Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 14 - Torture and persecution of the weak - Yasir Qadhi | November 2011
Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 14 - Torture and persecution of the weak - Yasir Qadhi | November 2011
Opposition From the Quraysh (Cont.)
8. Quizzing the Prophet PBUH
The eighth tactic was to try to 'expose' the Prophet PBUH by quizzing him with questions that only a true prophet would know the answer to. The Arabs didn’t really know of the notion of a prophet. The Jews did, since they would get prophet after prophet. Allah says about the Quraysh in the Qur'an [32:3], "A people to whom no warner (prophet) has come before." Of course Prophet Ibrahim AS was there, but his legacy was almost forgotten. So the Arabs wanted to test whether the Prophet PBUH was a true prophet; but they only knew the Jews and the Christians as those who believed in prophets - so they sent emissaries to Madinah (which at the time was called Yathrib) to the Jews and said, "This phenomenon that used to occur in your groups has now entered ours. Tell us something we can quiz Muhammad [PBUH] with, so that we can expose that he is a liar." The People of the Book said, "Ask him about Ishaq, Ya'qub and Yusuf - ask him about what happened to the family of Ya'qub." So they went to the Prophet PBUH and asked him about Yusuf. And then Allah revealed the whole of Surah Yusuf as a response: "That is from the news of the unseen which We reveal, [O Muhammad], to you. And you were not with them when they put together their plan while they conspired." [12:102] The Quraysh had no clue who Yusuf was - yet the Prophet PBUH answered miraculously in one of the most beautiful surahs in the Qur'an.
Another incident was that the Arabs again sent delegation to Madinah and asked the Jews, "What questions can we quiz Muhammad [PBUH] with?" They said to ask him about 3 things that no one would know the details about except a true prophet:
1. Story of the young men who entered a cave and slept a long time.
2. Ask him about a man who traveled the world from east to west, and had experiences that are legends.
3. Ask him about the ruh/روح (spirit/soul), what is it made of and where does it come from - this is a trick question.
(This is reported in Tirmidhi, slightly weak.)
The Prophet PBUH was asked these 3 questions, and told the people, "Come back tomorrow and I'll let you know." The Prophet PBUH was overconfident and didn't say insha'Allah. And therefore instead of 1 day, it dragged on to 2 weeks for the revelation to come down, all the while the Quraysh were mocking the Prophet PBUH, "Has your 'false spirit' abandon you?" etc.
And eventually Allah SWT revealed Surah al-Kahf as the response to these questions.
1. Details are given about the Boys in the Cave that even the Jews didn't know.
2. Dhu al-Qarnayn was the reference here. (Some people in our times say Dhu al-Qarnayn is Alexander the Great, but there's no evidence for this, and in fact it is contrary to many things that we know. E.g. Alexander the Great was a pagan whose teacher was Aristotle who believed in the gods of the Greek mythology, whereas Dhu al-Qarnayn was a righteous monotheist. Scholars differed about whether or not Dhu al-Qarnayn was a prophet.)
3. About the ruh, Allah revealed in the Qur'an [17:85]: "They ask you about the spirit. Say, 'The spirit is from the affairs/mysteries of Allah; and none of you have been given knowledge (about it) except for a little bit.'" So Allah SWT did not answer about the spirit - but He did answer that it was a mystery of Allah that you will never going to know. This was a trick question, as the Jews knew that no one has the knowledge of the ruh. So if the Prophet PBUH gave a detailed answer, then according to Jewish people, it would have been exposed that the Prophet PBUH is a liar (not a true prophet). But of course the Prophet PBUH didn't, and gave a correct answer as revealed by Allah SWT, "There is no answer."
(Anthropological tangent - Every single nation that has been documented has 2-4 things in common:
1. Religiosity - we have never discovered an atheistic nation, as it is against the fitrah to not believe in a god.
2. Belief in human soul
3. Belief in evil spirit
4. Belief in the Great Flood 'Myth' i.e. the story of Manu in Vedas i.e. the story of Nuh AS in Abrahamic religions)
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9. Outright Torture
The ninth tactic was outright torture. In the Arab society, your tribe was your protection. Those who had tribal bonds, they were somewhat protected. The Prophet PBUH, being a Qureshi, had his protection in his lineage. However, the slaves and the mawlas (freed slaves) didn't have this protection. (Mawla - somewhat similar to the concept of indentured servant; the man is free but he owes his allegiance to his master.)
