8. A prophet was not an arab phenomenon - its a jewish/christian phenomenon.

Thu
s the arabs didn't really know what is a prophet. Allah says "He had not sent a
prophet before to the arabs". So the arabs wanted to test whether the prophet PB
UH was a true prophet. And the only people who know about prophets were the jews
and christians. So they sent emmasaries to the jews and the people of the book.
So they said "tell us something we can quiz the prophet PBUH with, and obviousl
y he won't answer so his lies will be exposed". So they sent a number of delegat
ions to Yathrib. The people of the book said "ask him about Jacob and Yusuf - of
course Isreal was Ya'qub". So they went to the prophet PBUH and they asked him
about Yusuf and then Allah revealed the whole of Surah Yusuf. The Quraysh had no
clue who Yusuf was - and the prophet PBUH answered miraculously in one of the m
ost beautiful surahs of the Qur'an.
Another famous incident occured when they sent another delegation. The jews said
"there are three questions - no one would know the answer except a true prophet
from Israel:
1. The young men who entered a cave and slept a long time - only a prophet would
know the details
2. A man who travelled the world from the east to west
3. Ask him about the ru'h and what it is made of"
The prophet PBUH responded confidently that "come back to me tomorrow and I will
answer them". But because the prophet PBUH didn't say insh'Allah, and the proph
et PBUH is just the slave and servant of Allah (four times Allah calls the proph
et PBUH slave - His perfect worshipper and slave); and therefore instead of one
day it dragged onto two weeks. The Quraysh began mocking the prophet PBUH "has y
our spirit left you?" until eventually Allah revealed Surah Khaf to answer all t
hese questions. Of course the story of the people of the cave is in Surah Khaf i
n great detail. Next the traveller was Zulkurnain who went around the world - he
was not Alaxender the Great, he was a well known pagan idol worshipper. And las
tly "they ask you about the ruh (spirit), no one knows about knowledge except fo
r a little bit" - so this was a trick question in that, the jews knew nobody had
knowledge about the spirit, so the question was a trap. The spirit and the huma
n soul was the one of the mysteries of Allah and the right answer was no answer.
Indeed if the prophet PBUH had answered this would have shown he isn't a prophe
t but of course he didn't answer - Allah revealed in the Qur'an that only He kno
ws (which was the right answer). Indeed every single society believes in:
1.
2.
3.
4.
AS

A one God
A soul/spirit
An evil spirit
The 'great flood myth' i.e. the Vedas its mentioned 'Manuh' so basically Nuh

So the point if the n great detail

9. The ninth tactic was outright toture - again protection was based on tribal b
onds. Thus those who had tribal bonds they were somewhat protected but overall t
heir status of Quraysh protected them. However as we know many of the early conv
erts was from the slaves and lower class people. Many were from the freed slaves
- they were 'molas'. In those days many masters used to free slaves but they wo
uld still have alliegance to their master and thus would be called 'master'. Sa'
ad ibn Jubair asked ibn Abass (his teacher) "how did the pagans toture the musli
ms - was it really that bad?". So ibn Abass said "the believers were totured so
severly and they were starved and deprived until they could not sit upright out
of pain and until one of them would be told 'is al-Lat your God?' and they would
say 'yes'. And so much so if an insect passed by that they were asked 'is this
insect your God?' they would say 'yes' just to get rid of the toture". As we kno
w in Islam concession has been given if you are totured to death you may say thi

