The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
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44
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khawla Bint Hakim & Uthman Ibn Madhun: The Righteous Couple | The Firsts
52
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
58
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
125
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
126
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
146
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
147
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Zinneera (ra) and Aflah (ra): The Tortured Ones | The Firsts
Zinneera (ra) and Aflah (ra) were slaves who were tortured in the harshest of ways, yet refused to relinquish their faith even for a moment.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Salamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh everyone. Welcome back to the first shorts where we are covering the lives of some of these companions about whom we have very little information. But we owe a great deal of respect to and have a great deal of love for. And inshallah ta'ala, tonight we are covering a category of people. And even in this category, we won't be able to cover all the names because some of the names are either unknown to us. Or, you know, we have a first name, but not a last name, which is the case of many of them. And subhanAllah, one line or two maximum. But if you go back to the earliest companions that we have spoken about, Amr ibn Fuhayrah, Bilal radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, Khabbab, those people, when you talk about those that were enslaved and those that were tortured as being enslaved people in Mecca, the slaves in Mecca, Sumayya radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, the first martyr. These are the stories that tend to drive in us something very unique. Because if you think about how hard it was for them to put all of that on the line in Mecca without seeing any light at the end of the tunnel as far as the dunya was concerned. And having no one to protect them in the face of all that torture. And even the desperation of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam in wanting to be able to do more for them in this world. But of course Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has elevated them in so many different ways. Now in the case of people like Bilal radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and Khabbab radiyaAllahu anhu, they lived a long life and they were honored in this world before the ultimate honor of the hereafter. And so the story continues and you see them go forth to Medina. And you see them go forth beyond the death of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, even after the death of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And then you have these others that were actually killed under that persecution and that died as they were being persecuted. Some of whom we will never know their names, but surely Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows their names.
Shuhada from the muhajireen, martyrs from the forerunners. Now I wanted to talk about a few of these people and they almost all relate to Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. Why? Because Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu freed almost all of them. Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was the man who would go around and when he would see a person that was being tortured for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, particularly the slaves that were being tortured for the sake of Allah. Bilal, Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu would be the one that would pay whatever was necessary to purchase their freedom and would be questioned and his sincerity would be called into question by the disbelievers. And even his father says, look, these are people that don't benefit you. And Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu says, no, I'm seeking something else from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And it is only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that can please Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and repay him with something that he did not seek in this world from the people of this world. So you look at these people and you have names that are known. Bilal, who we spoke about, Khabbab. We spoke about Amr ibn Fuhayrah. And then you have others and one of them subhanAllah, for example, Lubayna, Lubayna radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. Lubayna was the slave girl that Amr ibn Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, prior to becoming Muslim said that I would beat her until I would get tired. I would beat her until I would get tired. You know, he would, he and he would let her know that. And subhanAllah, Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was the one who purchased her freedom. So later on, we know who Amr radiyaAllahu anhu becomes and the closeness of Abu Bakr to Amr. And here you have this situation of a woman by the name of Lubayna who was receiving the wrath from Amr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu at that time, all for the sake of Allah subhanAllah ta'ala. You have a woman by the name of An-Nahdiya radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. And then you have these two that I will speak about today that have,
you know, some particular stories around them inshaAllah ta'ala that can help us appreciate this plight even more. The first one is this woman by the name of Zinnira radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. And we don't have her last name. Zinnira radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha was a slave in Banu Makhzum, just like Sumayya radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. And so being in Banu Makhzum puts you not just at the mercy of any cruel person, but at the mercy of Abu Jahl from Banu Makhzum. So she was one of those who used to be tortured by Abu Jahl publicly and in very nasty ways. And it's said that Abu Jahl had a particular, you know, hatred for her when he would beat her. So we know about the circumstances under which Sumayya radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, the first martyr of this ummah passed away and the nastiness of Abu Jahl towards Sumayya radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. So Zinnira was also one of those who was distinguished in the way that Abu Jahl would torture her. So Abu Jahl was known to uniquely torture her and there are narrations from multiple people about the unique harassment. And ultimately he beat her until she became blind. He beat her until she became blind. So that was the amount of, you know, just severity that came from the physical blows of Abu Jahl towards this girl. And when he did that to her, he took it a bit further. When people, you know, spoke about that, he said, qad a'matha al-aliha. He said it was allat an al-izzah. It was the gods that blinded her, not me, but rather the idols that she rejected that blinded her. And subhanAllah, you actually have this narration, Ibn Ishaq from Hisham al-Urwah, from Ibn Zubayr, he said, a'taqa abu bakr ma'ahu alal islam qabla an yuhajira illa al-madina sitta riqab bilal sabi'uhum.
