The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
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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
Zaynab bint Jahsh (ra): The Longest Arm | The Firsts
Dr. Omar Suleiman talks about Zaynab bint Jahsh (ra). She came from a noble background, had her marriage contracted by Allah himself in the noble Qur'an, and would be first to join our noble Prophet ﷺ after his death.
The Firsts is a weekly video series that chronicles the lives of the sahabah during and after the time of the Prophet ﷺ.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Salamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Arzu bil'asami wa'ala al shaytanir rajim. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. Alhamdulillah. Wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So tonight insha'Allah which will be our last session before Ramadan for the first, we have a very special way of beginning, bidnillahi ta'ala. So some of you may have seen Hector. He's been coming to the masjid now for the last few weeks, right? Three weeks? Seven weeks? Seven weeks, almost two months, alhamdulillah. So he's been sitting here attending the first, he's been attending the prayers, and insha'Allah tonight he's going to go ahead and take his shahada with us. So I'm going to ask Hector to come up insha'Allah. He's not nervous at all, not at all. You ready? So seven weeks, so you memorized the whole Quran already. So I want you to repeat after me, I'll go very slow. Say ash hadu, you want to hold it? Ash hadu an la ilaha illa Allah wa ash hadu anna Muhammadan rasul Allah. I bear witness that there is only one God and that Muhammad is his final messenger. Takbir. That's it. Welcome to the community. Finally. Before you go, can you talk about what kind of drew you, you've been here for seven weeks, it's very interesting. I see that the prayers,
you've been attending the classes. What kind of drew you to this place? Well, it's kind of funny. Up until seven weeks, I didn't know anything about Islam. I didn't grow up around Muslims. I didn't know a Muslim. I had never attended a mosque. The idea of Islam and a Muslim was just extinct to my idea. I knew very nothing about it. Originally, it was just to find a mosque and get a Quran because I had at first thought the idea of purchasing one online, but what better reliable source than getting one from a mosque. So I came on a Friday. I got out of work at a decent time and I was like, why not? Why not? I had thought about it so much. Why not? I worked at the Irving Convection Center. I'm a HVAC technician by trade and why not? What do I have to lose? I came. I didn't come at the best time because there wasn't a lot of people. I think it was around four o'clock. I remember coming in and seeing a group of brothers in the front. It was a little empty. The first thing that I remember walking through the door is seeing men and women. I was a little confused to begin with, but I'm a man, so I guess I'll make a left, right? I had seen one of the custodian janitor ladies. She wasn't much help. Right then and there, my shift in mindset of talking and treating people just changed because just from the background that I grew up in, growing up in the inner city in Southeast Dallas, we're taught to ignore people, to give each other the cold shoulder. We don't go out of our way to greet
people. It's just me against you. We're obsolete to each other. I couldn't really get much information from her, so I remember going back and thinking, well, there was a group of guys in the front. I contemplated the idea. I was like, should I go? Should I not? I was like, well, I had been looking up to get a Quran for three weeks now. I had been searching for a mosque. I'm getting the Quran today. I'm getting the Quran. I'm not leaving here with that one. It took a lot out of me to go out of my way and go talk to them just because that wasn't me. That wasn't how I grew up. Funny enough, I go out of my way to talk to them, and they ask me, or I ask them if there's a bookstore here. Funny enough, right then and there, I got to figure out just the content of the character of people who are dedicated to Islam. Everybody, it seemed as if everybody was putting out their phone, thinking of where a bookstore was. Funny enough, they told me, well, there's a Walmart not so far away. Then it got to a certain point when they were like, what kind of book are you looking for? I said a Quran, and it was like, oh, yeah, I'm here to talk to you about the Quran. From there, it's as if everybody, I had one person calling somebody else for a Quran in English, some people were coming inside, somebody was going to go across the street. I was taken aback. I was like, wow, they don't know me. I've never met these people in my life. They're just so willing to go out of their way and help me. That's how I got to see the content of the character of people who are dedicated to Islam, and it was breathtaking. It's almost as if time stopped, and I was like, wow, interesting. You guys were the kind of people that I've always wanted to be like. But because of my society, or the society
that I was surrounded by, and the world that I knew, I turned cold. And I didn't allow myself to be warm, or go out of my way to talk to the next man. And then, rest assured, they invited me for, it was Friday, they invited me for the no doubt that night. And I had agreed yes, and I had gone home, and I was like, maybe I will, maybe I won't. I don't know. And honestly, I was like, why not? Why not? Why not? I'm already getting the Quran. Let me go out of my way to at least come to a mosque. And I ended up coming, and the first thing that I noticed was the diversity. Growing up Roman Catholic, it's almost as if we self-segregate ourselves. There is Hispanics, there is blacks, and there is whites. And like I said, I know nothing about Islam. I've never gone to a mosque. So just by, I don't know, society, the mainstream media, I was expecting nothing but Arabs. And I was taken aback. I was like, wow, interesting. There's such a diverse group of people here. Fascinating. This is how I feel a church or a mosque should be like. We should all gather together of all races, of all kind. And I had met Salim when I came to get the Quran, and he met me afterwards. And he was just introducing me to all these people, and they were just so glad and happy that I was here. And I was just taken aback. I was like, wow, you don't know me. I wasn't used to this. You don't know me. Just because of how I viewed the world and how I allowed the world to let me view them. And I just got to know a little bit more. I came Friday. I came Saturday. I came Sunday. I came Monday. I came Tuesday. I came Wednesday. I came Friday. And I came nonstop just because I wanted to experience it
and see it verbatim in person. Watching videos on YouTube and learning about it online is only so much. I wanted to experience it firsthand for myself. And that's kind of why I would come so much, and that's why everybody's seen me here so much, even though I hadn't converted yet. They thought you were Muslim six weeks ago, by the way. Yeah. That's kind of how it seemed like. And I remember three weeks ago, I was actually asked by one of the brothers that I met here, Abraham, to join in prayer. And it was a combination of it being last minute. I didn't feel that I was ready, things of that sort. So I kindly denied, mind that, between all this time that I had to be going. I had just sat in the back and observed, and did nice gestures, like trying not to be on my phone for common respect and trying to pay attention. And I had thought about it. I had thought about it. And funny enough, the day before, I had came to the conclusion of, let me try it out. Let me experience it. Let me prostrate, do all the steps. I had another brother come and talk to me and ask me, have I ever thought to join? And it was funny enough, I was actually thinking that yesterday. And I had thought about it so much before. It was almost as if God put you in my position to help encourage me and go out of my way to join in prayer. And this was two Sundays ago. And we set up the day. It was after Ishaq, so we set up for the following night. And it felt good. It felt really good. Ever since that two Sundays ago, I can't just watch. I couldn't just watch. I couldn't. It was something within me that I just could not just watch. I had to participate. And that's when I kind of knew I was kind of getting closer, just taking those stepping blocks.
And rest assured, time just passes by, passes by. And this past Saturday, I had a brother to ask me to take my shahadah at the DeSoto House of Worship. And what really touched me more than anything is that he told me that I didn't have to be perfect, that it's OK that I didn't have to be perfect. I think just because I was so hard on myself, and I felt as if I had to meet certain standards or meet a certain quota to be able to convert. And from the drive from DeSoto to the mosque, I had just thought about it, just thought about it. And I was like, I come every day. I feel that I'm doing well with something within myself. I don't have any negative. It's bringing so much positivity to my life. From the age of 10 to 20, I dedicated my life to boxing. And I'm 25 now. And I just left it. I left there for five years just because it was OK. I left it alone. And funny enough, now coming to the mosque, I am back in the gym. I'm not necessarily fighting or competing like I used to, but I'm participating in the exercises for my health. And I think coming to the mosque to kind of help push me to that. So I just thought about it. And funny enough, by the time I came to the mosque, I came to the conclusion that it's time. I'm ready. I'm ready. And this was this past Sunday. And funny enough, things were making sense that they shouldn't have that I knew. I knew it was time. So I come into the mosque, and it's almost as if time stopped because I knew I wasn't contemplating the idea of becoming a Muslim. I didn't need to learn more. I was ready. I was ready within myself.
