's a person of guidance, then I'll listen to him. And if he's a person who's speaking nonsense, I'll be able to distinguish and I'll be able to cast him aside. So he said, so I removed the cotton from my ears. And he said, I started to listen closer to what the Prophet ﷺ was saying. He said, فَلَمْ أَسْمَعْ قَطْتُ كَلَامًا أَحْسَنَ مِنْ كَلَامٍ يَتَكَلَّمُ بِهِ Never heard anything more beautiful than what he was reciting. So I'm not sure what he was saying, but it was beautiful what he was reciting. And the Prophet ﷺ is unassuming. He's doing his thing. Now Tufayl also says, sorcerers had a particular look. I'm from New Orleans. When you see someone that does voodoo, they look weird. All right. He said, a sahara had a particular look. Like the Prophet ﷺ didn't look like a sahara. And by the way, some sahara don't have that look. But overall, like, they kind of spook you out, especially in that time, they've got a certain type of aura to them. He's like the Prophet ﷺ had beautiful manners, humble character. He looks like he's calm, at peace, tranquil. He's minding his own business. He's reciting the Qur'an. So he said, you know, I followed him to his house. And I knocked on the door and Khadijah ﷺ answered. So I asked permission to speak to the Prophet ﷺ. And I said to him, this is how he introduced himself to the Prophet ﷺ. He said, أَنتَ الَّذِي يَزْعِمُ قَوْمُكَ أَنَّكَ سَاحِرٌ You're the guy that people say is a sorcerer. So the Prophet ﷺ smiled and said, yes, that's me. So he said, فَمَا عِنْدَكَ What do you have? What is it that you're actually teaching? What are you reciting? So the Prophet ﷺ recited to him, سُرَةَ الْفَلَقِ سُرَةَ الْفَلَقِ سُرَةَ الْإِخْلَاصِ In one of the narrations. So he read to him some of the Qur'an and obviously parts of the Qur'an that are seeking refuge in Allah ﷻ from the things that the Prophet ﷺ supposedly was.
So he read to him some of the Qur'an and Tufayl ﷺ was completely blown away. فَقَالَ فَأَسْلَمْتُ He said, right away I became Muslim. I said to him, how do I accept your religion? How do I become one of your followers? So the Prophet ﷺ told him the shahada, taught him how to say, أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا نَصُولَ اللَّهِ And he put out his hand. He said, I extended my hand to the Prophet ﷺ. I held the hand of the Prophet ﷺ and I gave my shahada and I gave my pledge to the Prophet ﷺ. And Tufayl is an intelligent man, he's also a powerful man and he also assumes that once he gets back and tells his people, his people are going to become Muslim too because of the presence that he has. So he says to the Prophet ﷺ, يا رسول الله, why don't you come back with me to Daws, to Najran, to my tribe of Daws. We will take care of you, we will protect you and we will be your allies against everyone that is around. So subhanAllah, in a moment he went from kufr, from disbelief, to hidayah, to guidance, to himayah, to wanting to protect the Prophet ﷺ, which is absolutely miraculous in and of itself. The Prophet ﷺ is nice about this. He says to Tufayl, هل وراءك من أحد Do you have anyone behind you? I mean, are you sure this is going to work basically? Like you're inviting me to make a journey outside of Mecca. And this is relatively early in the da'wah before the Prophet ﷺ is being attacked in public in the vicious ways that he was, especially in the last few years ﷺ in Mecca. So this is still earlier on in the Meccan period where it's really verbal propaganda against the Prophet ﷺ, whereas they're attacking his weakest followers ﷺ. So he says to him هل وراءك من أحد Do you have anyone who is Muslim back there? Do you really trust that you've got people back there?