He said that Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu freed six people before he made hijrah to Medina. And the seventh was Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And he mentions, minhum Zinnira radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. From them was Zinnira. Fa useebat bi basariha heena a'taqaha. And she was tested with her eyesight by the torture that came from Abu Jahl. And Quraysh said, ma adhhaba basaraha illa allat wal-izzah. That no one took away her eyesight except for allat wal-izzah. It wasn't Abu Jahl, it wasn't us, it was allat wal-izzah. And she responded and she said, kadhabu. They lied by Allah. And she said, no, there is no harm that can come from allat wal-izzah. Do allat wal-izzah have any power? They don't benefit anyone and they don't have any power. Allahu Akbar. Imagine the strength of this woman. That she has been beaten to blindness in the name of these idols, in the name of these gods. And she has no position in society. And she is responding as she is physically blinded. And she says, they are lying. You think allat wal-izzah have any power? And she says, verily, it is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who has all power and from who all benefit comes. And in whose will harm can take place. And when she said that, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave her back her eyesight. Radda Allahu ilayha basaraha. SubhanAllah. So she actually could see again. And Quraysh who was mocking Zunira radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. And saying that this torture was not what caused her blindness, but rather allat wal-izzah. When they saw that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave her her eyesight back. They said that this is nothing but the sihr of Muhammad sallAllahu alaihi wasallam. This is a proof of his sorcery that she was able to see again. And instead we know of course that this was a karama. This was a miracle from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to her due to her righteousness.
So imagine subhanAllah the position of this woman radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. The last person that I'll mention here is Aflah ibn Yasar. Aflah ibn Yasar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. If you could give him a description. He is the one who was tortured exactly like Bilal radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu by the same man by Umayya ibn Khalaf. So Aflah radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and subhanAllah his name is Aflah. He succeeded and truly. Aflah. Aflah was a person who at the hands of Umayya as he stood his ground to be a Muslim. He was tortured in scorching heat. He was forced to lie naked in the desert with a heavy stone that was placed on his chest almost killing him. He was deprived of food and drink. He was sleep deprived. He was lashed in public. All of the things we know that happened to Bilal radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu happened to him. And in fact the last time that we see his torture is when the mushrikeen, the pagans tied a rope around his feet and his neck and they dragged him around Mecca his almost lifeless body until he was about to die and Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu saw him and he purchased his freedom and he sent him to Abyssinia to escape persecution. So unlike Bilal radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu who stayed with Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu anhu in Mecca and went forth to Medina and we know what takes place with Bilal radiyaAllahu anhu. This man who was his twin in torture Aflah ibn Yasar was sent to Abyssinia to escape the heavy persecution and he died soon after that in Abyssinia according to the few accounts that we have. So subhanAllah imagine the status of this man and imagine his position with Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and subhanAllah I you know met someone very recently and he named his child Aflah. I said, do you know who Aflah was? And he said no. And you know when I told him that this is the man who was tortured like Bilal radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu
it brought him to tears that we use these names and we should use these names and think about this man who has this level of yaqeen, this level of certainty and underwent what he underwent and of course also one of the good deeds of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. So may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala be pleased with Zunira. May Allah be pleased with Al-Nahdiya, Al-Lubayna. May Allah be pleased with Bilal. May Allah be pleased with Amir ibn Fuhayrah. May Allah be pleased with Aflah. May Allah be pleased with Khabbab. May Allah be pleased with the ones that we know and the ones that we don't know that underwent the worst of persecution during the most severe of times so that we could inherit this beautiful religion. Allahuma Ameen. JazakumAllahu Khayran. InshaAllah ta'ala I'll see you next time. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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