We will move on to the next two major incidences which were massacares of large

groups of sahabah being killed.

It appears the apparent loss of Uhud made some of the beaudouin tribes around Ma
dinah greedy. They earned their income by raiding and stealing. Also there appea
rs to be religious animosity moreso now, where ultimately there will be an all o
ut war against Islam and tawheed.
A number of small skirmishes took place. Of them, the muslims attacked a small t
ribe of the Banu Asad. There leader was Tulayha al Assadi - and he was one of th
e 30 dajjals who proclaimed prophethood after the prophet PBUH passed away.
The main two stories are Al Raji & Bir Ma'una. They are both wells around which
the massacares took place. Regarding Al Raji - the beginnings go back. The tribe
of Hudhayl, a large bedouin tribe in the north, had started planning an attack
on Madinah. Their cheifton Khalid ibn Suffyan al Hudhani began gathering a small
army to suprise attack MAdinah. The prophet PBUH decided to pre-emptively attac
k him and execute him. So he chose Abdullah ibn Unays al Juhany, just one man, t
o get rid of the cheifton. And so the prophet PBUH said "you will find him in th
e valley of Aruna" - Allah told him. And so Abdullah asked "what does he look li
ke?" The prophet PBUH said "when you see him you will be more terrified than see
ing anyone". The prophet PBUH had not seen him but obviously Allah told him. So
Abdullah said he took his sword and headed toward the valley. Abdullah said "Whe
n I saw him firsthand, I had never been more terrified than anyone before. So I
said 'Allah and His messenger has spoken the truth". We assume its Asr and he sa
ys he saw him in the distance. Because he was worried the time would go away, he
prayed as he was walking and made gestures as he walked. Thefore he prayed the
first time in Islamic history a time of salah that was later called one version
of salaat-ul-Qahf. That if you cannot pray and face the kiblah you just pray as
you are.
He got close to Khalid ibn Suffyan he asked Khalid if he was making an army and
then said "let me join your army" i.e. it was a ruse. And then when the time was
right he got rid off him. Khalid only had a few people with him so it was relat
ively easy Abdullah to do it. So he went back and as soon as the prophet PBUH sa
w him he made dua for him and gifted him a staff that "this shall be a sign betw
een me and you on the day of Judgement". So Abdullah never ever from then on let
the staff out of his sight. And when he died he was buried with the staff in hi
s grave.
A few things about this: the miracle of the prophet PBUH to know the right locat
ion, physical details etc. Also he chose the right person for the job. Another t
hing is that the sahabah made itsjihaad about fiqh even during the lifetime of t
he prophet PBUH. This is a clear evidence about the legal permissability of maki
ng itsjihaad. And there are many places where this happened. Sometimes the proph
et PBUH would affirm the itsjihaad made or he would fine-tune it. Amar ibn Yasir
when he fell junub in the desert made itsjihaad and said "if we tayammum for wu
du I must do that for ghusl aswell". So he took his clothes off and rolled aroun
d in the sand. When he told the prophet PBUH, the prophet PBUH laughed. It tells
us the legal permissibilty of extrapolating from the Quran and Sunnah to situat
ions which the Quran and Sunnah don't explicitly say about.
So this occured in Muharram in the 4th year of Hijrah. So they killed the chieft
on - how did they respond? The tribe resorted to a very evil tactic to get reven
ge. They contacted two other tribes: Udal and Kaara and paid them some money to
set up a blatant, dastardely trap. It was a simple plot: pretend to accept Islam
, go to Madinah and then beg the prophet PBUH to send you the best teachers. Bec
ause they knew the sahabah loved to go and teach; and the prophet PBUH would sen
d many sahabah out. So Udal and Kaara did this, and the prophet PBUH agreed to s
end 7-10 sahabah under the leadership of Asim ibn Thabit. And when these sahabah