So Tufayl, رضي الله عنه, said, I thought about it, and I said to myself, I really don't know. If I'm being honest with you, I don't know if I have the protection for you if you come with me to Najran. So he said, let me go back to them and let me call them to Islam. قَالَ لَعَلَّ اللَّهَ أَن يَهْدِيَهُمْ So it may be that Allah will guide them. So he said, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهُ أُدْعُوَ اللَّهَ أَن يَجْعَلَ لِي آيَةً O Messenger of Allah, pray to Allah to give me a miracle, to give me a sign. فَقَالَ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ اللَّهُمَّ جَعَلْ لَهُ آيَةً تُعِينُهُ O Allah, give him a miracle by which you will support him. He doesn't know what it is. So he said, فَخَرَجْتُ So I left. I didn't talk to Abu Lahab. I didn't talk to anyone else in Mecca. So they're making the assumption that he's done his Hajj, he's done his shopping, he's done what he has to do, and now he's going back to Yemen. So he says, I went back to my people and I went alone حَتَّى أَشْرَفْتُ عَلَى ثَنِيَّةِ قَوْمِي Until I got to the valley of my people. وَأَبِي هُنَاكَ شَيْخٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمْرَأَتِي وَوَلَدِي So he mentions that I had my father, an old man, my wife, and my children. And they're there, you know, over that valley. And he said that right as I was about to get into my place, وَضَعَ اللَّهُ بَيْنَ عَيْنَيَّ نُورًا Allah put right between my eyes a light. So what was his nickname? The Noor, the possessor of light. That's his nickname. So imagine he gets to the valley and suddenly there's a light that's shining from his head. And this was the ayah that the Prophet ﷺ made du'a for. Now he said to himself, as powerful as that is, and obviously you wake up and suddenly you have a light that's shining from your face.
He understood what was happening. He said, اللَّهُمَّ فِي غَيْرِ وَجْهِ Oh Allah, let it be an other than my face. Why? He said, فَإِنِّي أَخْشَىٰ أَن يَظُنُّ أَنَّهَا مُثْلَىٰ لِفِرَاقِ دِينِهِمْ He said, I'm afraid that my people will think that this is actually a punishment or something that was given to me because I left their religion. I'm afraid they might actually misinterpret if I have a light that's suddenly shining between my eyes. That something bad has happened to me that I'm being made an example out of because I left their religion. So he said, فَتَحَوَّلَ فَوَقَعَ فِي رَأْسِ صَلْطِ He said, it moved, the light moved from my face and it moved to the top of my cane. So he had a stick and he had a light on it. And this is one of the karamat, one of the miracles that can happen to a people, obviously. Karamat, usually the karamat of the awliya, the miracles of the righteous one, usually follow in the tradition of the miracles of the prophets. So obviously we know Musa alayhis salam had a similar miracle and you will find that righteous people, sometimes Allah azawajal has blessed them to have a miracle as a proof in a way that resembles some of those. So he said that I had the light on top of it كَأَنَّهُ قِنْدِيلٌ مُعَلَّقٌ As if it was a hanging chandelier, subhanAllah, like a beautiful chandelier that was on top of my stick. And I went into the tribe of Daws holding on to it. And as soon as I got there and I'm holding on to this light, he said, أَتَانِي أَبِي My father came to me. Now Tufayl wants to use a certain type of rhetoric that's going to work with his family. So this is not, if you become Muslim, this is what you do, you go home and you say this to them. But his father came to him and he said, إِلَيْكَ عَنِّي فَلَسْتُ مِنْكَ وَلَسْتُ مِنِّي No, no, you're not from me and I'm not from you.
Now he's doing that to get a shock out of his father. His father loves him, respects him. His father says, وَمَاذَكْ What happened to you? Why are you saying that? He said, إِنِّي أَسْلَمْتُ وَاتَّبَعْتُ دِينَ مُحَمَّدٍ صلى الله عليه وسلم I have become Muslim and I accepted the religion of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم And he said, أَيْبُنَيَّ دِينِي دِينُك My son, your religion is my religion. So whatever it is that you just embraced, I embrace it too. So he explained to him Tawheed and the oneness of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, what he learned from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. And his father became Muslim quickly. And he says, وَكَذَٰلِكَ أُمِّي And then my mother as well. She came and she found my father. And she said, what happened? What is this light? I explained to her what had happened. And she became Muslim as well. So both of my parents had become Muslim. He said, I went to my wife and the same thing happened. I said, لَسْتُ مِنكِ وَلَسْتِ مِنِّي I'm not from you and you're not from me. She said, why? Why are you saying that? He said, I became Muslim and I followed the religion of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. She said, what is that? So I told her about Islam. She said, but will this shara, which is an idol that they had, will he harm us if we embrace Islam? See, there are superstitions. So if I leave the religion of my people, are we going to be harmed? And he said, وَاللَّهِ لَن يُؤْذِيَكِ I swear by Allah, it will not harm you. And she repeated it again and I repeated it again. And she repeated it a third time and I repeated it a third time. And I said, go and bathe yourself and it will not harm you. So she went and she bathed herself. She did ghusl. She came back and now his father, his mother, his wife and his children were still little at the time. They're Muslim. So he thinks now, now let me go to my people and they're going to become Muslim too. So far this is going exactly as he'd wanted to go.
