We will continue from post conquest of Mecca.

What happened in the remaining mon

ths in the 8th year of Hijrah? The first interesting incident occured around 2 w
eeks after the prophet PBUH returned from Mecca and came back to Madinah. And th
at was the Islam of the single most famous poet in entire Arabia. In fact he was
most likely the greatest poet alive at the time. We already mentioned the poets
of the Quraysh had either been killed or accepted Islam. By now the Quraysh poe
ts are muslims or dead at Badr etc. The role and nature of poets were propaganda
machines: therefore the worst amongst them were executed at the conquest. Some
amongst them repented and were forigven and accepted Islam i.e. Abdullah a-Za'ba
ri.
The premier and most renowned poet of all Arabs at the time was Ka'ab ibn Zuhayr
. And he is the son of Zuhayr ibn Abi Salma. Zuhayr himself was one of the autho
rs of the seven hanging poems; he was amongst the greatest poems in Jaheleya tim
es. He died before the coming of Islam, but his son Ka'ab was alive and had amin
osity against muslims. So he wrote poetry and sattire against the muslims; event
ually his brother accepted Islam so he got more angry until he crossed the line
that you do not cross - he began talking about muslim women. And he used vulgar
words and went to a level that's not acceptable. By the way, he is not of the Qu
raysh - he's never seen the prophet PBUH or been to MAdinah. He's from a nothern
tribe Mudayna. His brother, after the conquest of MEcca, wrote him a heartwarmi
ng letter telling him "flee this land if you value your life, or else convert to
Islam and seek forgiveness for if you repent, the prophet PBUH always accepts t
he repentance of those who repent". So even though Ka'ab had done the worst poss
ible thing at the time which is to write poetry against the prophet PBUH and mus
lims, his own muslim brother still had care and love for him and told him to con
vert.
So Ka'ab thought for a long time, and he realised in fact he didn't believe in i
dol worshipping. And so he realised he does actually want to convert to Islam. S
o he came to Madinah, and no one recognised him in terms of face. In terms of na
me everyone knows him, but not face. So he enters Madinah and he spends the nigh
t at the house of a distant relative who knew him, and he told the relative to k
eep the matter a secret. After salaatul Fajr he came to the masjid, and he appro
ached the prophet PBUH - he put his hand in the prophet PBUHs hand and he says "
Ka'ab ibn Zuhayr is seeking your protection, repenting for what he's done and ac
cepting Islam, will you accept?" i.e. he's pretending to be a messenger. The pro
phet PBUH said "yes". Then Ka'ab said "I am Ka'ab ibn Zuhayr". As soon as he sai
d this, one of the Ansar stood up to execute him on the spot. But the prophet PB
UH said "let him be, for he has come repenting and accepting Islam so let him be
". And he said "may I recite for you a poem?" So the prophet PBUH said "go ahead
". And he recited one of the most famous poems in the entire seerah literature.
And it's called 'the poem of Banat Su'ad'. Later scholars call it 'the poem of t
he Burda'.
Note there are two Burdas: the original Burda (cloak) which is this one. It is s
aid when Ka'ab recited this poem, the prophet PBUH took off his cloak and gave i
t to him. That is the highest possible honour you can give to a poet, that you t
ake off your own shawl and give it to him. So this is the original Burda which h
ardly anyone reads because it is in deep classical arabic. This is the original
Burda. There is another poem commonly called al Burda - the Burda of Busayri. Th
is is the famous burda commonly known today. Busayri was a poet of the 7th centu
ry, 700 years later - he was a medival poet. The reason why he is famously known
to all cultures, because al Busayri claims he saw the prophet PBUH in a dream.
And he recited this poet to him in his dream, and the prophet PBUH in his dream
took off his cloak and gave it to him. This is obviously only coming from the au
thor - no doubt this raises questions but nonetheless we are discussing the orig
inal Burda of Ka'ab ibn Zuhayr. It's a 2 page poem and it's so classical because
it's upon the style of classical arabic poetry. And it begins as all classical
poetry with a love story, which is a metaphor - it's not literal. The girl is Su

'ad who leaves the man and it goes on.