got to the well of Ar Riji, 100 warriors ambushed them. The sahabah realised it
was a trap, a set up and when they saw the 100 coming into the distance, the sa
habah managed to take shelter at the top of a hill. And they pulled out bows and
arrows. The leaders Asim had killed in the battle of Uhud the husband of a cert
ain lady by the name of Sulafa (a pagan). She had promised she will drink wine f
rom the skull of Asim - that "I wont die until I do it". In her vengance she sai
d "anyone who brings me the skull of Asim I will give 100 camels". And Asim knew
this - so he cried out and made a dua to Allah that "Oh Allah inform our prophe
t PBUH about us that we were sincere - that we didn't die cowards". And he said
"As I protected your religion in the day time, protect my body at night". And he
fought with his arrows until they ran out. And he fought with his spears until
they became dulled. And he fought and fought such a battle but eventually died.
When Asim died they all pounced on his body to get the 100 camels reward, but ou
t of nowhere a swarm of wasps came and they would sting anyone who came close. S
o they said "what do we do?" And they waiting until sunset and out of nowhere a
river came. It had not rain and there was no river. His body was at the top of h
ill, yet the river came gushing through, picked up his body and then carried it
away. SubhanAllah no one knows where his body is buried - Allah took care of his
burial. This is Asim bin Thabit.
Back to the battle: they killed 7 or 10 people. They killed everyone down to the
last three, and they are surrouned by this 100. And the 100 said "ok look just
surrender now" because indeed they will get randsom etc. They promised "if you s
urrender we will protect you we will give you safety". And the three of them sur
rendered: Kubayb, Zaid and Abdullah ibn Tharik. Immediately they jumped on them
like animals and tied them up. Abdullah ibn Tharik said "this is the sign of tre
chary" and at this he did not do anything they wanted. He didn't march, didn't m
ove etc and so they killed him there and then and left him at the side of the ro
ad. Kubayb was purchased by the tribe of Banu Harith as he killed someone from t
his tribe during Badr, and Zaid had been one of those who had attacked Ummayah i
bn Khalaf (when Bilal said 'I won't live if he lives', Zaid was one of those who
killed Ummayah) - so Safwan ibn Ummayah purchased him for a large sum to kill h
im for killing his father.
As for Kubayb, he remained a prisoner amongst the Banu Harith. Until they announ
ced they will kill him. So he asked for a shower, and a razor to get rid of pubi
c hair to basically meet Allah clean. As he was sitting there with the razor in
his hand, a baby came up to him and the mother cried out in fear that Zaid might
kill her child. And so Kubayb said "are you scared I will kill this child? Wala
hi I would never do something like this". The same mother said "Walahi he had th
e best mannerisms I'd ever seen. And I saw him tied up, yet he was eating grapes
and there were no grapes in Mecca" - of course Allah had given this to him. Whe
n they brought him on to be killed, he said "let me pray two raka'at". When he f
inished he said "were it not for the fact you think I am being a coward, I would
have prayed a longer 2 raka'at but I don't want you to think I am scared of dea
th - thus it was so short". And Kubayb was the one who started this sunnah of pr
aying two raka'at before execution. He started this istjihaad that was accepted
and approved by the prophet PBUH.
As for Zaid, he is of course back with the Quraysh. They really made a big festi
val out of killing him. The whole people of Mecca took a day off to toture and k
ill him. Abu Suffyan said when he was tied up that "I ask you by Allah tell me t
he honest truth, don't you wish Muhammad was in your place and you are with your
family and children?" And Zaid gave the fully honest response, with imaan that
only a muslim can have: "Walahi I would rather die here than a thorn prick the f
oot of the prophet PBUH where he is sitting now". And Abu Suffyan said he had ne
ver seen a leader more beloved to his people than Muhammad PBUH and his companio
ns. And indeed every single non muslim themselves used to say this about the pro
phet PBUH.

From this we learn many things:

