Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 19 - Death of Khadija & Abu Talib - Yasir Qadhi | January 2012
Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 19 - Death of Khadija & Abu Talib - Yasir Qadhi | January 2012
The end of the boycott occurred in the 10th year of the dawah, around 2.5 years before the Hijrah. Barely when they returned, Allah willed that 3 great calamities happened back to back. Because of these three calamities, this whole year is called Am al-Huzn/عام الحزن (the Year of Sorrow).
The Death of Abu Talib
The first of these was that barely 5-6 weeks after the Banu Hashim came back, Abu Talib fell sick and he eventually passed away in the month of Shawwal in the 10th year of the dawah. In Bukhari it's narrated, "When Abu Talib reached the nearness of death, the Prophet PBUH entered upon him while Abu Jahal was there. And he said, "O my uncle, say the kalimah so I can argue in front of Allah." And Abu Talib was about to say it, but there with him was Abu Jahal, and Abdullah ibn Abi Umayya and they said, "O Abu Talib, are you going to leave the religion of Abdul Muttalib?!"" And they kept on saying this every time they thought he might say the kalimah. And eventually he died without ever uttering the kalimah. And the Prophet PBUH said, "I will continue to ask Allah to forgive you until Allah stops me from doing so." Note the Prophet's PBUH role is to obey the commandments of Allah. The general rule is that the prophets don't just make up their minds about what they want to do, they have to wait for Allah's commandments. Generally the prophets followed this, but in this case the Prophet PBUH was so emotionally attached he said even though Allah hasn't told him to, he decided to ask Allah to forgive Abu Talib, unless Allah stops him from doing so. And so Allah revealed in the Qur'an very gently telling him in Surah al-Tawba:
"It is not (proper) for the prophet and those who believe to ask Allah's Forgiveness for the mushrikun (polytheists, idolaters, pagans, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) even though they be of kin, after it has become clear to them that they are the dwellers of the Fire (because they died in a state of disbelief)." [9:113]
So the Prophet PBUH desisted from seeking forgiveness for him. And Allah also revealed Surah al-Qasas:
"Verily, You (O Muhammad PBUH), will not (be able to) guide those whom you love; rather Allah guides those whom He wishes. And He knows best those who are the guided." [28:56]
And in another hadith in Sunan Abu Dawud, we find that it was in fact Ali ibn Abu Talib who eventually came to inform the Prophet PBUH that Abu Talib had died. So this shows that the Prophet PBUH did visit Abu Talib on his deathbed but he wasn't literally there when Abu Talib died. Then Ali came and said to him, "Your uncle has passed away," or in another narration, "Your misguided uncle has passed away." This shows Ali's disappointment in his own father that he hadn't accepted Islam. The Prophet PBUH told Ali, "Go and bury him." Ali said, "But he died a mushrik." The Prophet PBUH said, "Go and bury him and then come back as soon as you have finished. Don't do anything on the way." So Ali went and buried him. Then he came back and while the dust was still on his body, the Prophet PBUH made a long du'a for him, to calm him down & bring him solace and comfort. Ali later said, "I would never give up all of those du'as for the world and everything in it."
Note these 13 years of Makkah, we only have a handful of incidents; nor do we know the exact chronology. It's because we don't have many narrations, and for the ones we do have, there is no context.
Case in point: The famous story where the people visited Abu Talib to beg the Prophet PBUH to stop preaching, and Abu Talib then went to the Prophet PBUH.