We are interested in the last third of the poem which is very beautiful. It's ve
ry deep arabic and it's almost impossible for an average arab speaker to transla
te without immense help:
36. I was told God s Messenger had threatened me,
But from God s Messenger pardon is hoped.
37. Go easy, and let Him be your guide who gave to you
The gift of the Qur an in which are warnings and discernment!
38. Do not hold me to account for what my slanderers have said,
For, however great the lies against me, I have not sinned!
39. I stood where I saw and heard what would have made
The mighty pachyderm, had it stood in my stead,
40. Quake with fear unless the Messenger of God,
By God s leave, granted it protection,
41. Until I placed my right hand, without contending,
In the hand of an avenger, his word the word.
42. He is more dreaded by me when I speak to him
And I am told, You will be questioned and must answer,
43. Then a lion, snapping and rapacious,
Its lair in Aththar s hollow, thicket within thicket,
44. Who in the morning feeds flesh to two lion whelps
That live on human flesh, flung in the dust in chunks,
45. Who when it assaults its match is not permitted
To leave its match unnotched,
46. For whom the braying onager falls silent,
In whose wadi no hunters stalk their prey,
47. In whose wadi lies an honest man, his weapons and torn clothes
Flung in the dust, his flesh devoured.
48. The Messenger is surely a sword from whose flash light is sought,
One of the swords of God, an Indian blade unsheathed,
49. In a band of Qurashis whose spokesman said to them in Mecca s hollow
When they submitted to Islam, Depart!
50. They departed, but no weaklings departed with them,
None who flee the battle, none unsteady in the saddle, none unarmed.
51. Haughty, high-nosed champions, who on battle day
Don shirts of David s weave,
52. White, ample, their rings interlocking
As if they were the qaf a plant s interlocking rings.
53.They walk as the white camels walk when kept in check by blows,
While the stunted black ones go astray.

54. Neither jubilant when their spears strike down a tribe,

Nor distraught when they are struck,
55. The spear does not pierce them except in the throat,
Nor do they shrink from death s water troughs.
The one phrase that is the most important and most famous in all of seerah liter
ature is when he says "the prophet PBUH is a light that others seek their guidan
ce from". Ka'ab also says he is an unsheathed sword from Hindi which is the only
real praise for the pakistani/indian ethnicity in the seerah. And the prophet P
BUH was so moved at this poem he gave Ka'ab his own shawl. The prophet PBUH also
said to him "Oh Ka'ab you have harmed the Ansar with your tongue so now praise
them". So Ka'ab wrote beautiful poetry about the Ansar. And Umar's favourite poe
t was Ka'ab, and he would quote Ka'ab all the time. So Ka'ab basically died a mu
slim and he is the most famous poet of his era and he accepted Islam at the hand
s of the prophet PBUH.
What else happened during the last few months of the 8th year of the Hijrah? Aft
er the conquest of Mecca, the prophet PBUH began conqeuring the smaller tribes a
round Mecca that are semi-independant. He sends small expiditions to each of the
se tribes. He also chooses leaders and zakat collectors and teachers to send acr
oss Arabia. Leaders: so sometimes he will send a governer, other times he will s
end a teacher to teach the Quran, sunnah and salat. Other times he would send a
zakat collector to collect the zakat, jizia etc. And sometimes the same person w
ould do multiple jobs. All of this is a chapter, and we'll gloss over saying thi
s is what the prophet PBUH did. For the first time we see the Islamic state bein
g organised and politicised. There is a beauracracy put in place by the prophet
PBUH.
Also the prophet PBUH sent a number of expiditions to destroy the smaller idols.
The larger idols had been destroyed, but smaller tribes still worshipped smalle
r idols. So for the next year he sent expiditions to do this. He sent Tufail ibn
Amr to a tribe in Yemen and they worshipped an idol called Dhil Kafayn. Abu Hur
rairah once belonged to this paticular tribe - they had a massive idol called Dh
il Kafayn, and in their arrogance they even built a massive structure they calle
d the ka'bah. ANd they wanted to compete with the ka'bah in Mecca. So the prophe
t PBUH sent Tufail ibn Amr with 400 people to get rid of this structre. And Tufa
il said "Ya RasulAllah I have a problem riding a horse I always fall off". But t
he prophet PBUH made dua for him that "Ya Allah make him firm" and thenceforth h
e never fell of a horse ever again. So he went and burnt down the massive temple
which had the idol Dhil Kafayn in it. He also sent Jaleel ibn Abd'llah to Dhil
Kalasa. This was another idol that was worshipped in Yemen. And so Dhil Kalasa w
as destroyed, and the prophet PBUH was clearly irritated at these idols. He said
"will you not get RID of Dhil Kalasa for me" meaning he isn't at peace knowing
these idols are being worshipped in Arabia. And he did not want idolotry to be e
specially in the Arabian cities: and this is what Allah reveals in the Quran in
Surah Tawbah which is going to be sent down in a few months, that basically from
now on no mushriks should be in the Arab lands.
The prophet PBUH also sent Ali ibn Ali Talib to the tribe of At-Thay, which is n
ow in the city of Ha'il in Saudi Arabia. The famous person of At-Thay is Haatim
at Thai, and he is well known in pre-Islam of being the most generous person. He
is considered to be the pinnacle of generosity. His son, Adi ibn Haatim, is to
become a famous sahabi. So Haatim was known by every single arab - he's a legand
and fable. It's said that he would feed all of his guests, when strangers would
come they would be treated like kings. And it's well known that no one was know
n for their generosity more than Haatim at Thai. He dies and his son Adi ibn Haa
tim is in charge. And Adi clearly did not have the same trace and charactersitic
s as his father: when he heard the muslims are conquering lands, he decided he w
anted an escape route. So he prepared camels in case he needed to flee and aband

