Welcome to another episode of Islam and focus. I’m your host Tom Rasheed. Today we have our 62nd program in our series dealing with Muhammad, the last messenger of Allah. Today we’ll be discussing the topic of persecution. I have joining me on the program, as he does every week, Dr. Jamal better we have St. Mary’s University, brother Jamal, before we get into today’s topic, credit, perhaps very quickly summarize the main points that we touched on last week when we dealt with the topic of containment of the message. Sure. The main thing, the main emphasis, I should say what the topic was to discuss how the crash is, the time of the Prophet tried to contain his message from spreading
outside of Arabia.
And we said that crash, we’re afraid as a group,
being the custodians of the Kaaba,
fearing that the pilgrims who might be coming every year, might somehow hear that message and as such threaten the privileges that they had and their prestige as well as their trade.
And that they agreed in the meeting with one of their elders,
that they should agree to tell everybody who’s coming
through the approaches of Makkah, that Muhammad peace be upon him was a magician or sorcerer, that we should be careful not to talk to him because he might be which them with the Quran he decides. And then we give two examples where this policy actually backfired. And some people tried to find out for themselves, listen to the Quran, and ended up embracing Islam and trying to spread it even to the tribes from which they came.
on Africa last week, you mentioned that the Croatia adopted a two fold strategy when of course, but an attempt to try to contain the message of profit. And the second of course, was to persecute the believers, right? Can you give us some idea about the types of measures that they use to persecute the Muslims? Well, generally speaking, every tribe that had any person amongst that tribe who accepted Islam, they started to try to persuade him to go back to the religion of their ancestors, that included confinement, it included deprivation, from food and drink, it included beating and in some cases, really severe torture. There are numerous examples of this. A believer sometimes would
be taken with a shield, metal shield around tied to him and put in the burning sun in Arabia. Of course, we can speak about temperature of 120, sometimes under 30, which almost like having, you know, fire on one’s body.
Another lady, for example.
The Nira
was tortured,
up to the point where she lost sight.
In some narrations, it says that
have tortured our hearts that the one who took away your site is alette and oza, which are the Arabian items. And she said, You lied, because the lead and these idols have no capacity or power to benefit or harm. It is the decision of God. And it is said that in some narration that in fact, her sight was restored.
There was another
young lady also from the tribe of many men.
This woman used to be beaten by Ahmed Ahmed, who later on became a Muslim became a very staunch supporter of Islam, but at that time, he was not.
He kept, kept beating her until he got tired. And then he sits down and tell her I apologize that I did not continue beating you because I just got so tired of beating you.
And while he was doing that Abu Bakr, one of the early Muslims, and the Companion of the Prophet was passing by. So he bought she was a slave girl. So he brought her and set her free to, you know, save her from this torture.
Perhaps the most classic case of torture, and the most famous in the standard history has been the case of Beloved, he was a slave from Ethiopia. And he decided to embrace Islam while still in slavery. So his master,
which name is Omar, mahalo. used to take him
The High Noon when it’s really boiling very, very hot.
And he used to put him on his back on the sand, the sand, nobody can appreciate unless he tried that is almost like burning like like charcoal. Press him on the burning sense and order a big stone to be placed on his chest. And he tells him that you will remain like that, until you die, or you reject Muhammad and go back to the worship of lead and also the items.
And it is said that despite of death, torture, he had so much perseverance that he could only say challenge them and say I had 100 which means God is one, God is one and other nation. It says, I am a disbeliever in Latin has the challenges I am a disbeliever in Latin America.
In another historical reference also, it is said that some sometimes his master used to put a rope around his neck.
And he and another person by the name of amateurs,
and authors, the young children to draw him through purpose of this Muslims from their neck by way of mocking as well as of course torture to them.
Despite of that suffering, it’s amazing how he persevered. And one day he was lucky because Abu Bakr, the Companion of the Prophet was passing by. So he addressed his torture. Or maybe I said, Don’t you feel alive that poor fellow.
So the first shot I reported back, said you are the one who spoiled him. In other words, it’s Islam that spoiled him and caused him to suffer. You’re the one who spoiled them. Serve him now if you can.
So there are two narrations as to how Abu Bakr responded. One narration said that Abu Bakr said, I have also another slave who is very strong, who is of the same religion as yours. That’s a pagan like you. So why don’t we exchange so he exchanged another narration actually said that he offered to buy him
at a high price even and finally paid the price to Amaya
and took
the land and then set him free.
In some historical references, it says that Bernard was actually one of at least seven people who were freed or purchased from their masters by Abu Bakr and set up to save them from that store shirt.
Bananas, one honorably for hire out for hirise another and five women. And that shows the road of believing Muslim women from the very beginning. How would they actually participated in everything including being subjected to torture.