1. One version is that this happened in the beginning of the dawah.
2. In another version this happened on Abu Talib's deathbed. Abu Jahal, Utbah ibn Umayya etc. said, "You are about to die; resolve this conflict NOW or else there will be civil war." And this also makes sense that before he died they attempted one more time. And the condition they gave was, "We won't kill him. Just make sure he minds his own business." It's reasonable to understand this story even on his deathbed. So according to this, when the Prophet PBUH came, that was when Abu Jahal and Umayya were all standing there and then Abu Talib says, "My people have surrounded me, what do you want me to do? Give them this one condition - don't interfere in their affairs (i.e. don't ridicule their idols, just mind your own business)." The Prophet PBUH said, "I will give them this if they just give me one kalimah (one phrase). And I promise all of the kingdoms of the Arabs and the Ajam will be theirs!" Abu Jahal stood up and said, "We'll give you 10 kalimahs! What do you want?" Then the Prophet PBUH said, "The kalimah I want from you is la ilaha illaLlah. Give me this kalimah and you will have the Arab and the Ajam under your control." But of course Abu Jahal said, "Never!" So then the Prophet PBUH turned to Abu Talib, and according to this version, this is when he said, "O my uncle, say the kalimah, so that I can argue in front of Allah..." [the story mentioned above]
In Ibn Ishaq, it is said that when the Quraysh left, Abu Talib told the Prophet PBUH, "I would've said the kalimah were it not for the fact that my people would accuse me that now that I'm about to die I accept your religion out of fear." This is sad because he knew that his nephew is a real prophet. In one of his poetry he says, "Indeed Muhammad's religion is the best of all religions and were it not for the fact that people would criticize me, I would've accepted it."
Many years later, Abbas, the younger brother of Abu Talib, asked the Prophet PBUH, "Ya Rasulullah, have you benefited your uncle anything? He used to protect you and be angry on your behalf." The Prophet PBUH said, "Yes, I was able to benefit him. He is on the peripheries of the Fire of Hell. Were it not for me, he would have been in the depths of the Fire of Hell." In a hadith in Sahih Muslim the Prophet PBUH said, "The person that is being punished least in the Fire of Hell (eternal inhabitants of Hellfire) is Abu Talib." Indeed we know that the Muslims who enter Hell [may Allah not make us of them], their punishment will never be eternal or as bad as those who are the eternal inhabitants. So what is the punishment of Abu Talib? He shall be made to wear sandals of fire and because of this, his brain will be boiled. And this is the 'easiest' punishment for those who are eternally damned to Hell.
This is what we know of Abu Talib's death.
______________
Lessons From the Life and Death of Abu Talib
There are many lessons from his life and death:
1. We have to be careful of simply following what the people are doing. Even if those people are the majority; even if they are our ancestors or parents. Nothing is more sacred than what Allah AWJ says and what the Sunnah of the Prophet PBUH says. Those who follow others won't be excused on the Day of Judgment, even if those others were great people. The Qur'an tells us these people will say on the DoJ, "We followed our leaders and our elders but they all led us astray," [33:67] "Indeed we found our fathers upon a religion, and we are in their footsteps, following." [43:23] And Allah responds in the next verse, "[Each prophet] said, "Even if I brought you better guidance than that [religion] upon which you found your fathers?" [42:24] And just because we are Muslims, it doesn't mean we are completely scot-free. Many times it is our understanding of Islam that we inherited from our forefathers that might be wrong. Our grandfathers are not an evidence in Islam. The evidence is what Allah and His Messenger say.
2. Another powerful lesson we get is that indeed Allah is the true Lord in control. For the Prophet PBUH despite being the most beloved to Allah, he couldn't guide the one whom he loved the most. Allah says, "You cannot guide the one whom you love." [28:56] If the Prophet PBUH didn't even have this power in his life, how about now when he is dead? There are some groups of Muslims in our times who think the Prophet PBUH can dictate who goes to Jannah and who goes to Jahannam as if he's a God. But the seerah teaches us that the status of the prophets cannot ever be compared to Allah. Never allow our emotions to get confused in this regard. This is what many Muslims do wrong. They allow their praises of the Prophet PBUH to increase to the level of kufr and shirk.