Tufayl said, ثُمَّ دِعَوْتُ دَوْسًا إِلَىٰ الإِسْلَامِ I called Daws to Islam and all of them rejected me. Except for a handful or except for one, just a handful, like it's a little bit, few people that listened to my message. And one of those was a young, poor shepherd, orphaned shepherd named Abd Shams. Who is that? Abu Huraira radiAllahu anhu. His name was actually the slave of the sun, Abd Shams. So he embraced Islam with me. Everybody else rejected. And the implication of the narration is that maybe one or two other people. He's got his family and he has an orphaned shepherd, poor orphaned shepherd, Abu Huraira radiAllahu anhu, Abd Shams. And that's it. So he kept trying with them and it didn't work. And he's getting frustrated with his people. And he keeps on trying different ways and he starts mentioning his favors. You know me, you know my standing amongst you, you know my nobility amongst you. I'm telling you this man is a prophet of Allah. I'm telling you this religion is the religion of truth. They did not want to embrace Islam, not because they didn't think that Tufayl had a compelling argument. Why didn't they want to embrace Islam? Because they were afraid of the moral implications of embracing Islam. But what about the partying? What about all the stuff that we do? So we're not going to give up all of these other things. And obviously certain things are haram at that point, certain things are not. But you can tell this is an ethical religion that's going to require you to change your ways as a tribe. And so Dos rejects Tufayl. They don't reject him as their chief, but they reject the religion. And Tufayl said, I tried for some time. And then he comes back to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam.
And he's got this little orphan boy shepherd. The only thing he has to show for himself is his father, his elderly father, his elderly mother, his wife, and this little orphan child that he's coming to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Abu Hurayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he says, I met the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam the first time. He said, where are you from? I said, Dos. The Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam said, مَا كُنتُ أَرَى أَنَّ فِي دَوْسٍ أَحَدًا فِيهِ خَيْرًا I didn't know Dos had good people in it, like people that had good in them. Meaning people that were embracing Islam. That's what he meant by that sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Like, wow, okay, a child from Dos. Tufayl comes to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And Tufayl says to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, يا رسول الله, I called them to Islam. فَغَلَبَ عَلَى دَوْسٍ أَزِّنَى وَالْغِبَى But Dos was overcome by their adultery and their usury and interest. Basically their dirty practices. They couldn't see the truth because of their practices. This message is too ethical for them. And Tufayl says to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, فَدْعُوْ عَلَيْهِمْ Go ahead and make du'a for Allah to destroy them. Now imagine, this is a chief of a tribe who's saying, I tried everything with them, no chance. No chance. يا رسول الله, make du'a against them. ابو هرير رضي الله تعالى عنه He's mentioning the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam's hands go up. وَقِيلَ هَلَكَ الدَّوْس So that's it, Dos is done. Dos is destroyed. As soon as the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam says, اللهم عليك بدوس Oh Allah, destroy Dos. They're going to be destroyed. Tufayl raises his hands, he's ready as well for this du'a against his own people because of what they did. And you can imagine how rough the rejection was and how much he tried with them to make them embrace Islam. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam said, اللهم اهد دوسا واتبهم
اللهم اهد دوسا واتبهم اللهم اهد دوسا واتبهم Oh Allah, guide Dos and bring them to me. Oh Allah, guide Dos and bring them to me. Oh Allah, guide Dos and bring them to me. SubhanAllah, the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam was more merciful to a people even than their own chief in this regard. And he turns to Tufayl radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and he says to him, ارجع إلى قومك فادعوهم إلى الله وارفق بهم Go back to your people, call them to Allah and be gentle with them. Be lenient as you call them to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the implication here is that the first time Tufayl went he invoked his power over them. He invoked his, like his status over them. Like I'm your chief. Why are you rejecting this religion? You know better. So the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is telling him to go back and call them with rifq. Call them with leniency. Call them with gentleness. And Abu Huraira radiAllahu ta'ala anhu is the one who narrates the hadith that the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam said, إِنَّ اللَّهَ رَفِيقٌ يُحِبُّ الرِّفْقِ Allah is gentle and Allah loves gentleness. وَيُعْطِي عَلَيْهِ مَا لَا يُعْطِي عَلَى الْعُنْفِ Allah gives