And I felt nothing was holding me back but myself. And funny enough, Yaseer comes in, and he asked me how I am on my journey, if I am close to taking my shahada. And I couldn't help but to laugh. I couldn't help but to laugh because what a coincidence. I hear you are asking me. And I just came to the conclusion that I am ready. Like, wow, fascinating. Fascinating how things work. And just the joy on his face and everybody that I was ready. And he asked me, are you sure? I'm sure without a doubt. I know I'm ready. And then from there, it went to talking to people and setting up a time for today. And there's small details here and there that I've left out. But in the general analysis, that's kind of how it's gone. Seven weeks ago, I knew nothing about Islam. I didn't know a Muslim. I had never gone to a mosque. I didn't know what a Quran looked like. I had never seen one. It was obsolete. And now I just converted. Alhamdulillah. Mashallah. Takbir. We're going to want to hear every detail. And you're going to be here for Ramadan, inshallah. For sure. That's one of the things, too, that I knew that I was smart building blocks, smart check marks that I was checking off that I had never even set for myself. Before I even contemplated the idea of converting and I was just learning, I already wanted to participate in Ramadan. I was just wanting to do all these things to essentially feel it and just get that internal connection. And the first time that I prayed, I felt that. And if I knew that it was time for prayer, I couldn't not pray. I felt that I had to. And small things like that, I knew that it was just building blocks, just building blocks. And that's kind of how we are today. I want you to know that you're home now. You're with family, alhamdulillah.
We're looking forward to seeing you grow in your journey over the next several, several years. Hopefully you'll be a part of this community for a very long time. What we say to everyone here is welcome home. Thank you. Welcome home, brother. Welcome home. And everyone's going to have to hold off their hug until after class. This is a small gift for you, inshallah. Thank you. Mashallah. Takbir. So thank you again for coming. And they're going to, yeah. And one last thing. Along with me, after the first time I had participated in prayer, I had went out of my way to purchase my first prayer mat. And funny enough, it arrived today. Alhamdulillah. Mashallah. Takbir. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome home. And congratulations. Mashallah. He is the purest person here right now. May Allah keep our brother Hector firm. May Allah keep him sincere and steadfast. May Allah bless him to have a fruitful journey and continue to connect with Allah. May Allah keep him on the path of Islam and allow us to be a proper community and family to him. Allahumma ameen. I feel like I shouldn't give a dars anymore. I feel like we're done. That's the most beautiful class that you can possibly have. Alhamdulillah. Wasalatu wasalamu ala rasoolillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So we will continue tonight, inshallah ta'ala, with Zainab bint Jahsh radiallahu ta'ala anha. Zainab bint Jahsh. Mashallah, I see Sheikh Mustafa Briggs is here too. Alhamdulillah. Welcome back home, Sheikh Mustafa. Hayakallah. Zainab bint Jahsh radiallahu ta'ala anha is a wife of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, who so many Muslim women are named after. Yet there is so little that's known about her life. And subhanAllah, I'm excited to actually tell her story, more so than most of the people that we've spoken about.
Because usually her life is only brought up in the context of a controversy about her marriage, and not her qualities and her virtues and her relationship with the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam. And before I get into her life today, I wanted everyone to keep in mind a few things in regards to how much we know about a wife of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam. And usually there are a few factors that determine that. For one, how early they married him, salallahu alaihi wa sallam. So whether it's Meccan or Medani time that they came to marry the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, or later on in the seerah, how much time they spent with him. The major factor being how early or how late they died. Right? Because the longer that a wife of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam lives, the more they're able to tell the story of their time with the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, and narrate the seerah through their lens. So you have that factor, how long they lived after the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, and of course, relatives that lived as well. If they had a prominent sibling that outlived them, that could tell their story, or in the case of Aisha radiAllahu anha, she lived long, and then Urwah ibn Zubayr, her nephew, lives long and tells her story. So it's relatives that tell the story. The thing about Zaynab ibn Jahsh radiAllahu ta'ala anha, is that she is the first wife of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam to die after him. Right? So that's probably the main reason why, if not for sure, the main reason why we don't have too much about her, radiAllahu ta'ala anha. So the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam's wives died in the following order. Who is the first wife of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam to die? I just want to make sure you all are awake. Khadijah radiAllahu anha. Who is the second wife of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam to die? Zaynab who? No. Zaynab bint Khuzaymah radiAllahu anha. The only other wife of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam to die in his lifetime. She only lived six months with the Messenger salallahu alaihi wa sallam. Umm al-Masakeen, the mother of the poor.
And we have a lecture on her early on in this series of the first. And then after Zaynab bint Khuzaymah, Zaynab bint Jahsh radiAllahu ta'ala anha, who we're going to speak about today. Now to situate Zaynab bint Jahsh radiAllahu ta'ala anha in the story of the seerah, I want to talk about her family in brief a bit. Okay, so she is from one of the most prominent families in Mecca from both sides. Her father, Riyab, is from Bani Abd al-Shams. Noble, wealthy, rich man, owns most of the or more properties than anyone else in terms of houses, more real estate in Mecca than anyone else. Her mother, Umayma bint Abdul Muttalib, is the maternal aunt of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam. So Bani Hashim, Bani Abd al-Shams, and she has nobility from both sides. She has wealth, she has beauty, she has prestige, she has prominence. So she comes from the top of the top of the top when it comes to the classism that exists in Mecca. And subhanAllah, what we find is that the children, her and her siblings, all become Muslim. They all become Muslim. So the first brother of hers that we've spoken about in some detail, but just briefly once again, Abdullah bin Jahsh, Abdullah bin Jahsh radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, the first Amir of Islam. The first Amir of Islam is Abdullah bin Jahsh radiAllahu anhu. He is the one who is buried in the same grave as Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib radiAllahu anhu. And another fun fact, Abdullah bin Jahsh was the first husband of Zaynab bint Khuzaimah. So before you get confused, because we got to separate the two Zaynabs, there are a lot of Zaynabs in the seerah. He's the first husband of Zaynab bint Khuzaimah. And when he was martyred, the Prophet ﷺ married his widow, Zaynab bint Khuzaimah. And Zaynab bint Khuzaimah passed away shortly afterwards. Alright, so this is the brother of Zaynab bint Jahsh radiAllahu anha. Abdullah bin Jahsh converted to Islam early on at the hands of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiAllahu ta'ala anhu.
He was amongst, he was in some narrations actually the very first person to migrate to Abyssinia. The first muhajir to Habesha. In some narrations, the first migrant to Abyssinia, of the first migrants to Medina, the first ameer in Islam as we said. Because he's the first one to lead a battalion under the Prophet ﷺ. And he was martyred in the Battle of Uhud, and buried with Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, who would be his uncle. I wish I had a chart for you all. Because the mother is Umayma bint Abdul Muttalib. So his mother would be the sister of Hamza. Right, so he's buried with his maternal uncle Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, in one grave. Then you have Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh. Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh was one of those that embraced monotheism before Islam even came to the Prophet ﷺ. And he migrated to Abyssinia. He was the husband of Um Habiba radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, the daughter of Abu Sufyan, before Um Habiba married the Prophet ﷺ. And there are narrations though none of them are established. And that's why when you go back to his story, I said it's actually not a good idea to stake our claim in this, that he left Islam in Abyssinia and became a Christian, but there's nothing to actually establish that. Okay, but this is her other brother Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh. Then she has Abu Ahmed ibn Jahsh radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, who we have also a whole episode about. All right. And he is the other blind man from the companions. His story is almost identical to Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Why? Because he wants to participate in everything, and he doesn't allow his disability to get in the way of his participation in any way. If I can carry a flag, let me carry a flag. If I can do anything, let me do anything, ya Rasulullah. I am by your side, O Messenger of Allah.