Sa'id ibn Jubayr (main student of Ibn Abbas) asks Ibn Abbas, "How was the torture of the sahaba in the early days? Was it really that bad?" Ibn Abbas says that the believers were so severely tortured, starved, and deprived of water that they couldn't even sit up because of the pain. It was so bad that when they were asked by the pagans, "Is al-Lat and al-Uzza your god?" they would respond, "Yes, al-Lat and al-Uzza are my gods," just to get rid of the torture. It even came to the point that if an insect passed by them and they were told to say it is their god, they would do so.
Islam allows one to say these things if you are being tortured to death, as long as your heart remains on Islam. Abu Jahal was the main propagator of this torture. This is why the Prophet PBUH called him the Fir'awn of this ummah. Abu Jahal had a series of tactic:
i. If the person who converted was from the noblemen of Quraysh, they would begin verbal abuse.
ii. If the person was a businessman who was doing business with the Quraysh, they would boycott him.
iii. If they were slaves and mawlas, they would physically torture and try to kill them.
Famous story in Bukhari by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud RA:
First 7 people who embraced Islam included himself, Abu Bakr, Ammar ibn Yasir, Sumayyah, Suhayb al-Rumi, Bilal al-Habashi, and al-Miqdad. As for the Prophet PBUH, he was protected by Allah SWT through his uncle Abu Talib. As for Abu Bakr, Allah SWT protected him through his tribe of Banu Qahafa. As for the rest, the Quraysh rounded them up and began torturing them in various ways e.g. put iron on their bodies, take them to the sand and left them there.
All of them eventually gave up and said what the Quraysh wanted them to say, EXCEPT for Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi.
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Outright Torture: Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi (بلال بن رباح الحبشي)
Bilal refused to budge one bit. Ibn Mas'ud said, "Bilal considered his soul insignificant in front of Allah" - Bilal was willing to give up his soul for Allah SWT. So the Quraysh concentrated their efforts on him. Bilal was handed over to the gangs/ruffians, and they would run around with a rope around his neck and drag him through the streets, all the while Bilal would say, "Ahadun Ahad! Ahadun Ahad!" - crying the oneness of Allah AWJ. Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the owner of Bilal, also participated in the torture of Bilal. Realize it's a delicate line that you are drawing, because slaves are very expensive 'property' - more expensive than houses and camels. To punish your own slave means you are harming your own income. YET they tortured him, and risked his life. This is how much hatred they had for Islam, and showed the depth of their evil character. Bilal would be trapped and pinned under a rock, under the hot sun. Many of the sahaba were amazed that Bilal survived his torture, as Amr ibn As said that the rocks were so hot that you could literally cook raw meat on the rocks. He heard Bilal saying while he was tortured:
أكفر باللات والعزى وأؤمن بالله
"I reject al-Lat and al-Uzza, and I believe in Allah SWT." Umayyah continued to punish him but he refused to budge and kept on saying, "Ahadun Ahad! Ahadun Ahad!"
Many years later, Urwah ibn Zubayr (nephew of Aisha) narrates: Bilal was tortured, but he never even gave them one word to please them.
And look at how Allah SWT rewarded him. We as Muslims firmly believe that:
الجزاء من جنس العمل
"The reward or the punishment will be the exact same as what you did to get that reward or punishment" - an Arabic saying, NOT a hadith. This is a maxim that we apply in our religion. So Bilal was eventually rewarded by becoming the first, the most important, and the only OFFICIAL muezzin of the Prophet PBUH. The voice that was calling out, "One, One (Ahadun Ahad, Ahadun Ahad)," later becomes the voice that calls out adhan, reciting the kalimah loudly. The Prophet PBUH himself chose Bilal to be the muezzin because he had the best voice amongst them.
Bilal was the one who gave the adhan in the Haram when the Prophet PBUH reconquered Makkah (in later seerah). That is his reward - becoming the one who calls out the name of Allah at the pinnacle of honor, the height of dignity, re-establishing tawhid at the Ka'bah.