through gentleness what he does not give through harshness. Allah gives through gentleness what he does not give through harshness. SubhanAllah, what a lesson in da'wah today. Right? Shout someone down, humiliate them. What did you achieve? Break them. What did you achieve? Was that the message of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam? نَمْ أُبْعَثْ لَعَانًا I was not sent as one who curses. إِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ رَحْمًا I was sent as a mercy to the people. And that's what the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is calling us to be as well. Now did the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam ever make da'wah against people? Yes. But it was when they were actively in place of oppressing, of harming. And so the goal of the da'wah is to restrict them in their harm, to hold back their harm, to stop their zulm, to stop their oppression.
That's what many of the ulama say. And they say that even if that's not the sabab, if that's not the main reason, still, every single time you find the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam finally making da'wah against the people, it's when they have reached a certain stage in their oppression, a certain stage in their wrongdoing, in their harmfulness, that they are people who put out violation after violation after violation after violation. The Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam said, And Allah gives through gentleness what He does not give through harshness. Go back to your people, Tufail. Try again. Try a different way. So go back to them. This time, no light in your hand. Nothing particularly miraculous. Give them da'wah in a gentle way. So he said, so I went back to them. And I called them again. And this time the implication is that he spent some time with them calling them to Islam. It's not easy. We all want the da'wah to succeed in 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. It took years, right, for him to get his people to come on board. But at the end of it, he had about 90 families from Daws embrace Islam. So he said, so I went back to my people. And basically he was between the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam in Medina and his people in Daws. So he mainly was still amongst his people calling them to Islam. Abu Huraira radiAllahu anhu still was with him as well in Daws calling them to Islam. And he would go see the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam occasionally in Al-Medina. So he said, so I missed Badr and Uhud. And then after Khandaq, I brought 80 or 90 families with me from Daws to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. So this was the answer to the du'a of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Allahumma ahdi Dawsan wa ati bihim. Oh Allah, guide Daws and bring them to me. So 80, 90 families is a big deal at that time. Right? For 80, 90 families to come from a different place and to resettle in a strange place is very difficult.
And subhanAllah, many of the ulama here when they mention this as a side note, they talk about the difficulty of hijrah at the time of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Back then, you don't make hijrah like this unless you are fleeing persecution or something significant is happening. The trade routes are seasonal. You go out for this purpose and that purpose. But the idea of moving and picking up your life and being in what might become hostile territory in a moment where tribalism is rampant and people kill each other. The minute that someone kills someone else's camel or does something, then you have a 40-year, 50-year war. I mean, that's the reality of Arabia at the time. So for 90 families to come with their chief and say we're going to settle in Medina as migrants and we're going to bear the difficulties of being muhajireen at this point is deeply profound. And so he brought with him 90 families. Now subhanAllah, the narrations become extremely interesting in this regard. Some of you may have watched for Those Left Behind. I mentioned this narration in particular so I'm going to go through it now with the context of Tufayl radiyAllahu ta'ala anhu. Jabir ibn Abdillah radiyAllahu ta'ala anhu narrates that Tufayl went to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and said, Ya Rasulullah, هل لك في حصن حصين ومنع He said, Ya Rasulullah, do you want to come and settle in Daus under a strong fortress? Like we will protect you from everybody. If you come to Daus, we'll make that the headquarters for you. But the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, he refused because of what Allah subhanAllah ta'ala ذكر الله للأنصار because what Allah azza wa jal had already promised the Ansar. The Ansar had the blessing of having the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Not Mecca ever again, nor any other place, no matter what they could offer. Medina is Medina to Nabi sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. So the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam made hijra to Medina and that was it. He was going to stay in Medina.