s. The main culprit behind this was Abu Jahal. He had a series of tactics. If th
e reverted person was from the noblemen of Quraysh he couldn't touch him so he w
ould begin verbal abuse. If it was a businessman he would initiate a boycott wit
h him. If he was from the slaves and molas he would tell the owners to toture an
d kill the slaves. As we know the prophet PBUH said Abu Jahal was the "ferone of
the Ummah".
There's a famous story where ibn Masud RA said "the first seven to revert to Isl
am were ibn Masud, Abu Bukr, Amar ibn Yasir, his mother Sumaya, Suhaib, Bilal an
d al-Miqdad. As for the prophet PBUH, Allah protected through his uncle Abu Tali
b." Notice the wording here. Allah protected him. "As for Abu Bukr, then Allah p
rotected him through his own tribe, the Banu Quhafa. As for the rest of them, th
e Quraysh rounded them up and began toturing them. They would sometimes put iron
on their bodies and take them out on the sand and leave them there. And every o
ne one of them eventually gave up and send what the Quraysh what they wanted the
m to say, except for Bilal ibn Rabah. Bilal considered his soul not worth anythi
ng in front of Allah and he refused to budge one bit - and so they concentrated
their efforts on him. And they did to him what they did to no-one else. He was h
anded to a gang and they would wrap a rope around his neck and drag him around t
he streets of Mecca while he was shouting "Ah-had un Ahad" - there is only One".
Bilal's master was Umayyah ibn Khalaf who was one of the worst of the Quraysh,
and he also participated in the violent torture of Bilal. Note also at the time
slaves were very expensive so its counter intuative to beat your own slave. Thus
it shows us how much hatred they had for Islam - that from them to be toturing
slaves in this manner shows the depths of their hatred. Ummayad would personally
take Bilal and put a large rock on his chest, and leave him there without food
or water trapped under the rock under the beaming sun. An ansari, Hasan ibn Thab
it, said "I remember doing Hajj and I saw how severely Bilal was being totured a
nd wondered how he is still alive". Amr ibn al-Aas said "I passed by Bilal when
he was being punished, and the rocks were so hot that if I put raw meat on them
eventually they would have cooked and I would have eatan them". And yet Bilal wa
s there for the entire day. Bilal said "I reject al-Uza and only obey Allah". An
d many years later, the nephew of Aisha RA, Uruwa narrated "Bilal was totured by
the people of Mecca and Ummayad but he never gave them one word to please them"
.
Most of the others gave up, and again this is allowed and Allah will forgive the
m. "The reward or the punishment will be the exact same as what you did to get t
hat reward or punishment". This is a rule we apply - so look here at Bilal. He i
s yelling "there is only One" - Hasan ibn Thabit can hear is toture, eventually
Bilal is rewarded by becoming the first, most important and official muazzin of
the prophet PBUH. As he was calling the unity of Allah all alone in the hot dese
rt, eventually he would be given the honour to announce the unity of Allah out l
oad to all in the pinnacle of hounour for Islam and he would announce the best,
and most perfect azaan. The prophet PBUH himself chose Bilal to the be muazzin.
Therefore the voice that was persectued for the sake of Allah was the same voice
that called out the azaan. When the prophet PBUH reconquered Mecca, he comanded
Bilal to climb on the Mecca and do the azaan at the height of dignity. This was
the first azaan ever, thus the first voice to ever call out tawheed and the one
ness of Allah was that of Bilal ibn Rabah. Look at how Allah rewarded Bilal. And
we see the blessing of the muazzin: "if people knew how much reward would be to
give azaan and stand in the first row, they would draw lots to do it". He also
said "any muazzin who gives azaan, whatever hears his azaan from animate or in-a
nimate object will hear the azaan except that it testifies for him". In Bukhari
the prophet PBUH said to a Shepard "give the azaan because no jinn or human will
hear you voice except that they will testify your iman". Look at this: the prop
het PBUH said "whoever hears the azan will testify on behalf of the muazzin". An
d who was the muazzin of the prophet PBUH by designation?? Bilal ibn Rabah! And
whose azan did the prophet PBUH hear 5x a day, morning and evening, for over 10
years? Bilal. He is hearing it non stop and he is the one saying "whoever hears

his voice will testify on behalf of the muazzin". Thus look at how Allah raised
the status of Bilal.
We notice the psychology of the society that the youth can drag another human be
ing through the streets of Mecca, and no-one bats an eye lid. No one tries to st
op this. Indeed the only way you can get away with this as a society is to de-hu
manise a group of people. That you no sympathy or mercy for these people and thi
s is what the status was in Arabia. Recall Bilal wasn't even an arab - he was bl
ack and he was an abyssinian. Thus because of this they didn't even consider him
to be a human. The arab slaves, obviously non-Qurayshi, had it a bit better. Ce
rtainly much better than Bilal. Another early name is Khabbab ibn al-Aratt and h
e was one of the early 10 converts. His master was a lady by the name of Umm Anm
aar. When she found out he converted, she immediately gathered others together a
nd told them to beat up Khabbab. And he said "when I came back I saw a whole gro
up of Qurayshis around me at my workplace and they began to ridicule me until I
confessed I was a muslim. When I did this, they began hitting me until I Was ful
ly bloody and bruised". And his master would take some of the iron he welded and
use it to burn the back of Khabbab. Of course he cannot do anything as retaliat
ion - if he does he would die. Many years later, Umar RA met Khabbab and asked h
im "tell me some of the stories of Umm Anmaar - what did she do to you?" Khabbab
didn't say anything - he just lifted his top and showed Umar his back. And Umar
said "I have not seen anything like what I have seen today" and Umar gave Khabb
ab alot of honour after this. Also, one time the prophet PBUH was walking by Kha
bbab's workplcae while the screams were coming. And the prophet PBUH sees what U
mm Anmaar was doing - toturing him with the hot iron rod. And notice this is the
worst pain, which is why in Islam no one is allowed to punish by the fire. When
the prophet PBUH saw this he made a dua "Oh Allah please help Khabbab". And sub
hanAllah a few days after this, Umm Anmaar woke up and she had a type of sicknes
s that she was acting like a dog. Panting and crawling around and she had comple
tely lost her senses. And the doctors said "the only cure we can think of is she
be cuturise (burn) her on the back and the head". And so this was done to her a
nd she died as a result of this. This shows us again, "as you do it shall be don
e unto you". And the toture 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 "for how long? how long can we bear this? how long can we be
toture like this? can't you just ask Allah to give us honour and give rid of th
is humiliation" And the prophet PBUH was sitting with his back against the ka'ba
h, and he stood and said "verily the people before you were totured worse than y
ou; but this did not prevent them from worshipping Allah. Verily I tell you that
Allah will fulfill this matter". Another famous incident is that when Umar RA c
ame to his sister's house, Khabbah was in the house at the time. He participated
in all of the expiditions of the prophet PBUH.
Abu Bukr RA had a policy that all the sahaba had the same salary as everyone. Wh
en Umar RA came he said "those who accepted Islam earliest will get grade A pay,
those who accepted later grade B etc". Ironically this put himself at i.e. grad
e C - he's way after many people. So KHabbab is getting one of the highest salar
ies of anyone from the Baytul Maal. So Khabbah built himself a modest house, and
had a treasure box that was open. And it was known that if anyone had any monet
ry problems, people can take from that box. When he was about to die, he began t
o cry and the people around them said "why are you crying?". And so he said "I'm
not crying out of pain or fear, but I am crying because verily I was with a gro
up of people before - and all of us were on equal footing and were punished toge
ther. But now all have gone before me without tasting the sweetness of this worl
d. And Allah has given me the fruits of this world, and I am now scared because
of this my fruits in the next world will be reduced". And then when his kuffin w
as brought to him he cried even more and said "By Allah I remember Humza - he di
dn't even have enough cloth for a full length kuffin to cover his body". And he
died in 37AH.