In fact, there is reference in the Quran in surah 85 consider that an approach
that threatens those who try to divert the believing men and women, it says Bolivian men and women from the two paths that they will have severe punishment from, from Allah.
The
The interesting thing about the behavior of Abu Bakr
is that when he started to do that spending from his own money, to you know, to save those poor, tortured Muslims, that his father, his father was not a Muslim at that time, he turned him back. Even if you want to free those people in bondage, who are suffering, why don’t you free people who are strong to defend you, because five of the people he bought from their masters were a women’s I mean, he could not defend him much he wanted to buy or free people who are strong so that they can protect you and give you some kind of shield
of a box answer was exemplary. He said I do that only to seek the pleasure of Allah. Now there was another thing that for me was too much for the pleasure of Allah they are suffering did it for that reason.
Another example of people again, a classic example of people who have been subjected to a great deal of torture
is the family of Amar ne SS. And the torture included himself Amash, his father, and his mother by the name of sumaiya.
Their tribe, the people of Muslim used to take them like below also in the high noon when it’s very, very hot, and torture them.
The Prophet Prophet Mohammed used to pass by them. Have a great day.
have sympathy to the suffering, but only tell them sobre la ss naroda calm and gentle which means have patients or family of yourself, your destiny or your meeting place will be paradise. One day while there were there were being tortured. So mania, the mother of Amar spoke very strongly to have tertiary Abuja, he got so angry that he took his spear and he stabbed her in the lower part of her abdomen. And she was the first
person to die as a martyr for the cause of Islam.
hubbub Adnan errata, is another Companion of the prophet who complained to the Prophet once that they boil water and tried to store his neck in it. So they were really quiet barbarians in the measures they used against those early Muslims. But this was the severest perhaps in the case of those who did not have a strong tribe, to defend them or to afford any protection for them. But having said that, I must say that even some of those people who had status and power did not escape also, from this kind of
persecution, as would be useful to look at any recorded examples of harassment of persons of high status at this point. We’ll take for example, US man who was a powerful person who was a rich man, yes, when not, it is said that his uncle and hakam when he realized that us man accepted Islam,
had him tied, you know, with ropes? And he said, Do you deviate from the religion of your ancestors, to some northern religion,
by the name of God, I will never untie this from you until you leave what you are, and come back to the religion of your ancestors. But when is unconnected, that was mine was really determined to follow Islam.
He simply let him go. But even at one time, he tried to pressure him.
Another young man is
was regarded as the most handsome, perhaps young man, and richest, or one of the richest in Korea. His name was massage.
His mother happened to be very, very rich, and she was she loved him so dearly. And she was very generous with him. So he used to wear the best clothes, the best shoes have the best perfumes.
And then he heard that Prophet Muhammad is calling people to Islam and the worship of the One God in the house of an outcome that you mentioned in a previous program. So he went to that house of an outcome entered and listen to the Prophet. He was persuaded he accepted Islam, but he was afraid. So he tried to keep it confidential. But one day, mosop was performing his prayers.
And a man saw him among the pagans. So he communicated that to his mother and his family. He said, You know, he apparently followed Mohammed, you know, he’s praying in a different way. So he, they discovered him, if he said that they took him and confined him, actually, almost like jailing him for some time until he was able to migrate to Ethiopia in the first wave of migration.
Even Abubakar rich, the well known, respected person, among his people, one time he did go in front of people and invite them to worship Allah and chant the worship of their false gods be the idols.
So the unbelievers, the pagans were very mad at him.
So they, they beat him so hard. And one of them actually, by the name of Rob law, took his shoes and beat him so hard on his face that his nose was bloody, his face was all bloody, to the point that he fell
to the ground people, his people carried him to his house, thinking that he is dead already. Yes.
But the interesting thing is what he did when he began to revive the church was his love to the Prophet
when he was in his house, surrounded by some of these clans or people,
the first thing he asked about when he came, became conscious. How is the Prophet is he okay? How was Muhammad peace be upon him. So some of the
unbelievers around him, he rebuked him, you know, for this kind of loving attachment that he had to the Prophet. Then a woman who was a Muslim by the name of Omar Jamil
got close to Abu Bakr and told him
keep it quiet. He said, How is the Prophet? He said, watch. Your mother is here he is. Listen, she’s listening because the mother abubaker was still ambitious. Your mother is listening to us. So don’t worry about your mother. Tell me what, how does the Prophet she said, he’s okay. He’s okay. He said by Allah, I never touched a food or food or drink until I go and see the Prophet first. So he stood up after the traffic was a little bit more quiet, to avoid any more, you know, hurt. And he stood up leaning both on his mother and that lady on Jamil until he went to the house of the Prophet, the prophet when he saw him very much sympathy for him and his suffering, he was very touched. But the
prophet also did not lose any opportunity to invite his mother. That’s Abu Bakr his mother to Islam, and she accepted Islam This was narrated in Nicosia.