(And from ahadith, we learn so many blessings of the muezzin. The Prophet PBUH said, "If people knew how much reward would be in the giving the adhan and in standing in the first row (in salah), and they had no other way out other than by drawing lots, they would've drawn lots in order to give adhan and to stand in the first row" - emphasizing how much blessing is there in giving the adhan. He PBUH also said, "Any muezzin who gives adhan, whatever hears his adhan from animate or inanimate object will testify for him" (Ibn Majah). In Bukhari, the Prophet PBUH said to a shepherd, "Whenever you are in your lands, give the adhan (even when you are alone), because no jinn or human will hear your voice except that they will testify to what you have said (Iman) on the Day of Judgement" - whoever hears the adhan will testify on behalf of the muezzin. So one plus one: who was the muezzin of the Prophet PBUH by designation? Bilal ibn Rabah! And whose adhan did the Prophet PBUH hear 5 times a day, morning and evening, for over 10 years? Bilal! Also in Bukhari, the Prophet PBUH said, "Muezzins will have the longest necks on the Day of Judgement" - it doesn't mean they're going to be like giraffes; it's an Arabic expression that could mean they will have the greatest honor - people will look up to them.)
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Outright Torture: Khabbab ibn al-Aratt (خباب بن الأرت)
Khabbab ibn al-Aratt - One of first ten converts of Islam. He was an Arab slave (Arab slaves were treated a little better than slaves of other ethnicity.) Khabbab was a forger. His master was a female, Ummi Anmar. When she found out that Khabbab converted, she got a gang together to beat him up. She would use the iron that he would use to forge swords, to burn his back. Many years later, when Umar al-Khattab was the khalifa, Khabbab visited Umar, and Umar asked him about the things that Ummi Anmar used to do to him when he was a slave. He didn't say anything. He just lifted his shirt and showed his back to Umar. Umar said, "Wallahi, I have never seen anything as I have seen today." And Umar made him sit with him on the majlis, and he gave him a lot of honor.
In Bukhari, the Prophet PBUH said, no one is allowed to punish by fire except The Creator of the fire. Because fire is the worst type of torture imaginable. When the Prophet PBUH saw Khabbab being tortured one day by the fire, he lifted his hands up and said, "O Allah, unsur Khabbab (help Khabbab)." Few days later, Ummi Anmar woke up sick, started acting like a rabid dog. Panting around and crawling around the house, completely lost her senses. The doctors of Makkah said that the only treatment for her would be cauterization (burning of the skin). She had to be cauterized on her back and her head. La ilaha illaLlah! She died as a result of this.
كما تدين تدان
"As you do it shall be done unto you."
الجزاء من جنس العمل
"The reward or the punishment will be the exact same as what you did to get that reward or punishment."
Narrated in Sahih Bukhari: The torture of Khabbab was in fact so severe that it was Khabbab who went to the Prophet PBUH when the Prophet PBUH was sitting in the shade of the Ka'bah and said, "Ya Rasulullah, for how long? How long can we bear this? How long are we going to be tortured like this? Can't you just ask Allah to bring about honor and glory and get rid of this state of humiliation?" The Prophet PBUH stood and said, "Verily, the people before you were tortured worse than you, with hot iron combs that would strip his flesh, with a saw or knife that would cut him in half, and still that would not turn them away from the worship of Allah. Verily, I swear to you by the One who sent me, Allah will perfect this matter (religion), until a Muslim shepherdess will take her flock from Sana'a to Hadhramaut and she will fear none but Allah, or a wolf attacking her sheep. But you are being hasty."
Another famous incident of Khabbab is that when Umar came to his sister's house, Khabbab was in the house at the time, teaching Islam to other Muslims - he was one of the more knowledgeable of the sahaba.
Khabbab participated in all of the expeditions of the Prophet PBUH (in later seerah).