Yasir and his wife Sumaya, and their son Ammar. In the case of Yasir and Sumaya,
and their two sons Muhammad and Ammar - this was a story where the whole family
is totured in front of each other. All four of them were slaves. And so they we
re totured in front of one another. One thing is sure that Yasir and Sumaya beca
me the first martyrs in Islam. The prophet PBUH said "Be patient oh family of Ya
sir, indeed the place that has been appointed by Allah is Jannah". Some people s
ay they dragged him in the streets, or horses pulled him apart. When Abu Jahal t
hen came to Samaya, she rebuked him, and then Abu Jahal took a spear and thrust
it into her private part. Then they turn on Muhammad and kill him. And then they
turn to Ammar ibn Yasir and he's just a 15 year old kid. He's just seen his mot
her, father and brother killed and he finally gives up. But he comes running to
the prophet PBUH that he uttered words of shirk. And the prophet PBUH asked him
"how do you find your faith in your heart?" The prophet PBUH said "if you they r
eturn, you do the same". Allah revealed Surah Nahl and mentions "whoever said wo
rds of kuffar in a state of toture - whoever is forced, then he will be forgiven
". And of course Ammar ibn Yasir became one of the most famous sahaba. He lived
all the way to Ali RA. The prophet PBUH said "imaan had been filled in the heart
of Ammar all the way up to his neck". And he used to called him "Ibn Sumaya" as
a sign of respect.
The other well known sahabi who reverted very early is Suhayb ar-Rumi. Ammar, Su
haib and Bilal are always mentioned because they are very close friends. Once al
l the leaders of the Quraysh talked to the prophet PBUH and the prophet PBUH bec
ame hopeful they would embrace Islam. And then Abu Jahal saw all these three peo
ple walking past. So he said "Oh Muhammad, if you want us to accept you, get rid
of these three because it's not possible they should be in this faith". And so
Allah revealed verses that are the highest praise of these three "if you were to
reject them, you would be from the losers". SubhanAllah.
So Suhayb ar-Rumi was an arab from Iraq. But he was captured by a Byzantine part
y as a young boy, sent to Rome, grew up in Rome where he was a slave - and so he
forgot Arabic and learnt. Then he sold himself to an arab, and eventually he wa
s sold to Abdullah ibn Judan who was more merciful. So the toture of him wasn't
bad, but Abu Jahal and the other leaders totured him. So because Suhayb was so i
ntellegant he became wealthy and a business manager - when Ibn Judan died Suhayb
imigrated to Madinah. The Quraysh heard about this and stopped him on the outsk
irts. Then Suhayb took his arrow out and said "you know I am the best arrow shoo
ter among you, and I promie than none of you will touch me until every arrow has
touched human flesh, and I promise you won't touch me until my sword is bent an
d broken on human flesh". And so they said "Suhayb you came to us peniless, and
now you're leaving us as a wealthy taking all of our wealth - give it back to us
and you can go". So they are attributing all the wealth to themselves even thou
gh they don't own any of it. So Suhayb accepted to completely free himself from
them - but they also wanted his camel. So he gave that too and after giving that
he literally had nothing but the clothes on his back. And thus he was the only
sahabi we know of that performed the Hijra on foot. After being the richest mola
(freed slave) he was literally peniless and was crawling on all fours by the ti
me he got to Kuba where he met the prophet PBUH. He was about to collapse and di
e and the prophet PBUH himself wiped the dust of him, gave him food and drink an
d he said "your business transaction has been the most frutiful". And so Allah r
evealed "they are those who sell everything they have in order to get the reward
s of Allah".
The last tactic they did was that of the boycott - this is a topic in and of its
elf. Next week we'll continue with the sacrifices and totures of the prophet PBU
H. The question is that why did Allah allow such hardship? What was the wisdom?
This is a question Khabbab is asking this aswell. We will discuss this insh'Alla
h.