Now Tufayl radiyAllahu ta'ala anhu, Jabir goes on to say, هاجر معه رجل من قومه that one of the people that made hijra with Tufayl radiyAllahu ta'ala anhu فاجتوا المدينة فمرض فجزع So he came to Medina. He got sick. The weather, the climate, the distress. فجزع Like it overtook him with sadness. Now remember, when the Meccans made hijra to Medina, Abu Bakr radiyAllahu anhum, Bilal radiyAllahu anhum, the scene from Aisha radiyAllahu anhu where she says they were stretched out with their fevers and they both look like they're about to die and they're authoring all of this poetry about how much they miss Mecca. Medina was a difficult place for them to initially make their hijra. Even if Medina is more beautiful, it's agriculture, the water was not necessarily healthy. When you drank the water in Medina at that time, you got sick, especially if you weren't used to it. Right? Think about when you go visit. I'm not going to go there. All right? But you all know where I'm going with this, right? I know a lot of you, when you go to a country that you're unfamiliar with, you drink the water for the first time, what happens? You're going to get sick for a week. So when people would make hijra to Medina, they'd get sick. Now, SubhanAllah, this narration is very, very interesting and it requires a deep study. So he got sick and the sickness prolonged. Fajazi'a, he was overtaken by basically a form of sadness, depression. And what he did was, he took basically like a sharp stone and he cut off his fingertips. So he cut off his own fingertips. And that's what the barajimahu means, the tips of his fingers. Now, when he did that, basically the blood flowed from his hands
until he died. This is a very interesting story because he's a muhajir, he's a Muslim, a new convert. He just made hijra. And whatever his intention was when he cut off his fingers, right? I mean, that basically caused his death, right? So his situation is deeply perplexing. So Tufayl saw him in his dream. He said he looked beautiful, right? He had the full clothes of Jannah. It was a good dream. And he said, but at the same time, means that his hands were covered. So it's really interesting. Like he has the clothes of Jannah, but his hands were covered. فقال له ما صنع بك ربك? Tufayl asks his friend who he brought from Daus, what did your Lord do to you? What did he do for you? What happened to you at this point? فقال غفر لي بهجرتي إلى نبيه صلى الله عليه وسلم. He said that he forgave me because of my hijra to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. So this is the hopeful part of the hadith. He said, but why are your hands covered? He said, because then he said to me, لن نصلح منك ما أفسدت. We're not going to fix for you what you yourself have severed. We will not rectify what you yourself have corrupted. Interesting. So he's in Jannah per se, or he's in some sort of place that resembles a good place of Jannah, but he didn't get his hands back. So he came to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and he told the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم this dream. What did the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم do? What do you think the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did? He said, اللهم وليديه فغفر.