3. Allah affirmed the Prophet PBUH had a love for Abu Talib. There are some extremist Muslims that say, "We must hate all the kuffar." This is a complete misunderstanding of the Qur'an and Sunnah. How can anyone say this when Allah himself said the Prophet PBUH loved Abu Talib? The only animosity we have towards the nonbelievers is because of their rejection of the Message i.e. we cannot have a religious love for somebody who hates/rejects Allah and His Messenger. Allah says in Surah al-Mujadilah:
"You (O Muhammad PBUH) will not find any people who believe in Allah and the Last Day, making friendship with those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even though they were their fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their kindred..." [58:22]
Some people say, "Islam preaches hatred of non-Muslims" - but this isn't correct. In a nutshell, the love Allah is talking about in these verses is a religious love and religious hatred. The religious love we have for all Muslims, we can never have it for anybody who opposes Allah and His Messenger, even if they are close relatives. But we may have a natural love for them e.g. if they are fathers or mothers. Or another example: in Islam, a Muslim man is allowed to marry a Jewish or Christian lady. And how can a man remain married to a lady that, according to those who misinterpret the Qur'an, he is required to hate?! It doesn't make sense at all. We say it's Islamically permissible to feel a natural affinity and love for people of your tribe, family, ethnicity, nationality, etc. But it cannot become a religious one except for those who have the same religion.
4. As we mentioned before, Abu Talib had to be a kafir - indeed, the only thing that allowed him to be the leader of the Quraysh and protect the Prophet PBUH was that he followed the religion of his forefathers. Had he converted there was nothing that would keep Abu Talib as the leader. His kufr protected the Prophet PBUH and allowed him to spread Iman. The question though is why didn't Allah convert him on his deathbed? Well, we will never understand it. Allah knows best. What is the wisdom? Why didn't he convert on his deathbed? What can we say? Nothing. Allah says, "They have no right to ask Allah what he does; Allah will ask them what they do." [21:23] We have no right to challenge Allah's wisdom. Challenging Allah's wisdom is literally satanic - this is what shaytan did. So we accept the decree of Allah even though we might not understand it.
5. We learn that Iman, belief in Allah, is more than just acknowledging the truth of the Prophet PBUH. In other words the definition of a Muslim isn't someone who just believes in one God and that the Prophet PBUH is a real prophet - because Abu Talib believed this; he fully believed and knew what the Prophet PBUH said was true, but he refuses to accept it. Therefore merely knowing the truth doesn't necessarily make you a Muslim. A Muslim is someone who submits to the truth. Islam is submission. Iblis knows and accepts the truth, but he doesn't submit to Allah. Indeed Iblis affirms the prophets, he calls Allah 'my rabb,' [15:36] and he believes in the Day of Judgment - he asked Allah, "Allow me to live until the Day of Judgement." [for a more accurate translation, see Qur'an 7:14 or 15:36] Yet is Iblis a Mu'min? Obviously not! Allah says, "He refused and was arrogant and became of the kafir." [2:34]
Therefore a kafir can be (1) someone who doesn't know the truth; but also (2) someone who knows the truth but refuses to act upon it. This gets us to the deep issue. What do we say to the Muslim who knows Islam to be true but does not act upon it? What is the difference between say Abu Talib and such a Muslim? They both recognize Allah is one and the Prophet PBUH is the messenger of Allah but both refuse to submit in action to Allah. The fact is, someone who says they are Muslim but doesn't do anything i.e. doesn't fast, pray or give zakat, this theoretical saying, "I am a Muslim" is not different to the 'iman' of Abu Talib or even Iblis. This is very pertinent to the hadith, "Whoever says the kalimah shall enter Jannah," because the hadith has to be taken in context with other ahadith (that start with, "Whoever says the kalimah sincerely," "Whoever says the kalimah with his heart," etc.).
One final point: It's incorrect to translate Iman as faith. Abu Talib had faith. Iblis has faith. But it doesn't make them a Mu'min. Faith is but one part of Iman.