(Tangent: During the khilafa of Abu Bakr RA, Abu Bakr had a policy that all of the sahaba should get the same salary from the government. When he was asked about this, he said, "Who am I to prefer one over another? [Only] Allah knows who has more taqwa." But when Umar RA becomes the khalifa, Umar said, "Those who accepted Islam earliest will get grade A pay, those who accepted later grade B etc." [Ironically this put himself at grade C - he's way after many people - and this shows us that he was not doing this to prefer himself.] So Khabbab is getting one of the highest salaries from the Bayt al-Mal. So Khabbab built himself a modest house in Kufa, and had a treasure box that was open. And it was known in the city that if anyone had any monetary problems, they can simply take from the treasury of Khabbab with no question asked.)
Khabbab, when he was about to die (37 AH), was crying on his deathbed. His family asked him, "Why are you crying? You have suffered so much (in this dunya), you have reached the highest level, you will meet the Prophet PBUH and be rewarded by Allah SWT!" He said, "I am not crying out of pain or fear of meeting Allah SWT. I am crying because what you see around you: this house! What will I answer Allah for my luxurious living? Verily I was with a group of people (who were tortured as I was), but they all have gone before me without tasting the sweetness of this world; and Allah has left me to enjoy the fruits of this world. So I am scared that because of this, my share of the akhira will not be as much as the share of my companions."
This is Khabbab ibn al-Aratt. What a story of Iman.
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Outright Torture: Yasir (ياسر), Sumayyah (سمية) & Ammar (عمار)
Yasir and Sumayyah - they were a family being tortured in front of each other with their 2 children, Abdullah and Ammar. All of them were slaves. Yasir and Sumayyah became the first martyrs of Islam, one after the other. Hadith of the Prophet PBUH:
صبراً يا آل ياسر فإن موعدكم الجنة
"Be patient O family of Yasir! Indeed the place appointed to you [by Allah] is Jannah." It was also painful for the Prophet PBUH to see them being tortured as he was walking by but nothing could be done at this stage. When Yasir was being tortured, it made his wife even more full of Iman. She rebuked Abu Jahal, and Abu Jahal killed her in a brutal manner. This was in front of Ammar and Abdullah. Then they throw Abdullah into a ditch, and finally turn on Ammar (at the time probably around 15 years old or maybe younger). Ammar has seen too much, he couldn't take it anymore, so he succumbs and uttered statements of kufr so the torture would stop.
Ammar ran to the Prophet PBUH in Dar al-Arqam, and mentioned how he said statements of kufr to let the torture stop. Subhan'Allah, his whole family was just murdered in front of his eyes, but he is worried about his Iman more than anything! His family became secondary. The Prophet PBUH asked, "How is the faith in your heart?" Ammar said, "As it always is (i.e. my heart is Islam, and I just said those things to stop the pain)." Then the Prophet PBUH said, "If they return, then you return (i.e. if they do what they did again, then you do what you did again.)" He then recites Surah al-Nahl:
مَن كَفَرَ بِاللَّهِ مِن بَعْدِ إِيمَانِهِ إِلَّا مَنْ أُكْرِهَ وَقَلْبُهُ مُطْمَئِنٌّ بِالْإِيمَانِ وَلَٰكِن مَّن شَرَحَ بِالْكُفْرِ صَدْرًا فَعَلَيْهِمْ غَضَبٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
"Whoever disbelieves in Allah after his belief... EXCEPT for one who is forced [to renounce his religion] while his heart is secure in faith. But those who [willingly] open their breasts to disbelief, upon them is wrath from Allah, and for them is a great punishment" [16:106]
The Prophet PBUH had so many praises for Ammar ibn Yasir. The Prophet PBUH said in a hadith, "Iman has been filled in his heart all the way up until here [neck] (i.e. his Iman is overflowing)." In another hadith, "Ibn al-Sumayyah is upon the fitrah/فطرة (pure nature). Whenever he is faced with two choices, he always chooses the more correct of the two." - also notice how the Prophet PBUH used to call Ammar "Ibn al-Sumayyah" to honor his mother. And in the most famous hadith about Ammar ibn Yasir, "May Allah have mercy on you, O Ammar! You shall be killed by the rebel party." 40 years after this hadith, during the civil war between Ali and Muawiyah (Battle of Siffin), Ammar chose the side of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and was killed by an arrow from the side of Muawiyah. (Side note: As Muslims, we don't say anything evil about the sahaba. Both Ali and Muawiyah intended good for the ummah. But 1 side was closer to the truth than the other, and we don't say evil about the other.)