And Abu Ahmed radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was the one whose house was stolen. I mean, you know, he stayed back in Mecca. His house was stolen by Abu Sufyan and then another home by Abu Jahl. And he used to complain about that to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And he was guaranteed, أَلَا تَرْضَ أَن يُعْتِيَكَ اللَّهُ بِهَا دَارًا فِي الْجَنَّةِ Aren't you pleased, O Abu Ahmed, that Allah will give you in place of it a house in Jannah, the house that was stolen from you when you became Muslim and when you were persecuted and run out of Mecca. This brother, Abu Ahmed, lived the longest of all of the siblings, and he was the guardian of Zaynab radiAllahu anha. And he would outlive her and bury her and all sorts of things. Though again, he was the one with the disability that was similar to Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum. May Allah be pleased with them all. Then finally, Hamna bint Jahsh, her sister, Zaynab's sister. Hamna bint Jahsh radiAllahu anha is the wife of Mus'ab ibn Umair radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And so when she, you know, because you have to understand, when we talked about Aisha radiAllahu anha, she was one of those that slandered Aisha radiAllahu anha. Understand the trauma that this woman came from, the trauma that was inflicted on her. When the Battle of Uhud was complete, the Prophet ﷺ went to her and said, Ya Hamna, ihtasibi, O Hamna, seek the reward. And she said, Man ya Rasulullah? Who passed away, O Messenger of Allah? And he said, Khaluki Hamza, your uncle Hamza. So she said, Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon, ghafarallahu lahu wa rahimahu, haniyan lahu ash-shahada. So, you know, to Allah we belong and to Allah we return. May Allah forgive him and have mercy on him. Congratulations to him on that shahada, on the martyrdom that he has attained. So she lost her uncle. And the Prophet ﷺ said, ihtasibi, seek the reward. She said, Man ya Rasulullah? Who now, O Messenger of Allah?
And he said, Akhuki, your brother Abdullah ibn Jahsh. So she was a little bit, I mean, this hit closer to home, right? He started with the most distant ﷺ, your uncle. And now your brother also was martyred in Uhud. And she said, Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon, ghafarallahu lahu wa rahimahu, wahaniyan lahu ash-shahada. Same thing she said for Hamza. May Allah forgive him and have mercy on him and grant him a shahada, grant him that martyrdom and reward him with the martyrdom. And the Prophet ﷺ was building up to what? To tell her that her husband was martyred too. So he said, Ya Hamna ihtasibi, or Hamna, seek the reward. She said, Man ya Rasulullah? Like, who's left? And he said, Mus'ab ibn Umair. And she broke down. Wa hazna, wa aqra. She started to scream out and she started to wail. She fell to her knees just mourning. And the Prophet ﷺ, he was deeply moved by that sight. And he said, Inna lill zawji minal mar'ati, makanan ma huwa li ahad. Look, the spouse, the husband has a place with the wife, or the spouse has a place with the spouse that no one else can take. This is different. So the tragedy of her uncle, the tragedy of her brother, and the tragedy of her husband, all in one spot. SubhanAllah, she suffered all of those losses in the Battle of Uhud. So of the 73, three of them were hers. RadhiAllahu ta'ala anha. And she married Talha ibn Ubaidillah afterwards. RadhiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And she actually is the mother of Talha's most famous son, Muhammad. Ibn Talha. And may Allah be pleased with them all. So this is the family of Zaynab bin Jahsh. Now, Zaynab's name, before being Zaynab, was actually a very common name, Barra. Barra. Now, if you're an Arab kid, you grew up hearing Barra, get out, all right? Barra does not mean get out. Barra means free from all sins. Free from all sins, pure, okay? Now, how many people were named Barra? As many people that are named Zaynab in the Sira, okay?
So you have Barra, who is Zaynab bin Jahsh. You have Barra, who is also the name of Zaynab bin Khuzaymah. So the Prophet ﷺ changed her name to Zaynab, changed her name to Zaynab. Umm Salama's name was Barra, the Prophet ﷺ changed her name. Maimuna bint al-Harith was Barra, the Prophet ﷺ changed her name. So four of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ had this name, and the Prophet ﷺ changed the name for two reasons. He said, number one, وَلَا تُزَكُّوا أَنفُسَكُمْ Do not claim purity for yourselves. So you can't claim a place of perfection. Number two, the Prophet ﷺ did not want them to say, خَرَجَ مِنْ عِنْدِ بَرْرَةٍ That he left from the purity, right? Which would have been the way that the Arabs would have expressed, you know, a person leaving. So the Prophet ﷺ prohibited that name. Hence the name Zaynab, which becomes such a common name in the Sira. And it was one of the favorite names of the Prophet ﷺ, right? By his own children, his own grandchildren. And obviously when he changes the names of Barra to Zaynab, and Zaynab means a fragrance plant. So a plant that as it grows, its fragrance increases as well. So as it gets older, the fragrance grows as well. And so it's one of those blessed names that the Prophet ﷺ chose that obviously has resonance within the ummah today. Now Zaynab bint Jahsh ﷺ was born 17 years before Revelation. And as we said, royalty all around. She was born in wealth, born in prestige, born in prominence. And it's important to say that she had one husband that is not named before Zayd ibn Harithah ﷺ. Now obviously as we said with the case of Aisha ﷺ, the habit of the Arabs was once a woman hit her age of maturity, she was married. And this is the case of all of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ before they married him. If you were to correlate the time that they married their husbands, Hafsa to Khunais, it would be around the same age as Aisha married to the Prophet ﷺ
because that was the way that their society functioned. So she was married, it seems one time before, but the name of that husband is not recorded. And then she basically joins her family to Medina to escape persecution and to make the hijrah. Now Zaynab ﷺ had an expectation that none was going to marry her except the Prophet ﷺ. So she's kind of waiting for the Prophet ﷺ. Now subhanAllah, if you think about that, like why was she so convinced that it's Rasulullah ﷺ who's going to marry her? Because from a nasab perspective, from a royalty perspective, from a lineage perspective, only the Prophet ﷺ's lineage is noble enough to be with someone like Zaynab ﷺ. From a pure nasab perspective, he's the only one ﷺ. He fits the mold of a royal husband ﷺ. I mean he's the Prophet of Allah, but he's also the head of state now and he has the most noble of lineage. So she thinks that the Prophet ﷺ is going to come and propose to her and she is waiting for the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ comes to visit the home after a few years in Medina and Zaynab is expecting that he's coming to propose to her. So he comes ﷺ and he speaks to Hamnah, her sister, Hamnah bin Jah, ﷺ, and says to Hamnah that I've come to you with a proposal. Hamnah's excited, Zaynab's excited, the Prophet ﷺ is going to propose. The Prophet ﷺ said, I'm here on behalf of Zayd ibn Harithah. ﷺ Zayd ibn Harithah, of course, was a freed slave. So when you talk about class, poverty, when you talk about the distinction,
like he's on the opposite end of what Zaynab ﷺ is and the Prophet ﷺ is purposefully trying to do that. That's why he marries Bilal ﷺ to the sister of Abdurrahman ibn Auf ﷺ. He's crossing, as we've said in multiple cases, Julaibib, the famous story of Julaibib ﷺ with his wife. He's going to go and he's going to break through all of these things ﷺ. So he's purposefully trying to do that. Hamnah says, ﷺ Mawlak, you're going to marry your cousin to your free slave? How could you do that? No, like we can't do that. What's going on here? And then Zaynab ﷺ, she's so excited and suddenly her excitement is like, wait, what, you're going to marry me to Zayd? I thought it was you. I mean, think about the disappointment. The Prophet ﷺ is coming to marry you and it's not the Prophet ﷺ. فَأَنزَلَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَ مَا كَانَ لِمُؤْمِنٍ وَلَا مُؤْمِنَةٍ إِذَا قَضَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمْرًا أَن يَكُونَ لَهُمُ الْخِيَارَةُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِمْ It is not befitting for a believing man or a believing woman when Allah or his Messenger ﷺ pass a judgment that they then maintain the choice in their affairs, that there's something that's being sanctioned here. The Prophet ﷺ clearly has a wisdom and the Prophet ﷺ sees something in Zaynab ﷺ. She sent a message to the Prophet ﷺ. She said, إِنِّي أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهُ وَأَطِيعُ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ إِفْعَلْ مَا رَأَيْتِ أَرَسُولُ اللَّهُ I believe in Allah, I believe in the Messenger, I seek forgiveness from Allah ﷻ. Whatever you see, O Messenger of Allah, as fitting, go ahead, I'm going to carry out that marriage. So the Prophet ﷺ is trying to break the classism in his society and he's trying to forge relationships across the board ﷺ for a greater wisdom. Now why Zayd? Obviously the issue was not, you know, people being married to multiple people because that was the norm of the society. Zayd ﷺ was already married to Um Ayman ﷺ.