6. The danger of hanging around evil company. His final compatriots were Abu Jahal and al-Walid ibn al-Mughira etc. And he would have accepted Islam but they stopped him.
7. A fiqh benefit: Being a non-Muslim and dying as a non-Muslim doesn't mean the Muslims have nothing to do with the funeral. The Prophet PBUH said to Ali, "Go and bury your father." This shows that when a non-Muslim relative dies, one may attend the funeral, and help with the processions, and even financially contribute; but the condition is that you don't do the religious ceremonies - we cannot participate in the religious services. Ali not only went to the funeral, he took charge - he dug the grave, put the kafan, etc. This shows us that we may attend the janazah of a non-Muslim relative.
______________
Uncles and Aunts of the Prophet PBUH Who Converted and Who Didn't
The Prophet PBUH had 10 uncles (they were 11 brothers including the father of the Prophet PBUH). Of those 11 brothers, 7 died before the Prophet PBUH preached the message. So 7 never heard the Prophet PBUH preaching tawhid. Out of the [remaining] four (Hamzah RA, Abbas RA, Abu Talib, and Abu Lahab), two converted and two rejected. Coincidentally, the two who rejected had pagan names, and the two who accepted had beautiful, noble names. (Side note: Some people confuse Abu Lahab with Abu Jahal, but note that Abu Lahab is from Banu Hashim and Abu Jahal is from Banu Makhzum. Two different people completely.)
Abu Lahab's name was actually Abd al-Uzza. And he was a very handsome man so they called him 'Abu Lahab' as if fire is coming from his cheeks and face. But Allah mocked this name and literally called him 'Lahab' to mean he will burn in the Fire. (Recall Abdul Muttalib had 5 wives and one of them gave birth only to Abu Lahab.)
Abu Talib's name was Abd Manaf. (And he was the full brother of Abdullah.)
Manaf and al-Uzza were names of idols. And so the two uncles with these two names didn't convert for reason only Allah knows.
The two brothers that converted were Hamzah and Abbas - both names mean the lion. Hamzah has the connotation of strength; Abbas has the connotation of bravery.
As for the Prophet's PBUH aunts, there were six aunts.
And we only know of one of them that for sure converted to Islam, Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib who was the full sister of Hamzah.
Another aunt, Atikah, we know for sure she heard of Islam, but we are not sure if she converted - Atikah is the one who [in later seerah] sees the dream of the Battle of Badr.
The rest of them we don't know who amongst them converted, nor do we know if they even lived to see Islam. And logically this means the rest of them didn't convert since if they did, we would've known about it.
______________
Was Abu Talib Secretly a Muslim?
We have two groups in Islam that believe Abu Talib was in fact Muslim:
One is the Shias who say the father of the 12 Imams could not have been a kafir and if we say otherwise, they feel insulted about this. But it's very easy to respond to them: none of the Imams are better than Ibrahim AS yet Allah says his father made and worshiped idols.
The other is the more extreme Sufi groups e.g. Barelvis. One such argument is Abu Talib did the nikah of the Prophet PBUH so he must've been a Muslim or else the nikah would've been invalid. Our response: The nikah was done in the days of Jahiliyyah - nobody was Muslim at the time.
And there are 3 verses in the Qur'an, sahih hadith, incidents in Ibn Ishaq seerah etc. which all show that Abu Talib did not die upon tawhid. So our position is very clear.