But in Gentlemen, I must say that whenever a person who was powerful enough,
and had the clan that would defend him,
became a Muslim, where it was not possible to torture him like they did with others. Applejack
used to go to him, rebuke him,
belittle him and tell him you have left the religion of your parents and ancestors than they are better than you are.
We will going to speak in of your mind and your thinking, we will report any opinion that you say, we will put down your honor. And if that person who embraced Islam happened to be a merchant, he would say, by God, we will boycott your business economic pressure, as you call it today. And we will destroy your property. So the pressure was really very hard on anyone really whether he’s weak or strong. But the weak ones, of course, are the ones who suffered most
given these strong measures that were adopted to persecute the Muslims. Are there any cases where the torture resulted in renouncing of Islam by the person who was tortured? Not to my knowledge, some historians say that despite all of that it is not known at that stage, that anyone really reneged on faith and dejected or denounced faith because of that torture. There were, however, cases of people who under tremendous pressures and pain, pretended that they went back to the pagan faith just to save themselves from from the torture. Why don’t one of those examples as mentioned in ignition in Volume One, page 320, for example. And it says that, if not best, one of the companions
of the Prophet was once asked, Did the pagans in their first shares of the Companion of the Prophet reach a point where they cause people to denounce their faith? And he said, yes, they used to be them,
and cause so much pain to them.
deprivation from food, and drink until one of them that’s atrocious Muslim, may not be able to even to sit down because of the hurt.
So he would just tell them what they wanted to hear. They tell him his lead and answer your God rather than Allah. One of them says, mentioning the name of that I just left. And he says yes, just to get some relief from that torture. But of course, not really seriously believing that
there is one story which has some weakness, it’s not totally weak, but there are some weaknesses that story, attributing that our mark NASA himself, the fellow whose family was altered and his mother died in torture, that he was so much tortured with the like banana with the burning sand with rocks, heated rocks, put on his on his chest.
at some times by drowning, they get a pot of water and drown him suffocate him until he’s just about to suffocate. And then, you know, ask him to tell them what they want. They tell him will never leave you until you abused Mohammed or say something good about the items let n Hauser so one time that this weakness under this pressure, he said it to them and he kept
Prophet Mohammed, crying, and you know, telling him that, you know, I did something terrible, I told them this, that and that and I abused you and they said something positive about their idols.
So the Prophet asked him, How do you find that in your own heart? How do you find your own heart? So I must say, when my heart remains firm in faith, so the Prophet says, in order to find out if they repeat that again and torture you so much, you have that thing? Tell them? Yes, so the providence of sanction him to, to say that, and this is why some of the officers or the interpreters of the Quran say that, apparently concerning this situation, the Quran says in Surah 16, in verse 106,
making an exception from disbelief, those who are forced under compassion to denounce face, whereas their heart is firm in faith that this there is no blame on them under this circumstances, but it shows really the degree of faith and perseverance that those people that early Muslims possess, just amazing. The we Muslims that were persecuted did they ask the prophet to pray for them or to intervene on their behalf? They did actually. For example, some references refer to an encounter between the prophet and Habad net or at the filler that you said was so hard that you came to him to the Prophet when he was, you know, resting in the shadow of the Kaaba. And he said, aletheia
berlina, once you
pray for us,
pray for our victory. So the Prophet answered, among those before you,
a man used to be taken a believer that means used to be taken, placed in a ditch.
Then a saw was placed on his head, to be sewn into two halves,
or his flesh was turned out from his bones with metal columns. But this did not cause him or her to turn away from religion from faith. By Allah, the Prophet says, most hard.
Allah when fulfill this matters, or fulfill or give victory to this religion means I’m thrilled that I
can travel between Sunnah which is now in Yemen, and hadramaut fearing no one, but a lot that means Islam would prevail. Yes, a believer can travel anywhere without any fear of persecution. He says only worrying about his sheep from the woods. But you people are too hasty, that is you’re too anxious for an early victory. Some of the interpreters vary as to whether this was a picture of some of the Christians that were persecuted by others or other people. But in any case, it shows examples of firm faith of people under severe persecution, sticking to faith. And I believe that this is a good lesson. For those who are callers of people to go through path. And every time in every place,
not just prophets, those who follow the path of God’s Prophet, that sometimes when the forces of evil and oppression, use brutality, persecution and torture, to persuade them to give up their noble mission, which is continuation of the mission of the prophets, that it is good for those believers to remember
that those trials and those suffering
is normal.