on his people. This is exactly what happened: he is the cheifton so he stationed

various people to keep watch. When he was told the muslims were coming, he lite
rally abandoned his people. And he flees with his wife, children and wealth and
he flees to northen Arabia close to the Roman empire. Adi ibn Haatim had already
converted to Christianity so he has a good relationship with the Roman emporer.
So he flees with his family there, and he's living a comfortable life for a whi
le.
Now Ali ibn Abi Talib with sahaba arrives in At-Thay, destroys the massive idol
and conquers the tribe. They bring back some prisoners of war and lo and behold
one of the women begans to shout and demands an audience with the prophet PBUH.
She says she is the daughter of Haatim at Thai. So this is a big deal - she is t
he daughter of the most famous arab in terms of generosity. So she starts saying
"you should free me, I am the daughter of so-and-so, be generous with me and Al
lah will be generous with you". So the prophet PBUH agrees, he frees her, gives
her a camel, gives her some wealth and tells her to go wherever she wants. She f
inds out her brother, the cheifton, is up north so she goes to him. And she rebu
kes him and gets angry at him; she then says "why don't you go back to Muhammad,
go down to him, because there is two possibilities:
1. Either he's a prophet
2. Or he's a king
If he's a prophet you might aswell convert; if he's a king you might aswell go t
o him and win some favour from him". She understands the situation, and the fact
she mentions he could be a prophet shows she thinks he could be a true prophet.
Adi ibn Haatim narrates this story in the first person as he is telling a tabi
in Kufa - he eventually dies in Kufa, and he is one of the longest living sahaba
ever, he died at the age of 120. That is incredible. He lived a very long life:
he saw the killing of Uthman, and he fought with Ali in the battle of Sifeen. B
ecause of this, even the shia respect him immensely. The shia respect a handful
of sahaba, Adi being one of them. As for us we respect all the sahaba.
So Adi narrates his own story in the first person: "there was no one who was mor
e despised to me than the prophet PBUH. But I said to myself (after his sister t
alked to him) 'let me go and speak to him, if he is speaking the truth I shall l
isten to him directly, if not it won't harm me'." So Adi makes his way to Madina
h, this is the end of the 8th year, some say beginning of 9th. When he arrived i
n Madinah some of the guys recognise him and began shouting "this is Adi ibn Haa
tim". He's a famous guy since his father is Haatim at Thai. So people gather aro
und him and they take him to the prophet PBUH. Note he walked into Madinah witho
ut any protection so there's a sense of "no one will hurt me, I'm the son of Haa
tim". And he's correct - he does have this honour. So the prophet PBUH said to h
im "Ya Adi, accept Islam you shall be safe". And Adi said "I already have a good
religion". At the time both the jews and christians felt superior to the pagans
- so it's as if he's saying "why would I want to embrace your faith, I already
have a relgiion and civilisation". So the prophet PBUH repeated "Ya Adi, accept
Islam you shall be safe". But Adi repeated his answer. Then the prophet PBUH sai
d again to accept Islam but Adi repeated his answer.
Then the prophet PBUH said "Ya Adi, I know your religion better than you know yo
ur religion". Meaning "I know christianity - I know the message of Jesus better
than you, to demostrate this, are you not the leader of your people?" Adi said "
yes". The prophet PBUH said "do you not take 1/4 of their income in taxes?" Adi
said "yes". The prophet PBUH said "and do you not know your own religion forbids
you to do this?" This is a very powerful da'wah scene which shows the knowledge
of the prophet PBUH. He is showing "you aren't even following what you know to
be christianity". So Adi says "I became embarrased, and I knew he was a prophet"
and the prophet PBUH then held him by his hand and took him to his house. And A
di is narrating this. On the way to the prophet PBUHs house an old lady stopped