If you think about the age gap between Zayd and Um Ayman, Um Ayman is like the adopted mother of the Prophet ﷺ. Zayd is the adopted son of the Prophet ﷺ. There's two decades. But when Zayd heard, who wants to marry a woman of Jannah with Um Ayman? Zayd said, that's me. I don't care who it is. It's a woman of Jannah and he married Um Ayman ﷺ and Allah blessed them with Usam ibn Zayd. So he broke that ﷺ, right? He's going across the different lines as they exist at that time. But at the end of the day, Zayd and Um Ayman were of a similar socioeconomic status, right? So the difference in terms of their class is not that wide. So Zayd marries Zaynab. And Ibn Abbas ﷺ says, they never got along. You see a lot of human elements sometimes. It just did not work out. They're from two completely different realities. And I want you to remember this, especially by the way, when we talk about Zaynab in a few years. At this point in her life, and at this point in his life, two totally separate realities, right? It's not, you know, it sounds good on paper. It sounds like it's a great idea to break through these structures. But it's just not working out. They're not seeing eye to eye. They have different habits. They have different ways. There's a little bit of resentment on the part of Zaynab ﷺ as well, that she wanted to be married to the Prophet ﷺ or to be married to someone of that class of society. So it is not working out. And this is where Allah ﷻ reminds the Prophet ﷺ when Zayd comes to the Prophet ﷺ, and Zayd now says to Rasulullah ﷺ, Ya Rasulullah, let me divorce her. Like I want to divorce her. You're not forcing me on her. I want to divorce her Ya Rasulullah. And the Prophet ﷺ is saying, أَمْسِكْ عَلَيْكَ زَوْجَكْ وَاتَّقِ اللَّهِ This is in the Quran. Hold on to your wife and fear Allah ﷻ. Be mindful of Allah. Try to make it work Zayd.
You know, work through your differences. But Subhanallah, it wasn't working out. And Allah ﷻ says, وَتُخْفِي فِي نَفْسِكَ مَا اللَّهُ مُبْدِيهِ And you concealed in yourself what Allah ﷻ was going to make public. This here, because I don't want to spend too much time on the controversy part, but it's important. So I'm going to give you an article. And I'm not biased at all, but I think it's the best article that's written on this subject. But it's on Yaqeen Institute's website. The Prophet ﷺ's marriage to Zaynab bin Jahsh, a re-examination from a historiographic perspective by Dr. Hassan Ashraf. So again, the Prophet ﷺ's marriage to Zaynab bin Jahsh, a re-examination from a historiographic perspective by Dr. Hassan Ashraf. It's a long extensive paper that completely debunks what Islamophobes and Orientalists and those that would try to take from the Prophet ﷺ's haybah from his character would do. So a pretext to this, look, Allah tells us about the ways that the people of the book disgraced their prophets. They turned Dawud ﷺ, David, a noble man, into a man who would send his general out so that he can steal his wife. Ya'qub into a man who marries four women in one day, two sisters and their slaves. I mean, they turned Nuh ﷺ into what they turned Nuh ﷺ into. So there is no moral ground for you to try to debunk a prophet on the basis of this subject in the first place. But the same type of mindset and attitude of trying to reduce the prophets to lustful beings that are driven by their passions and their lusts and their desires. So what is the Islamophobic claim? And unfortunately, a claim that many Muslims will even fall into and parrot. The Prophet ﷺ came one day and he saw Zainab ﷺ without her hijab and the Prophet ﷺ fell in love with her. And the Prophet ﷺ went and he held his love inside of his heart until Allah ﷻ made it obvious.
And then the Prophet ﷺ forced the divorce after that. Here's why that doesn't make sense. Number one, hijab hadn't been revealed yet. So that's the first thing. So it preys upon ignorance of the historical context. Again, even sometimes Muslim scholars, and I love them, but I love the Prophet ﷺ more, will parrot this idea. And it's not right. Even the Prophet ﷺ, he had seen Zainab ﷺ without hijab because hijab had not been revealed yet. That's number one. Number two, she wanted to marry him. If the Prophet ﷺ wanted to marry her from the very start, he could have saved himself the headache. No one would have said anything and he could have married her without putting himself in this hardship. So subhanAllah, when I say this article is profound and it's a great historical breakdown, what Dr. Hassan does, he actually scrutinizes the sanad of every narration, the chain of every narration and every story that supposedly puts this forward and then puts forth the authentic narrations about the Prophet ﷺ in this regard. So first and foremost, that Zainab ﷺ would have been eager to marry the Prophet ﷺ is an established historical fact. She was eager to marry the Prophet ﷺ. So why would the Prophet ﷺ delay this until it's more convenient for him and then put himself through this hardship of now the divorce of Zaid and things of that sort. Number two, and they interpret, وَتُخْفِي فِي نَفْسِكَ مَا اللَّهُمُ مُبْدِيدٌ that you hide in yourself what Allah would make public, that this is the Prophet ﷺ's love for her. And as, you know, Adil Salahi says, you know, the idea that the secret that supposedly the Prophet ﷺ was holding was his love for Zainab is suppose that a man falls in love with another man's wife, you're claiming that he's morally bound to speak of that love in public. Would God criticize a man who could not help his feelings if he suppressed such a love and kept it to himself? Would he be better rewarded