اللهم وليديه فغفر. اللهم وليديه فغفر. Oh Allah, and for his hands, forgive him. Oh Allah, and for his hands, forgive him. Oh Allah, and for his hands, forgive him. So the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم made du'a for his hands to be restored as well. Now subhanAllah, this hadith is one of the proofs that if a person took their own life, it is of the worst major sins, but the janazah is still prayed on that person and du'a is still made for that person. So this hadith actually has great hope, but it also has a great warning. The great hope is that you still make du'a for the person even with the major sin. The major sin does not make you a kafir in Islam. That's not our creed. It is of the worst of sins, but it doesn't make a person a disbeliever. So that's the hope of this, is that Allah eventually forgave him. The warning is that even a person who made hijrah to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and underwent that journey, still he had to face some of the consequences of his own action because of the severity of that act. Now how did the ulama balance? Wait a minute, if you enter Jannah, you enter with perfection. The correct opinion, Allah knows best, and of course this is all extrapolations, is that this is barzakh, because in barzakh you can be both rewarded and punished in ways, which is the realm between this life and the hereafter, because this ummah also is punished in its grave sometimes. May Allah protect us from adab al-qabr altogether. But there are people that are somewhat punished and people that are somewhat rewarded, but if you enter into Jannah, then obviously when you enter into Jannah, there is no more corruption of the body, no harm, no ills and things of that sort. So this companion of Tufayl رضي الله عنه that he brought to Islam, Allah knows best, but this was a scene perhaps from al-barzakh, where he still had to face the consequences of what he did, but Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى still forgave him, and the meaning is very profound, that we will not correct what you yourself have messed up. So this is an amanah, your body is an amanah, do not harm the body that Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى
has given to you. So this is one of the interesting narrations about Tufayl رضي الله عنه with the companion that he brought with him to al-Madinah. Now after that, Tufayl رضي الله عنه says that I and my people, we settled in al-Madinah with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and we stayed with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم until Fath Makkah, until the conquest of Makkah, and he said that when we went to the conquest of Makkah, I asked the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم يا رسول الله ابعثني إلى ذو الكفين صنمي عمر بن حماما O Messenger of Allah, allow me to be the one that destroys the idol that's known as ذو الكفين Literally it's two branches, two hands that are coming out of that idol and it was the idol of عمر بن حماما Now عمر بن حماما was the person who used to host Tufayl رضي الله عنه and he was one of the powerful people of Makkah and usually the elites hosted the elites, right? And his idol ذو الكفين was an idol that he used to show off a lot. It was a huge idol that was made of a particular type of copper and it had all sorts of features to it. So he asked the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم يا رسول الله allow me to be the one to remove that idol because other people will be removing the idols obviously. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم رضي الله عنه So he went to that صنم to that idol ذو الكفين حتى يحرقه so that he could burn it. Basically he had to set a fire within it so that he could completely demolish it. And while he did that he said يا ذو الكفين لست من عبادك ميلادنا أقدم من ميلادك أنا حشوت النار في فؤادك So it's a poem that he said that oh ذو الكفين we are not from your slaves we preceded you to this world and I am the one who has put fire into your belly. Why? Because they used to have all these superstitions that if you harm the idols or if you don't honor the idols
that they're going to cause all sorts of horrible things to happen to you. And so there's something symbolic as well about kindling the fire within the idol and destroying that idol from within where they used to say that if you harm this idol or if you don't honor this idol you're going to develop all sorts of diseases and certain things are going to happen to you. So he said after فتح مكة أقمت مع النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم حتى قبل I stayed with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم until he passed away. So I went back with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم until he passed away. Now subhanAllah usually his story ends with أبو هرير رضي الله تعالى عنه but it continues. He said so أبو بكر رضي الله تعالى عنه appointed me as one of the warriors one of the chiefs against طليحة الأسدي. Now does anyone know who طليحة الأسدي is? Anyone heard this name? So who's the most famous false prophet after the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم? The person who declared prophethood and killed many Muslims and was known for his brutality. مسلم الكذب طليحة is a man who also claimed prophethood but listen to this because it gets very interesting. He claimed prophethood he fought against the Muslims and then he repented and became Muslim and then became a مجاهد في سبيل الله very interesting character. So you actually say طليحة رضي الله تعالى عنه which is strange subhanAllah what happened with him and some of the scholars they debated well what happens to a person who apostated and didn't just apostate became a false prophet and came back and حسنا إسلاما his Islam was actually firm. Very interesting and unique unique case but طليحة was a man who claimed prophethood and fought against أبو بكر رضي الله تعالى عنه for some time and then went on to become a مجاهد في سبيل الله afterwards. So طوفي رضي الله عنه says so I