1. In such situations, should you surrender or fight on? Permissability has been
given for both.
2. It is not considered suicide to do something that you know will cause your de
ath as long as it is being caused by someone else. He didn't do it himself - he
knows he's going to get totured and die, so he thought let them just do it now.
There are lots of incidents were people can say they acted foolishly.
3. The concept of karamaat - a mini miracle. Something given to the non prophets
. They are things Allah blesses the believer of a prophet with. We see many in t
he seerah: here are two right now. Out of nowhere wasps come, and then out of no
where a river comes. And also Kubayb eating grapes out of nowhere.
4. Also we see the love the sahabah had for not just the prophet PBUH but even f
or following the sunnah up until the time of death. He is about to die but he wa
nts to purify himself.
5. Treachary and killing innocence is never something our religion allows. Many
people would say "let me just kill people along with me" if they are being execu
ted. But this is completely wrong. Kubayb was insulted that the mother thought h
e would harm her child. He consoled the mother that "calm down I would never do
something like that". Our shariah is very explicit about the complete impermissa
bility of killing innocents.
What made this especially traumatic is that a second incident occured at the exa
ct same time. So much so the prophet PBUH got the news of both of them on the sa
me night. And it was a tragedy in terms of quantity much worse: the incident of
Bir Ma'una. And in actual fact it was the worst massacare to occur in the seerah
. A cold blooded massacare of muslims. And the story is as follows: the Bir Ma'u
na, one of the famous cheiftons of Najd (northen Arabia). They were known for ma
ny things, of them is that they weren't very civilised people (this was the perc
eption at the time). Abul Bara Amar ibn Malik, the cheifton of Najd, came to Mad
inah and was very impressed with Islam. But he was hesitant and said "Oh Muhamma
d if only you were to send a group of companions to come and teach us Islam, we
will spread your message". And Abul Bara guaranteed protection in the Najd reigo
n for duat. He said "you have my word" and indeed he was not lying. Everyone all
ied with a tribe, if one of the tribes give protection all of the joined tribes
must also give protection. If X and Y are allies, and X protects Z, then Y must
protect Z. So he guaratneed protection from his end. But he didn't realise at th
e time one of the other chiefton hated Islam so much he was ready to invoke civi
l war as we will discuss.
This is a big news: the province of Najd is bigger than Hijaz. And the number of
potential converts are so much, it would bring in so many muslims. And the prop
het PBUH chooses 70 of the best qirat, speakers and teachers. Because the potent
ial is so much. And he chooses the majority from Ahlul Suffa because these are i
ndeed the cream of the crop. Anas ibn Malik himself narrates the people who went
were "known for the Quran, known for tahajjud, filling up the buckets up for th
e Ansar at night and then go back to sleep". They were the best of the best. The
se were the people of the Suffa: involved in charity, salah etc. For the small c
ity of Madinah the prophet PBUH chose a huge amount. Why? Its a golden opportuni
ty and the potential for converts is so much. And indeed Abu Bara was not lying,
he gave the prophet PBUH his word and the prophet PBUH trusted him.
When the 70 of them got to the well of Ma'una, they sent a letter through Haram
ibn Milhan to Amir ibn Tufail, the cheifton of one of the local tribes of the re
gion. And Amir ibn Tufail was an arrogant chiefton who wanted to accept Islam on

ly on condition. Its said he said "I will accept Islam either if you take charge
of the cities and you leave all of the lands to me OR make me your chiefton aft
er you die". Obviously the prophet PBUH refused to accept and this made him more
arrogant. When Haram ibn Milhan came to Amir he had a generic letter of informa
tion that they are here. Everyone knew the muslims had protection. But whhen Ami
r heard these sahabah had come from Madinah, he made an eye motion to his henchm
en to kill Haram ibn Milhan. This is triple sin:
i) He is a messenger: and they are never ever harmed. To this day this is true.
ii) He has protection from a senior chiefton and it is not possible for Amir to
act against this. He knows it is breaking an agreement he dosen't have the right
to break.
iii) He did it secretly and Haram had no clue: as he is standing waiting for the
audience from behind someone comes running with a spear, thrusts it in between
him and it comes right out. As soon as Haram sees this he instantly says basical
ly "I won I am a shaheed by the lord of the kab'ah!" He sees it and suddenly say
s "I won!" Look at his reaction. He is so excited he is dying a shaheed. And its
said someone who heard this converted to Islam. Indeed what kind of religion is
this that someone is happy at dying.
So Amar ibn Tufail knows he is in trouble. So he thinks 'let's get rid of all of
them'. So he contacted many tribes and alot refused. However three subtribe agr
eed: Asiya, Ra'al and Zakwan. They agreed to join forces and attack the 70 sahab
ah at Bir Ma'una. They surrounded all 70 of them, at least 500 people, and event
ually the muslims tried to defend themselves and died. They were coming as preac
hers, as duat, and all were killed except for three:
1. Ka'ab ibn Zaid - they wounded him and they fell down; and the bodies piled up
on him so they didn't even know he was alive. He eventually went back to Madina
h and died a shaheed in the battle of Khandak.
2. Amar ibn Ummayah
3. Munzir ibn Muhammad
Amar and Munzir had gone for an errand and as they came back they saw the vultur
es in the air circling in front of where the sahabah camped. And they said somet
hing is wrong. Munzir was an ansari, Amar was a muhajir. Clearly there was dange
r: they discussed "should we walk in or go back to the prophet PBUH". So Amar sa
ys "we should go back to tell him disaster has happened and get reinforcements".
The ansari says "I will not give up being the place where my companions shall b
e killed; neither do I want other men telling my story". Meaning he dosen't want
to be a messenger that lives to tell their story while they got the actual bene
fit of getting shahada. So he in fact encouraged the muhajir to come with him. S
o they both walked into the massacare. Eventually Munzir was in fact killed, but
Amar was allowed to go back. It's said the cheifton either wanted to let him go
back OR he had to free a slave and chose Amar as that slave. SubhhanAllah one o
f them wanted shahada and Allah gave it to him, and the other one wanted to go b
ack and Allah gave it too him aswell.
Amar on his way back met two people from the tribe of Amar ibn Tufail walking to
Amar ibn Tufail from Madinah. These two have no idea what happened but Amar did
not know this. Apparently the both of them had sought protection from the proph
et PBUH - but from Amars protection these are people from the tribe that killed
all 70 of his companions. So he tricked them and killed both of them while they
slept. Then he discovered a letter of protection from the prophet PBUH in their
possession. And so he went back to the prophet PBUH and broke the news of what h
appened. Al Waqidi mentions Al Riji and Bir Ma'una was told on the same day. The