if he were to write some love poems expressing his feeling? It doesn't make sense. So to try to take that ayah and say the Prophet ﷺ suddenly saw her and said, subhanAllah, I'm in love with her now and I'm gonna go cause a headache for myself to marry her, doesn't make sense whatsoever. So that sort of disqualifies it from that perspective. So what was the secret that Allah is talking about? It's the mandate that Allah had revealed, تُخْفِي فِي نَفْسِكَ مَا اللَّهُمُ مُبْدِيدٌ that Zaid will divorce Zainab and you will marry Zainab. Zaid will divorce Zainab and you will marry Zainab. And the Prophet ﷺ, تَخْشَ النَّاسِ he was worried about what the people are gonna say, like what is that, right? How are people going to react to that because the Prophet ﷺ had adopted Zaid ﷺ. He did تَبَنِّي and Zaid was now Zaid ibn Muhammad. So what was the public perception going to be? And Allah was saying to the Prophet ﷺ that the mandate was going to come down anyway. Don't hold this in yourself. Allah has a greater wisdom. Just like Allah had a greater wisdom for letting the marriage happen, Allah has a greater wisdom for the divorce that's going to happen now as well. So let's kind of break this down a bit inshaAllah ta'ala and then we'll get into the virtues and the story of Zainab رضي الله تعالى عنها which I really want to get into. When Allah says, because this is gonna make سورة الأحزاب make a lot more sense to you. ما كان محمد أبى أحد من رجالكم Muhammad ﷺ is not the father of one of you. Why is this so important to say the Prophet ﷺ does not biologically have another son because if the Prophet ﷺ has a biological son, the spiritual, political and material implications of that were going to be huge. So the annulment of adoption and removing any type of heir to the Prophet ﷺ from a biological perspective means that no one can lay claim to prophethood or political authority
based upon the Prophet ﷺ is my father. So that's number one. It's extremely important to eliminate that before it even happens because of the political ramifications of that because the idea back then is father transfers power to son. Now subhanAllah with that being said, Aisha رضي الله عنها has an authentic hadith about Zaid رضي الله عنه. I thought about this when I visited the grave of Zaid ibn Harith رضي الله عنه المؤتى. SubhanAllah, Aisha رضي الله عنها says, the Prophet ﷺ never sent out an army except that he put Zaid in charge of it. And she said, who's Aisha رضي الله عنه father? Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه. Aisha رضي الله عنه says, if Zaid was alive, the Prophet ﷺ would have made him the khalifa. That's what she says. If Zaid was alive, the Prophet ﷺ would have appointed him as khalifa. Because of his being his son? No, because of his righteousness. This is حب رسول الله ﷺ. This is the beloved one of the Prophet ﷺ. Zaid was molded and raised by the Prophet ﷺ and encompassed so much beauty. So Aisha رضي الله عنه is saying, if he was alive, he would have been appointed as the khalifa. So Allah ﷻ removed التبني which is to ascribe a son to yourself and look at the wisdom. Because if you're Zaid, I went from being Zaid ibn Harith to Zaid ibn Muhammad to now being Zaid ibn Harith again. How does Allah ﷻ compensate Zaid رضي الله عنه for no longer being Zaid ibn Muhammad? He mentions his name in the Qur'an. The only companion of the Prophet ﷺ whose name is in the Qur'an. فَلَمَّا قَضَى زَيْدٌ مِنْهَا وَطَرًا زَوَّجْنَا كَهَا Allah mentions his name رضي الله عنه. So the compensation for no longer being Zaid, the son of Muhammad, is that you are the only companion of Muhammad ﷺ named in the revelation of Muhammad ﷺ.
And your name is recited as عِبَادَة from all of the Muslims, as an act of worship from all the Muslims for all time. Now I'm going to hit one more thing and go back to the marriage. Beyond حفظ النسل which is to preserve lineage, what's the wisdom of Allah prohibiting تبني, prohibiting adoption? Because effectively now when Allah ﷻ solidifies the divorce of Zaid from Zaynab and then orders the Prophet ﷺ to marry Zaynab, right? He breaks completely the institution of تبني which is known as adoption. And for us living in a world where adoption is synonymous with charity, generosity, we see that and we think to ourselves, why eliminate an institution of good? Why eliminate an institution of charity? And the reason being is that in that society تبني was actually a means of exploitation and evil. So go back to the socio-historic context. So just a quote from the article, Examples of this principle include the pre-Islamic sanctioning of the coercive marriage between a son and his stepmother at the death of the father. That was actually a practice that the Arabs had. Without consent of the stepmother by the way. So تبني, you could literally adopt someone and they inherit your wife after death in جهلية, in the days of ignorance without even the consent of the stepmother. In fact not just the son but all of the deceased male's heirs were given carte blanche to wed any female member of the deceased households including wives and daughters. تبني was also used to appropriate the wealth of an orphan. So you find an orphan, if that orphan inherited something, if you're a more powerful tribe, you're my son now and I can take everything that belongs to you. تبني, subhanAllah, in our minds adoption is to take someone in and foster and care for them. In that time, that was a means of appropriating the wealth of an orphan, of a wealthy orphan.
It was also used sometimes to hide the crime of زنا, to hide the crime of fornication and adultery. So in conclusion, adoption provided no added social benefit to individuals who could realize far more gain by simply becoming a حليف, an ally to a tribe. And in this context, it was imperative to entirely abolish an institution that was at best inherently functionless and at worst fostered oppression. And for a practice that was as deeply entrenched in society, this wasn't going to work unless it had prophetic precedence. The only way this institution was going to be abolished from the community of the Prophet ﷺ is if it had a function in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. SubhanAllah, with all of that, look at all the ayat that came down about caring for the orphan. كافر اليتين, taking care of orphans, foster care, adoption without تبني, bringing in children into the home and raising them as your own. All of that was not just maintained, it was actually encouraged and it became a new feature of that civilization that used to bury kids alive when they saw them of no benefit. So that's the wisdom of the prohibition of تبني through something as solid as the institution of marriage. So Allah ﷻ divorces Zayd from Zaynab and now orders the marriage of the Prophet ﷺ to Zaynab ﷺ years later. And what did Zaynab ﷺ do? الله أكبر and she fell in the سجدة الشكر. So she goes into prostration and she starts to celebrate and this is what she had wanted the entire time. And subhanAllah, this happens five years after hijrah, right before حديثة الإفك, right before the slander of Aisha ﷺ, which gives you some more context into why Hamna bin Jahsh might have fallen into the crime of slandering Aisha ﷺ.