entered into you know into the battle with طليحة and Allah عز و جل gave us victory and then came the battle of اليمامة. Now the battle of اليمامة was the battle in which many many companions died and this was of course what catalyzed the compilation of the Quran once again into the مصحف by زيد رضي الله تعالى عنه why because so many حفاظ were going to be killed by مسلم الكذاب in this particular battle of اليمامة. So طوفي رضي الله تعالى عنه continues to be with the Prophet ﷺ, he continues to be with أبو بكر رضي الله تعالى عنه and here you will see his last miracle. This man رضي الله تعالى عنه in the battle of اليمامة. He goes out in the battle of اليمامة and his oldest son is عمر. So he has عمر ابن طوفيل ابن عمر. So his oldest son is named after his father which is common at the time right. So he's with his oldest son and basically they're going from battle to battle now. So he went from being the chief the poet to just being a warrior now in the خلافة of أبو بكر الصديق رضي الله تعالى عنه. And سبحان الله another interesting dream. So you had the dream of his companion where he saw what happened to his companion and now you have another dream. He wakes up on the way to اليمامة and he tells his son and he tells the people around him. He said I saw an interesting dream last night. So listen to this dream. So he said that I saw in this dream that my head was cut. So I was beheaded. But he saw
that as he was beheaded a bird came out of his mouth. Now the Prophet ﷺ said that when a person passes away that the soul leaves from the eyes. And the eyes follow the soul as it is leaving. May Allah grant us a good ending. So he said so in this dream my head was cut. And then a bird came out of my mouth and it flew. And then this bird entered into a woman and then my son in the dream so he's now basically in the bird and he's in this woman and he said my son is looking around for me and he can't find me. What an interesting dream. Subhan Allah. So he said what do you all think the dream means? What do you all think the dream means? So no one was able to answer it in particular. So they said khairah. We hope it's good insha Allah. So he then went ahead and he gave the own tafsir of his own dream. The explanation of his own dream. So he said ask for the first one. My head being cut. What does it mean? What do you think it means? That he's going to die a shaheed. That he's going to be martyred in this battle of Al-Yamamah. And Musaylimah was a brutal, brutal, brutal man. Subhan Allah he was someone who used to crucify, who used to make examples out of the people he would kill. Musaylimah is a brutal man. So I see myself being martyred in this battle. He said ask for the bird. What do you think it is? What do you think it is? His soul. Because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned that the souls of the shuhada are in birds that are hanging from chandeliers that are suspended from the throne of Ar-Rahman. They go out and they fill themselves with the water
from the riverbanks of Al-Jannah and some of what Allah has given them from the food of Al-Jannah. They roam through and then they come back and they situate themselves in these beautiful chandeliers. So the souls of the shuhada are in the bodies of birds and not like the birds that you know. Subhan Allah they're in the bodies of birds. May Allah Azawajal allow us to have that blessing of a shuhada. Allahumma ameen. So he said that was the second part. So the first one is that I'm going to be killed. The second one is that this is my soul. What about the entrance into the woman? This is the hardest one of them all. He says that as for my entering into the body of that woman, he says that this is the earth and I will be buried in it once again. So as I came into this world, now I'm going back to this world. So I've returned back to the earth. And he said as for my son, I feel like this means that he's not going to achieve shuhada with me and he's going to be looking around for me after the battle. So you can imagine subhan Allah his son hearing this dream and his son is terrified at what he just heard. But this was Tufayl radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, this was the dream that he had. So the battle of Yamama takes place. Amr ibn Tufayl radiyallahu ta'ala anhuma, he was looking for his father the whole battle. He's trying to stay near him and obviously fathers and sons fought next to each other. They tried to keep with each other. This was the habit of battle at the time that tribes stay together, families stay together as they go into the battle. And at some point in the battle as it got rough, he was losing sight of Tufayl. And every once in a while Tufayl radiyallahu ta'ala anhu would wave to his son to let him know where he was in the battle and would call out to him and then they would reunite. They would reunite, they would reunite and they kept on fighting and kept on fighting and they kept on fighting.