y were people living in Suffa of the highest calibre. And he prayed every single
salah, a special qunut for all of the shuhada for one whole month. In every sin
gle salah and he prayed for them, and he asked Allah to take care and punish the
tribes who killed the sahabah. And in fact its one of those incidences Allah re
vealed many verses in the Quran that Allah abbrogated. We still have remininse o
f those verses. That "who will tell our brothers that 'we are safe?'". These ver
ses WERE recited at this time, but Allah abbrogated those verses.
A number of benefits to derive:
1) The religion of Islam won't ever be spread without loss and sacrifice. And th
at loss is going to be bitter and difficult to bear. If it was the case for the
prophet PBUH, how about for us?
2) Compare the characters of Kubayb and Amar ibn Tufail. Kubayb was insulted the
mother of the baby suggested he would harm the child whereas Amar ibn Tufail wa
s so filthy and evil minded he killed a messenger, and then massacared 70 others
.
3) Of the fiqh points we derive: the concepts of qunut is something the fuqaha d
iffered over. When does one make qunut? The shafi'i say in salatul fajr; hanbali
s say witr etc. In fact, qunut is only done at times of general calamity. That i
s, when something conflicts the ummah and we should make dua for those who are s
uffering. And its frankly a sunnah neglected by many. Anas ibn Malik said the pr
ophet PBUH would stand up in the last raka'at and do qunut. So you do qunut when
you stand up from ruku - and qunut should be done from any distress of calamity
the ummah is suffering from. It's not something that should be done on a daily
basis. It's something that should be done only when there is a calamity for the
ummah.
4) The prophet PBUH clearly did not have ilm-ul-gayb. There's no question he kne
w more than any of us and Allah taught him things that were truly gayb. He has s
een the gayb during Isra wal Mi'raj. And Allah says "whatever Allah wants to tea
ch He will teach, but unconditional gayb no one knows". No one knows the gayb ot
her than Allah - this is clear evidence. The prophet PBUH himself sent these 80
sahabah out but they all died.
5) The two people who Amar had killed, the prophet PBUH took responsibility for
their death and gave blood money to their relatives. This shows a very profound
lesson: don't blame a person for the sins of his people. The issue of collective
guilt. These were from the tribe of Amir ibn Tufail but they were completely in
nocent. And so the prophet PBUH accepts this: he takes responsibilty, pays the b
lood money and deals with the matter. You are not held accountable for the matte
rs of the tribe or nation if you have no point.
6) As for Amar ibn Tufail, he died a miserable and pathetic death. He was inflic
ted with a type of lepracy that spread over his skin. It caused him to become de
lusional, and his people left him. His own family abandoned him, and he died a l
onely, pathetic death in the desert. Indeed for someone whom the prophet PBUH ma
de dua against, how can he be saved. This is indeed the punishment of Allah.