So this is right before that, Zaynab ﷺ is married to the Prophet ﷺ. And Anas ﷺ says about the marriage of Zaynab ﷺ, he says, ما أولم رسول الله ﷺ على امرأة من نسائه أكثر أو أفضل مما أولم على زينب that the Prophet ﷺ did not have a wedding that was as nice as the wedding of Zaynab. What is his idea of nice? The Prophet ﷺ actually slaughtered a goat. Because most of the time it was eat some date paste and a little bit of bread, the Prophet ﷺ actually أطعمهم خبزاً و لحماً حتى تركوه He actually ﷺ slaughtered an animal and fed them bread and meat until there was enough that was even left over afterwards. So what makes this marriage so interesting that Zaynab ﷺ would always talk about? Zaynab had a famous statement, she would say, إِنَّ اللَّهَ أَنكَحَنِي فِي السَّمَاءِ Allah married me from the heavens. So the Qur'an served as my Nikah, Allah married me from above seven heavens. So you're going to see now why Aisha and Zaynab used to always get into it. Aisha ﷺ used to boast, جبريل ﷺ married me off. Zaynab ﷺ would respond and say, well fine, Allah married me off. And as a Zahabi narrates, فزوّجها الله تعالى بنبيه ﷺ بنص كتابه بلا ولي ولا شاهد It's really interesting. The marriage of Zaynab is unlike any other marriage contract in history. It's actually the Qur'an because there was no wali, no witnesses. We're all witnesses to the marriage of the Prophet ﷺ to Zaynab ﷺ. And she used to, فكانت تفخر بذلك على أمهات المؤمنين She used to say from a place of boastfulness, she used to say
زوّجَ كُنَّ أَهَالِي كُنَّ وَزَوَّجَنِي اللَّهُ مِن فَوْقِ عَرْشِهِ That your family's married you off, I was married by Allah ﷻ from above his throne. And she used to say that three things that Allah blessed me with, that I was married from above seven heavens. Allah was my guardian. Allah is the one who married me off. And she said, the ayat of hijab came after me. And she said, and I'm the closest to the Prophet ﷺ in relationship, in terms of her blood relationship to the Prophet ﷺ. What's the story there? أَنَا صَدِي اللَّهُ تَعَالَى عَنْهُ He narrates, when the Prophet ﷺ married Zaynab ﷺ, they had the waleema, which was the same. The Prophet ﷺ gave the same mahr to all of his wives, right, ﷺ. There was a group of men that came to the house of the Prophet ﷺ. So people were coming into the house. They would sit, they would eat, they would leave. And there was a group of men that came and sat down and they didn't leave. The Prophet ﷺ was too shy to say, can you go home now? All right, the party's over, go home. So Rasulullah ﷺ, what does he do? He gets up to leave himself, thinking if I leave my house, they'll get up and leave too. But they just stayed there and kept talking. So the Prophet ﷺ left his home. فَأَتَى حُجُرَ أُمَّهَاتِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَدْعُوا وَيَدْعُونَ فَأَتَى حُجُرَ أُمَّهَاتِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَدْعُوا وَيَدْعُونَ This is beautiful. He went to his wife ﷺ. He greeted each of them. He made dua for them and they made dua for him ﷺ. So he went to visit his wife ﷺ and they wished him well. They made dua for him, he made dua for them. And he came back and they were still there ﷺ. Just like Surah Al-Hujurat comes down to set some boundaries for the Prophet ﷺ, here, the boundary of the hijab for Ummahatul Mu'mineen, which was the curtain in the home. So obviously the hijab as it applies to all women was made mandatory,
but the hijab as in the curtain that was established in the home. So if you look at the portrayals of the hujurat, of the chambers of the Prophet ﷺ, the wives of the Prophet ﷺ would speak from literally behind a curtain in their home to people when they would come to visit them. So Zaynab was saying this was the context for this. So what happens with Zaynab? Obviously, as we said, you can tell right away why Aisha and Zaynab are going to have a particular dynamic here. So the story of the Ansar bringing the gifts to the house of the Prophet ﷺ in Aisha's house and Zaynab not liking that and Zaynab coming and complaining to the Prophet ﷺ and then Aisha ﷺ chastising her back, as-kataha, right, completely silencing her and the Prophet ﷺ says, that's the daughter of Abu Bakr, leave me out of it. So that's one. Hadithatul Ifk, the slander of Aisha ﷺ. Aisha praises Zaynab. Why? Because Zaynab had a chance to take some shots at Aisha when she was slandered. But what does she say? She says that when the Prophet ﷺ asked Zaynab what she thought about Aisha, Zaynab said, Ya Rasulullah, ahmi sam'i wa basari, wallahi ma'alimtu illa khaira. O Messenger of Allah, I'll protect my eyes and I'll protect my ears. Wallahi, I don't know except for good of her. And Aisha praises Zaynab and says, fa-asamahallahu bil war'i. That Allah protected her with her righteousness. She was such a righteous woman that she couldn't slander even then. It was her sister Hamna who's a companion, may Allah be pleased with her. Again, comes out of a great deal of trauma here. But she's saying Zaynab had too much taqwa to take part in that slander. The story of a tahreem, surah tahreem, that the Prophet ﷺ would go to the house of Zaynab and Zaynab had a particular type of honey that the Prophet ﷺ loved.
And Hafsa and Aisha, may Allah be pleased with them, said, tell the Prophet ﷺ when he comes to our homes that your breath smells like maghafir, that your breath smells bad when you come. So that we can dissuade the Prophet ﷺ from visiting Zaynab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. And this is, as in Sahih al-Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ when he was asked, did you eat maghafir? What is it with your breath? He said, laa walaakinni kuntu ashrabu a'salan ainda Zaynab ibnati Jahsh falan a'ooda lahu. The Prophet ﷺ said, I drank honey in the house of Zaynab radiyaAllahu anha and I will not return to it. Waqad halaftu laa tukhbiri bithalika ahada. And he took an oath, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, from Aisha and Hafsa that they will not conceal that secret or they will not make public that secret. That the Prophet ﷺ said, I will not eat her honey anymore. Another Islamophobic narrative, in surah tahreem, that is debunked week as-Saneed. Al-Qurtubi rahimahullah debunks all of them. That the secret of the Prophet ﷺ was this. That he told them not to make public the sirr that the Prophet ﷺ said, I will not return to drinking that honey. So you have the story of a tahreem. Then you have the story of i'tikaf as we come into the last ten days of Ramadan. I'm getting the conflict out of the way so I can get to the qualities. So let's just go through all the conflicts really quick. In the last ten nights of Ramadan, the Prophet ﷺ obviously used to do what? He used to pitch his tent in the masjid. And the Prophet ﷺ would isolate himself in worship for the entirety of those last ten nights. So the Prophet ﷺ did that one year. And Aisha, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, asked the Prophet ﷺ, can I pitch a tent next to you? The Prophet ﷺ said, go ahead. So Hafsa asked Aisha, shows you the way the camps are. Hafsa asked Aisha, can you ask the Prophet ﷺ if I can pitch a tent too?
So Hafsa pitched the tent next to the Prophet ﷺ too. And Zainab said that and said, wait, if they're pitching a tent, I'm going to go pitch a tent as well. So the Prophet ﷺ, who's coming to the masjid, sitting in his tent ﷺ to spend the last ten nights of Ramadan, worshipping Allah and remembering Allah, now he's got Aisha, Hafsa and Zainab. And they've got their tents around him ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ came out and he said, al-birr aradna bihada ma'ana bi mu'takif. He said, are they seeking to do something righteous through this or is this something else? The Prophet ﷺ said, you know what, you stay in your tents, I'm going home. And the Prophet ﷺ did not do i'tikaf that year, but the Prophet ﷺ did an extra ten nights the next year. So he said, you know what, if you're coming to do i'tikaf, you're going to do i'tikaf, you all stay in your tents, and I'm going to go back home ﷺ. So this was the intensity of that competition that they had with each other. And I say this because it makes the qualities more beautiful when they start to praise the qualities of one another. And when we talk about Safiyyah, and she'll probably be the next lecture we do after Ramadan, but with Safiyyah in particular, because she was a convert from Judaism, the insult to Safiyyah was al-Yahudiyya, the Jewish woman. So Zaynab was one of those who also insulted Safiyyah, and the Prophet ﷺ was very upset about that. And he didn't talk to her for some time ﷺ when she insulted Safiyyah in that way. So she had that temper as well where she snapped at Safiyyah in that way. Now I want to get to her qualities. And I start with her qualities by saying one thing. SubhanAllah, what stuck out to me this time in particular, when going through the preparation for this lecture, was the effect the Prophet ﷺ had on people,