And the battle became extremely fierce and he lost his father Tufayl radiyallahu ta'ala anhu and then he found him martyred in the battlefield exactly as he said. And he was so sad. And subhanAllah something that happened to him as well is that he lost his right hand in that battle. Amr radiyallahu anhu the son lost his right hand. So he lost his father and he lost his right hand and he was extremely sad. So it was exactly the dream that his father had that he was martyred and he couldn't find his father. SubhanAllah and he was saying that my son would not be granted shahada with me in this battle. That I'm going to be granted shahada but not my son in this battle. So he was very sad. I mean he was extremely remorseful, missing his father and obviously as well lost his, lost a significant part of his right hand. And due to his sadness he wasn't eating, he wasn't, he wasn't being himself. And listen to what Amr radiyallahu anhu said to him. Amr radiyallahu anhu told him that I see you sad, I see you down. He said wallahi ma fil qawmi ahadun ba'duhu fil jannah illa ant. He said I swear by Allah that there is no one amongst us who a part of him is already in jannah except for you. Meaning your hand is already in jannah. So you're talking about you miss your father and obviously your father was killed and he wanted to be able to protect his father, he wanted to be with his father in shahada, that was what he had envisioned. And he's saying your hand is already gone to al jannah. And there is no one amongst us who already a piece of them is in jannah except for you. So go forth. And subhanAllah his son, Amr ibn Tufayr radiyallahu anhu, who they used to call yabna dhan nur, oh son of the possessor of light, oh son of the possessor of light because that was the famous nickname of Tufayr radiyallahu anhu. And so oh son of the possessor of light, he went forth in the battle of al-yarmouk fighting with one hand and he was martyred in the battle of
al-yarmouk. So he was al-shahid, the son of al-shahid Tufayr. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with them. And joined his father in that blessing of obviously the scene that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam had prophesied for the shahada. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with them both and be pleased with the companions who came before us. Allahumma ameen. So this was the story of Tufayr radiyallahu ta'ala anhu al-shahada and his son Amr ibn Tufayr radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. He had two other sons, one of them named Dhabil, Dhabil ibn Tufayr and Al-Harith ibn Tufayr and they both died as Muslims. Both of his parents died as Muslims. His father actually seems to have outlived him despite being a very old man. And his father narrates two ahadith from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. One of them praying behind the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam salat al-fajr and describing the sajdah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam when he recited surah al-hajj. And also he said I prayed with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam or I heard the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam recite surah al-najm and then he made sajdah and I made sajdah with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So the only two narrations he has are the narrations about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam sajdah when he is reading the Quran. And subhanallah Tufayl ibn Amr al-Dawsi radiyallahu anhu does not narrate a single hadith from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Not one. Why? Because he died too early. Right? I mean the companions that died in Yamama did not live to be able to narrate traditions on behalf of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And his son Amr who was the primary narrator on behalf of his father died in Yarmouk in the Khilafah of Umar al-Khattab radiyallahu ta'ala anhu which was one of the most famous battles that took place in the Khilafah of Umar radiyallahu anhu in Al-Sham. But with all that being said and this is the most powerful and profound part about this man. Every single time you recite An-Abi Hurayrata radiyallahu ta'ala anhu he has a share of that reward. And this
is one of the greatest lessons subhanAllah that you take from these lives. The one who causes good, the one who calls to good, the one who facilitates good is like the one who does good. Not a single hadith from him, not a single hadith from his children, but he inspires the man to become Muslim that will narrate over 5,000 hadith from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and gives us access to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in a way that we would otherwise have absolutely no access and all of that is to his credit. And that really makes you think subhanAllah, this man who you hear such little, you know, in terms of narrations about himself radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, look at the profound impact that he had on the history of Islam. And think about yourself when you feel like, you know, I'm not doing these great things, I'm not doing these great things, I'm not doing these great things. I mentioned this subhanAllah when Sheikh Mohammed Sharif rahimahullah passed away and one of the sentiments was, you know, subhanAllah, everyone was celebrating Sheikh Mohammed Sharif rahimahullah, everyone was talking about, you know, this man and the impact that he had on so many people, it's all over. There was a sentiment like, wait, are people even going to really know when I pass away or is it just going to be like one of those quiet janazahs and only a few people? It doesn't matter because Allah azawajal writes down the impact of a person. It doesn't matter if the Muslims don't say the name of Tufail, Allah writes down the ajr of Tufail every time we say the name of Abu Hurairah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And when a person looks into these biographies, they should see where they fit in the scheme of the da'wah to Allah and to His Messenger salAllahu alayhi wasalam. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with Tufail radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and reward him for his service to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasalam. May Allah azawajal reward him for his shahada. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reward him for his da'wah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gather us with him and with the companions and with our beloved Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasalam and his family in the highest level of Firdaws al-A'la.
Allahuma ameen. InshAllah ta'ala I'll take a couple of questions before the Adhan of Isha.