It is not a reflection that God has for sick and then because it happened even to better who people who are better than than the prophets themselves, and does not mean that God has really forsaken them at all. It is a wisdom of God that they have to go through this.
They should remember that
the apparent predominance of the forces of even disbelief is a poor indicator of the ultimate result, the ultimate victory, because that victory would be the victory of the believers if they remain steadfast even though the odds may sound against them. This kind of confidence on the part of the prophets and the early believers
and the constant prophecies he gave that very soon they were prevented even over the international forces at the time, the super powers the present in the Persian Empire. Made some of the chorus a people knock
At the Prophet and his companions, and whenever the past by them, they used to mock and joke on them and say, Hey, here comes the people who are going to be the kings of the earth, the ones who tomorrow will prevail over the Persian and Byzantine Empire, just marking that this is impossible, and they start clapping hands, and whistling. The main idea, of course, was to generate this feeling of inferiority and the hearts, psychology of Muslims, to make them ashamed of their religion that sounds irrational and unreasonable, and how come you will have victory of all those nations so that they might return back? But we all know that, amazingly enough, this prophecy is odd and strange, as
they might have sounded, were nothing but the truth and did.
The believers eventually prevail over their persecutors
when we know that the Prophet Muhammad peace, be upon him was,
came from a very
prominent family and was prominently in the Taya tribe of Quraysh. Was he spared the prosecution because of his knowledge, only in relative terms, but he wasn’t totally really free from this kind of help. In that Buhari, for example, the famous conduction of the prophets, saying in life,
it says that the prophets one day he was praying in the cabin. And during his frustration, you know, when he puts his forehead on the ground, in humility before God, during frustration, one man by the name of Akbar, Abbey might.
And he brought with him that man,
the placenta, of a newly born cabin, you know, when it’s cold blooded, and he threw it on the back of the Prophet over his shoulder while he was in the prostration. Apparently, someone,
you know, give this give this information to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet and she came rushing to clean that dream of it from the shoulder of the Prophet.
It appears that the hostility toward the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was a function of the number of believers. The more the crush, I learned that more and more people entered into the fold of Islam, the more they became hostile, violent.
It was a sham.
For example, say that one day, a group of the leading men of Quraysh were sitting here the Kaaba in a place called unhedged believers lost the Kaaba. And they were talking among each other. So they said, We have never tolerated I think, as we tolerated this man, that’s Mohammed.
He be listened to our minds, abused, our ancestors, criticized our religion, divided our people and slandered our gods means that either
we have to relate it something grave indeed. So they were just talking about that, while they were sitting there. Prophet Mohammed entered the camera to go around the cabin circumambulation is, you know, the seven rounds around the Kaaba, the first time when he made the first circle.
As he passed by those leaders,
they raised their voice slandering the Prophet, and insulting him.
It was clear from his face that he heard them, but he did not apply. And he just continued his
circling of the comma.
When he passed by them the second time, they repeated the same insults and slander, again, he did not respond.
The third time they repeated the slander. This time he stood up, and he says, awkward
when you hear me, vary by him,
in whose hand is my soul, that means by God, I bring you slaughter. Many of the
commentators in this say that this is in that language was an allegory, that they will perish, they will be punished by Allah. If they continue on that path of deviation from this earth and hurting the believers.
They were all stunned.
Not one of them, spoke a word
as if they were all spellbound.
Finally, the silence was broken by one of them, who happens to be the one who was most vicious instrumental in encouraging them to insert the prophet and he said in all gentleness to the Prophet,
Go your way up, we’ll pass in our customers the nickname of Prophet, go your way about casting for By Allah, you will never an irrational or unrestrained person.
This is a strange incident in one sense, because there were so many powerful people sitting there. Yes. And the Prophet comes and threatens them, that their deviation, they will pay for that deviation and they all are spellbound, even though a minute ago they were insulting him. This is rather strange, there are a number of possible explanation of this. Is it the real courage and boldness of the Prophet when he spoke the truth even though he was alone, that standing?
Or is it that they knew in their heart that the Prophet is truthful, and hence is nothing but the truth, and that they have been evidence that his prophecies come true, and as such His Prophet saying that they will be severely punished, and as such they were stunned and afraid of what might default them and actually that’s what happened to them in the button. of but but in any case, this was a very interesting
manifestation of his courage and boldness and truth. And after that, he just left them and went.
Brother Jamal, unfortunately our time for today is gone. I want to thank you for an interesting program. One, thank you all for watching and invite you back next week and we’ll continue with our series Assalamu alaikum. Peace be unto you