particularly in regards to their attachment to the Hereafter and their detachment from this world. And actually, Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Aas ﷺ has a beautiful statement. He says, كُنَّ مَعَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ We were with the Prophet ﷺ. يَهِمُونَ الْآخِرَةَ وَلَا تَهِمُونَ الدُّنْيَا All we cared about was the Hereafter. We could care less about this dunya. Like when we were with the Prophet ﷺ, all we cared about was the Hereafter. The world suddenly had no meaning. The material world suddenly meant nothing to us. We became entirely detached because you're with the Prophet ﷺ. Look at the way that your iman is going to be raised. Look at the way your faith is going to be raised. And suddenly, you rise in the ranks and you become attached to something else. This is a woman that comes from royalty. And I want you to observe the change that's going to happen in her life. Aisha says about Zaynab, Remember Aisha and Zaynab were competitors. Aisha says, out of all the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, me and Zaynab used to always go at it. But she says, ما رأيتم رأة قد خيرا في الدين من زينب وأتقى لله وأصدق حديثا وأوصل للرحم وأعظم أمانا وصدقا This is a high praise. She said, I've never met a woman in my life who was better in her religion than Zaynab. Who had more consciousness of Allah than Zaynab. Who was more God-fearing than Zaynab. أصدق حديثا Who spoke the truth like Zaynab. Remember even in those moments, she only said good about Aisha. وأوصل للرحم And she used to maintain the ties of kinship. وأعظم أمانة وصدقا And who was better or more trustworthy and more charitable than Zaynab. I mean she checks all these boxes. And Aisha said, no one was like Zaynab in this regard. So when you talk about a competitor,
you talk about a competitor in khair as well, a competitor in good as well. Hence, take that story of i'tikaf and look what happens a few years later. The Prophet ﷺ enters into the masjid and he sees a rope hanging between two pillars. And he says ﷺ, what is that rope? And they said, هذا حبل لزينب This is Zaynab's rope. Zaynab's rope, that's interesting. So the Prophet ﷺ said, what do you mean Zaynab's rope? And they said, يا رسول الله, she comes to the masjid at night and she prays all night long. And when she gets tired, she leans on the rope. SubhanAllah. Think about the righteousness and the dedication that this woman suddenly has. This is a woman that comes from royalty that a few years ago is not that person, right? Now she's in the masjid and she's leaning on a rope so she can keep herself praying all night. And the Prophet ﷺ said, you know, that's not the right way. حلو That you should remove the rope. And he said ﷺ that a person should pray up to their نشاطة up to their energy. Once a person gets to a point where they cannot understand what they're reading anymore, they get too tired, فليقعد he said ﷺ, then you should sit down. That's too much at that point when it comes to qiyam. So some of you that come in Tarawih, if you start falling forward and you keep bumping the person in front of you in the back, especially those first few nights as you're starting to get used to it, it's okay, you can quit after six rak'ahs. All right? If you don't even know where you are anymore, if the biryani that you had for iftar was too heavy and it's messing with your senses, probably try something different. No, you can eat biryani for iftar, it's halal. But at that point, the Prophet ﷺ is saying, when you don't even know what you're saying anymore, stop. That's too much, right? But it shows you how Zaynab ﷺ was developing a habit of qiyam. So I want to actually go through the habits. Number one is qiyam. Number two,
the description of Zaynab ﷺ is that after the Prophet ﷺ passed away, Zaynab ﷺ did not leave her home. Now, why is that said about her in a sense of praise? That she spent her days and her nights between the Qur'an and between qiyam al-Lijj. It was as if nothing else existed in this world. SubhanAllah. So she became this zahida, this ascetic that was so incredible and unbelievable to the rest of society. How is this woman so righteous? Staying in her place of ibadah, worshipping Allah ﷻ. And of course, the sadaqah of Zaynab ﷺ is going to be her greatest trait. Zaynab ﷺ was narrated, they said that money in the hand of Zaynab was like charcoal. It was like you're putting a burning piece of charcoal in her hand. That anything that touched her hand left her hand just as quickly. رضي الله تعالى عنها صدقا Remember this. She's a woman that came from royalty and look what's happening to her. What do you think happened to her being in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ for just four years? That completely reshaped her view of this dunya to where money would not stay in her hand except like a burning piece of charcoal. And Aisha ﷺ says when the Prophet ﷺ was dying, and as I said we don't have much about Zaynab ﷺ because she died so early. We only have about 11 ahadith from her by the way because she died so early. Aisha says when the Prophet ﷺ was dying, what is the concern of every person around him? When do we get to join you? So Fatima ﷺ is told you're going to be the first one to join me and Fatima ﷺ is laughing, laughing, 21 year old woman because she's going to be the first one to die after the Prophet ﷺ.
So the wives of the Prophet ﷺ are curious who gets to be with you first? And the Prophet ﷺ he said يَتْبَعُنِي أَطْوَلَكُنَّ يَدًا The one with the longest arm will be the first one to follow me. The one who has the longest arm will be the first one to follow me. So Aisha ﷺ says when the Prophet ﷺ passed away, كُنَّ إِذَا اجْتَمَعْنَا فِي بَيْتِ إِحْدَانَا بَعْدَ وَفَاتِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَيْسَ لَّمْدَةَ When the wives of the Prophet ﷺ used to gather in one of our homes, every single time نَمُدُّ أَيْدِيَنَا فِي الْجِدَارِ نَتَطَاوَلَ We would start to measure our arms. Physically they'd take out their arms and they'd start to measure who has the longest arm and that's out of their anticipation. They're wanting to die to be with the Prophet ﷺ. That's the mindset. Think about what an incredible person the Prophet ﷺ was that that's the effect that he left on these people that they're literally measuring their arms saying which one of us has the longest arm that we can go and join the Prophet ﷺ first. And here's what she says which is very interesting. She said the shortest wife of the Prophet ﷺ was Zaynab. Zaynab was a very short woman. So the shortest wife of the Prophet ﷺ was Zaynab bin Jahsh radiAllahu ta'ala Anha. The tallest wife was Saudah radiAllahu anha. So we would measure the arms and we would see Saudah and it makes sense. Saudah was very old by the way. Zaynab radiAllahu anha was not young. She was already married twice. She's in her late 30s when she marries the Prophet ﷺ. So she's not a young woman especially in that society. But Saudah radiAllahu anha is 60s going into her 70s and her arm was longest so we thought well I guess that means Saudah is going to be the first one to die until Zaynab radiAllahu anha passed away and we realized what the Prophet ﷺ meant when he said Atwala kunna yadan, the longest arm is the one who gives the most sadaqa. And
Zaynab was the most charitable of all the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. So she had the longest arm. And the description subhanAllah some of the books of Seerah literally that her hands would, I mean because of her hastiness to give charity, when someone would come to knock on her door they wouldn't even have to get close to the door before they found Zaynab radiAllahu anha's hand already out there extending whatever came to her home radiAllahu anha being donated for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this woman who goes on with this legacy subhanAllah look how this actually takes place here. Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu anhu when he used to send his annual payments to the wives of the Prophet ﷺ to take care of them. He was told that Zaynab radiAllahu anha is not keeping any of it, that she's giving it all away. And Umar radiAllahu anhu sent more and sent more and sent more. And Zaynab radiAllahu anha made a dua. She said Allahumma la yudrikuni qabilu hathal maali fa innahu fitna. Oh Allah don't let me live to see another year of this money because it's a fitna for me. She lived that life. She had a life of wealth, a life of richness. She's saying oh Allah don't put me to this test again it's a fitna for me. And Umar radiAllahu anhu the messenger came back to him that he sent to give her her charity and told him what she said. And Umar radiAllahu anhu said hadhi imraa yuradu biha khair. This is a woman that Allah wants good for. Something is special about this woman. I mean the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, this woman Allah wants something special for her. So Umar radiAllahu anhu went personally to her home and sought permission and said I heard what you said but there is nothing wrong with you taking care of yourself ya um al-mu'mineen. So here is a thousand and this is personal money. This is not from anyone else. This is a thousand dirhams from me to you. Please keep them. As soon as Umar radiAllahu anhu left, Zainab