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Suhayb al-Rumi (صهيب الرومي)
Suhayb al-Rumi - Ammar, Suhayb, and Bilal were always mentioned together in the seerah because they were very close friends.
Once the leaders of the Quraysh (Abu Jahal, Umayyah ibn Khalaf etc.) began talking with the Prophet PBUH; and the Prophet PBUH became hopeful that some of them were coming closer to Islam. And then Ammar, Suhayb, and Bilal passed by. Abu Jahal, who was worried that other leaders were getting sympathetic to Islam, took advantage of this and remarked, "O Muhammad, how is it possible that if you are upon the truth, THESE people are following it before us?! If you want us to accept your religion, you have to get rid of these people." He basically meant, "Your religion has meager slaves following it. How can WE the good and noble men, be in the same boat as them?" Once again, Jahiliyyah mentality. Allah SWT revealed in the Qur'an in Surah al-An'am:
فَتَطْرُدَهُمْ فَتَكُونَ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
"If you were to reject them, you would be from the wrongdoers." [6:52] This verse is of the highest praise for Ammar, Suhayb, and Bilal. Allah SWT told the Prophet PBUH that if you turn away from Ammar, Suhayb, and Bilal, and choose the elites of the Quraysh over them, you would be of the zalimun.
Story of Suhayb al-Rumi - Even though he was called al-Rumi (the Roman), he was not of Roman lineage. He was an Iraqi, captured as a boy, sent to Rome, and grew up in Rome. He forgot Arabic, spoke fluent Latin. But he knew he was an Arab, so he eventually fled, and was sold to Abdullah ibn Jud'an in Makkah. Ibn Jud'an was known to be more merciful than others to his slaves. Therefore, the torture of Suhayb was not as bad. Suhayb was actually a business manager for Ibn Jud'an because of his knowledge and ability to read and write. He became wealthy. After Ibn Jud'an died, Suhayb was free because Ibn Jud'an wrote in his will that Suhayb would be free when he dies. So Suhayb became a mawla.
[In later seerah, when the Muslims were emigrating to Madinah] Suhayb wanted to emigrate as well. The Quraysh heard about this and they approached him on the outskirts of Makkah. Suhayb turned around, took out his bow and arrow, and told them, "I am the sharpest shooter amongst you, and you know it. I promise that none of you will touch me until every arrow in my quiver has touched human flesh, and also I promise that none of you will touch me until my sword is bent and broken on your bones and blood." With that challenge, the 10 or so Quraysh that came to stop him, were circling him and said, "O Suhayb, when you came here you were penniless, and now you are leaving as a rich man, with OUR wealth? At least give us back our wealth, and we will let you go." They brought up a pathetic argument, as Suhayb earned his money through his own hard work. Their mentality is like that of today's people, who complain about the immigrants, while they themselves won't do the jobs that the immigrants do to earn their living. The Quraysh were attributing all of Suhayb's success to themselves, even though they had nothing to do with it. They even wanted to take the camel he was riding! So Suhayb gave them his wealth, his camel, and even told them where his extra wealth was buried. Suhayb didn't care about the money. Suhayb was the only known sahaba who performed the Hijrah on foot. He only had clothes on his back, after being the richest mawla (freed slave). Books of seerah said that by the time he got to Quba, he was literally crawling on all fours, completely emaciated. The Prophet PBUH wiped the dust off of him and gave him food and water, smiling and said to Suhayb, "Your business transaction has been the most successful." Suhayb said, "Ya Rasulullah, nobody could have told you about this except Jibril." Allah SWT revealed in Surah al-Baqarah:
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ
"And of mankind is he who would sell himself, seeking the pleasure of Allah. And Allah is full of Kindness to (His) slaves." [2:207]
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10. Boycott
The last tactic they did was that of the boycott - this is a topic in and of itself (will be discussed in episode 18).
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Next week we'll continue with the sacrifices and the tortures that the Prophet PBUH underwent, insha'Allah.
The question is: Why did Allah allow such hardship? What was the wisdom? This is a question Khabbab asked as well. We will discuss this insha'Allah.