______________
The Death of Khadija RA
Moving on, the death of Khadija followed. She passed away on the 10th Ramadan, less than 40 days after the death of Abu Talib. And when Khadija passed away, the salah had not yet been revealed, so there was no janazah performed over her. But the Prophet PBUH took charge himself of burying her. He himself put her in the grave. And the sahaba report after her death, "We didn't see the Prophet PBUH smile for months." And indeed these two were so important to the Prophet PBUH. Abu Talib protected him externally; Khadija RA protected him internally and gave him support inside the house. And the death of these two caused the Prophet PBUH immense grief that the whole year was called the Year of Sorrow. And there are so many narrations which show how much the Prophet PBUH loved Khadija RA. E.g. When her sister Hala visited the Prophet PBUH later in Madinah, the Prophet PBUH jumped up and you could see the fluster on his face because he remembered Khadija RA. Aisha RA saw this so when Hala left the house, out of jealousy she said, "O Messenger of Allah, for how long are you going to remember an old... [and Aisha used words that are not appropriate to describe Khadija RA]. Allah has given you someone better than her!" The Prophet PBUH responded, "No, by Allah. Allah has not given me someone better than her. She supported me when no one did, she comforted me when the world gave me grief, she spent on me when everyone boycotted me, and Allah gave me children through her when Allah deprived all of my other wives of this blessing."
______________
The After-Effects of the Death of Abu Talib
When Abu Talib died, this proved to be a very difficult time politically for the Prophet PBUH. Why? Because Abu Talib was his protection & his 'passport.' And so with the death of Abu Talib, he was in a very precarious situation. Ibn Ishaq says: After the death of Abu Talib, the Quraysh increased the persecution of the Prophet PBUH like never before. Another tabi' says: With the death of Abu Talib the Quraysh could finally come out what they were forced to hide in the time of Abu Talib.
Of the most significant things is the infamous incident of six/seven elders conspiring to throw a dead carcass on the Prophet PBUH when the Prophet PBUH went into sajdah. And Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt himself carried the entrails with his own hands to throw it on the Prophet PBUH. We mentioned this story before, but if we think about it, it makes more sense for this to happen now i.e. when Abu Talib is not around to protect him. (It all comes back to the fact that these incidents have no chronology.) And then the Prophet PBUH made du'a to Allah, "I call to you, O Allah. You deal with these..." and he mentioned each of the 7 by name. And every one of them died in the Battle of Badr.
After the death of Abu Talib, Abu Lahab instantly took charge since he is the most senior pagan Hashimi alive. And surprisingly, he seems to have a soft spot all of a sudden. When someone from outside the Banu Hashim curses the Prophet PBUH severely, Abu Lahab goes to the Prophet PBUH and says, "O Muhammad, be as you were in the time of Abu Talib (i.e. the privileges you had in the time of Abu Talib, you have them now). For as long as I am alive, you shall live in the same manner." So he felt some responsibility to protect the Prophet PBUH as a chieftain of the Banu Hashim. (And this is a common & simple human psychology - before you get responsibility you can say things, brag and boast etc. but when you get those responsibilities you act differently.) Before Abu Lahab came to power he basically said he will kill the Prophet PBUH etc. but when he became the chief, he settled down. And there is a prestige element that as a chieftain he has to guard and protect his people, which includes the Prophet PBUH. It was not out of love for the Prophet PBUH.
And so when the people heard this, the people spread a rumor that Abu Lahab accepted Islam. So they asked him, "Have you become a Muslim?" Of course Abu Lahab said, "No, I am just protecting my flock." So Abu Jahal and Utbah hatched a plot to remove this protection. They said to Abu Lahab, "Why don't you ask your nephew about the fate of your father Abdul Muttalib?" And so Abu Lahab did this. Now of course it's a trick question, so the Prophet PBUH answered generically, "He is with his people." And this shows the wisdom of the Prophet PBUH that he didn't give incendiary remarks (he didn't make things worse) but at the same time he didn't lie. So Abu Lahab went back happy and told Abu Jahal, "Oh it's fine - he is with his people." So Abu Jahal said, "You fool! And where is his people according to him?! In the Fire of Hell!" Abu Lahab finally gets it so he became enraged and withdrew his protection from the Prophet PBUH.
So the Prophet PBUH was left without any protection in Makkah. And this was then what caused him to try his luck/qadr at the closest city to Makkah: Ta'if.