radiAllahu anhu went out the house and distributed and she that was it. And subhanAllah this woman in her dua, she died before the next year, the next payment came as she said in her dua. And she died with no possessions in her hujra because she even donated her furniture. Now by the way when I say this type of stuff you are like well does that mean I need to go home and donate all of my furniture? This is like when Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu gives all of his wealth for the sake of Allah subhanAllah. These people were on a different level of iman and they had a different status. They had a different circumstance. You take the lesson from their detachment from this dunya but even the Prophet ﷺ would not let other people do what Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu did. So Zainab radiAllahu anhu has a different league in this regard. But she even donated the furniture in her home. And what was the furniture of the house of the Prophet ﷺ? And she stays in her ibadah radiAllahu anhu and look what happens when she gets sick. So she is the first of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ to go. SubhanAllah it's unbelievable. She gets sick and she says, إني قد أعدت كفني ولعل عمر سيبعث إلي بكفن. She said listen I already prepared my kafan. So she was getting sick and she knew her time of death was coming. She was preparing for her meeting with the Prophet ﷺ, for her reuniting with the Prophet ﷺ. She said I have a kafan. I have already prepared for myself. Knowing Umar radiAllahu anhu he is going to send some kafan for me to use. He is going to send some cloth for me to use. She said if that happens فإن بعث بكفن فتصدقوا. If he sends kafans give it away. Like don't let me be buried before you give away those kafans. I don't even want the cloth that Umar sends to my house to stay in my house. And she said whatever you can give of my preparation for death in sadaqah give it away. Whatever is not necessary to
actually bury me in the grave give it all away for the sake of Allah ﷺ. So this was her attitude radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And she passes away radiAllahu ta'ala anhu only with the hujra, with the house that was left behind with the Prophet ﷺ and the kafan that she had. This woman who came from royalty in Mecca that was considered the elite of the elite and something happened inside of her radiAllahu anhu to where she completely focused herself to being the elite of the hereafter. And look how Allah ﷻ honors her. And her janazah subhanAllah was a big deal in Medina because she's the first of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ to pass away. So she's our first mom to die after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. So everyone in Medina participates in this janazah. They pray their salah in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. They walk out and they wait around the house of Zainab radiAllahu anha where her body will be carried. And her brother Abu Ahmed who was the blind companion radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. It's narrated and subhanAllah it's important to see this human side that he wouldn't leave her bed radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. That he was holding on to her and he was crying and he wouldn't leave her bed. And Umar radiAllahu anhu had to encourage him to basically let her go. And that's something subhanAllah that shows you sometimes. You need to know the human love and attachment and the compassion that these sahaba had for their siblings, for each other, especially the love they had for the Prophet ﷺ. So Umar radiAllahu anhu had to prompt him and allow him to come to terms with the fact that she would be buried. And Abu Ahmed he said that through this woman every blessing that came to our household came to us. Like subhanAllah when she was alive all the barakah that came in our household it wasn't just the sadaqah that she was giving that was bringing barakah to her. Everything that she was doing the barakah would come to our house and Umar radiAllahu anhu allowed him to carry her body or to be one of those that carried her body as a means
of persuading him to be able to let her go from that place. And subhanAllah it was a windy day. So Asmaa bint Abi Umais, Asmaa bint Umais who was the wife of Abu Bakr. If you read about Asmaa bint Umais, Asmaa bint Umais was this incredible woman who was the widow of Ja'far, the widow of Abu Bakr, the widow of Ali. She married all three men. And she was the one who used to prepare bodies for burial. So she actually washed the body of Abu Bakr herself which is why some of the madahib allow for a spouse to wash the body of their spouse on the basis of Asmaa washing the body of Abu Bakr. So Asmaa washed her body and Asmaa said Zainab was a woman of great hayat, was a woman of great modesty. So let's put a box or let's put her in some sort of a box because it's windy and we don't want the garment to blow off. This is the first wife of the Prophet ﷺ to pass away. So let's give her an honorable burial. And so they carried her in a box, Abu Ahmed, her brother, in the front and some of the noble ones of the companions, the most noble ones of the companions. And they covered the grave of Zainab radiAllahu anha, they held a sheet over her grave while they buried her under. And in Medina, if you go to al-Baqi, when they bury the women, they say that this is the practice of Zainab. They took this from the day of Zainab's death where when a woman is being buried so that her body does not show when she's being buried, that there's some people that will hold a sheet over while the grave diggers go and they bury the body of the woman so that the public does not see and especially in a desert environment where something could be exposed. So they took that, they say this is the tradition after the death of Zainab radiAllahu ta'ala anha. And so she was buried radiAllahu anha in al-Baqi and there's a section in al-Baqi where the wives of the Prophet ﷺ are buried. She's the first one radiAllahu anha, atwala kunna yadan, the longest arm amongst you. And that becomes her name in the seerah, subhanAllah, the longest
arm. And I'll end with two things here. Umm Salama radiAllahu anha, who actually was the longest living wife of the Prophet ﷺ. When Zainab passed away, tarahmat alayha, she said may Allah have mercy on her. Wadhakarat ma kana yakunu baynaha wa bayna Aisha. And she remembered all those times that her and Aisha used to have their arguments because that was kind of the spats between Aisha and Zainab. And she said wakana li rasoolillahi ﷺ mu'jaba. She was beloved to the Prophet ﷺ. Wakana yastakthiru minha. And the Prophet ﷺ used to frequently visit her. Wakana imra'atan saliha, sawwama, qawwama, san'an tatasaddaqu bithalika kullihi alal masakeen. This was a woman that used to pray at night. Sawwama, qawwama is the description of hafsa, fast all day, pray at night. And she used to do so many good deeds and she gave all of her wealth to the masakeen, to the poor people. And when she passed away, Aisha radiAllahu anha was crying and grieving. And there was a surprise, like we thought that Zainab and Aisha had beef with each other, right? That they used to always have their spats with each other. And Aisha radiAllahu anha, she praised her when she was crying. She said, laqad dhahabat hameedatan faqeedatan, mafza'al yatama wal aramina. Said that a beloved and righteous woman has passed away. She was the shelter of the widows and the orphans of Medina. This one woman, subhanAllah, was the shelter of the orphans and the widows of Medina radiAllahu anha. That is our mother Zainab bint Jahsh radiAllahu anha. And it's interesting, subhanAllah, that Zainab bint Khuzayma and Zainab bint Jahsh were the two women who were most known for their sadaqa from the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. And there's a dispute over whether Umm al-Masakeen, the mother of the poor, is Zainab
bint Khuzayma or Zainab bint Jahsh. And Allah knows best, but that was a nickname first for Zainab bint Khuzayma. It could have transferred to her as well, the mother of the poor. In any case, they are our mothers. May Allah subhanAllah be pleased with them all and reunite us with them. Allahuma ameen. InshaAllah ta'ala we will continue after Ramadan. Allahuma ballighna Ramadan. May Allah subhanAllah allow us to reach Ramadan and allow us to draw closer to the ways of these blessed people whom we study. And biddunAllahi ta'ala we will continue afterwards inshaAllah ta'ala with whoever remains from the wives of the Prophet ﷺ that we haven't already covered from the first season of the first. We ask Allah subhanAllah ta'ala to forgive us for our shortcomings and we ask Allah subhanAllah ta'ala to gather us once again in that which is pleasing to him. Allahuma ameen. And inshaAllah ta'ala once again I want to welcome Hector. And I want to remind the brothers, by the way, mashAllah our brothers at Iknar are doing incredible da'wah work. Clyde Warren, they had ten people embrace Islam just a few days ago. And if you want to be a part of this da'wah inshaAllah ta'ala, please join our brothers and sisters at Iknar and embrace what they're doing as well, just the incredible work that they're doing on the ground. Wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Now you can all hug Hector by the way.
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