him for something, so the prophet PBUH stopped and continued talking to her unti
l her need was taken care off. Adi says to himself 'this man is not a king - for
him to stop when he has me (and he knows his rank and privallege) he isn't a ki
ng'. Adi continues "then we arrived at the prophet PBUHs house, and he took out
an old worn mat, laid it on the floor and told me to sit on it. But I was embarr
ased since this was the only mat in the room: if I sat on it he would not have a
nything to sit on. So I said 'no rather you sit'. But he insisted 'no you will s
it'. So I sat down on the mat, and the prophet PBUH sat on the sand". This is in
the prophet PBUHs house.
Adi continues: "He then said to me 'do you know of any God besides Allah?' Adi s
aid 'no'. So the prophet PBUH said 'do you know any more mighty than Allah?'. Ad
i said 'no'. Then the prophet PBUH said 'verily the jews are arrogant and the ch
ristians are misguided'. Then he said 'perhaps you aren't accepting Islam becaus
e of the state of the people around me". Meaning poverty, political weakness etc
. Adi is after all a christian and has contacts with the Roman emporer, so he is
living a life of luxury in a premier civilisation. But he now comes and sees th
e muslims of Madinah who at this stage still do not have that civilisation. So t
he prophet PBUH said "have you heard of Al Hera? Verily it's only a matter of ti
me before a lady with leave al Hera, wanting to do tawaaf in Mecca, and not havi
ng any company to protect her, and she'll only be scared of wolves or flock. And
it's only a matter of time before the treasures of Kusra will be distributed am
ongst us". At this Adi said "Kisra ibn Burmas, the emporer of the Persians?" The
prophet PBUH said "yes Kisra ibn Burmas. And it's only a matter of time before
a person will go around the streets of Madinah asking for someone to take sadaqa
h, and he will not find a single person to take it".
Adi is narrating this hadith and he says 'walahi I have seen two of these things
'. What has he seen? The peace and security of the muslims i.e. from Yemen, the
furthest city down south, a women could go all the way to Mecca with NO fear. Se
cond, the wealth of the ummah. And Adi says "I was of those who participated in
the battle of Madaa'in" i.e. the battle against the persians. To this day if you
go to Tesafan, you see huge pillars which were the palaces of the kisra. As for
the third, it happened in the time of Umar ibn Abd'Al Aziz - he secured the ent
ire financial affairs of the dynasty to such an extent that there were no poor p
eople to accept sadaqah and zakat. This happened once but it's an ideal to demon
strate it is indeed possible. And it will happen again during the time of the ma
hdi - that no one will need any zakat or sadaqah. After this deep conversation,
Adi embraced Islam at the hand of the prophet PBUH.
We learn many things from this story:
1) Look at the manners of the prophet PBUH. His humility and humbleness. This is
what opened up Adi's heart.
2) Look at Adi's mindset: he's an intellegant man, so he knows that this person
is either a king or a true prophet. He's conquered Arabia so he's either after p
olitical power or he's correct in what he is saying.
3) Being with the prophet PBUH for 5 minutes and seeing how the prophet PBUH liv
es etc, Adi rules out instantly 'this man is not a king'.
Notice aswell the prophet PBUH then opens up the theological angle. After demons
trating his mannerisms, the prophet PBUH begins the theological debate. Simple a
nd to the point.
1) Of them is 'I know your religion better than you' and we as muslims can use t
his. Jesus was a practicing jew; he lived his life according to the Torah. He ne
ver ate pig, alcohol, he was circumcised, he prayed, he fasted etc. Who amongst
humanity does this and believes in Jesus? Only us as muslims.

2) The prophet PBUH wanted Adi to acknowledge the belief in one God and he did.
3) After this, the prophet PBUH criticised the theology of the other religions the reason why he's doing this is because you have to prove the correctness of
one faith by disproving the correctness of others. You cannot have a real theolo
gical debate except by refuting the theology of other faiths. This is a touchy m
atter in interfaith dialouge in our times. There's a trend now to say 'we are al
l good and right'. So we should not shy away from difficult contraversies. Indee
d it dosen't make any sense to say 'all religions are valid' when they contradic
t each other. It is understood a chrisitan person would view us as being outside
the right path, because for him his entire salvation rests on believing Jesus i
s his Lord and Savior, and that he died for our sins. When you engage you have t
o get to the akward issue: that look, 'we accept and respect your position, but
we don't believe in it morally or theologically'. So the prophet PBUH is very ex
plicit he does not believe in the jews and christians.
4) Once the prophet PBUH realises he understands him, he jumps to the core matte
r: why is Adi not a muslim? And he says "perhaps you are judging Islam by our so
cial political status". This is so relevant today - how many are the people that
know the theological premise of Islam is very logical, but they look all around
them. Boko Haram, backwardness, third world education levels etc. Adi had the s
ame problem right here, and the prophet PBUH is telling him: "you're worried abo
ut money? We'll get all the money in the world etc". In our times aswell therefo
re, there is nothing wrong with mentioning the realities of our history. Islam w
as the leading contenders in science and technology for 1400 years plus. Ultimat
ely we have two extremes: one extreme considers science, algebra, alchemy, medic
ine etc to be the main emphasis of daw'ah. But this is not the main point of ISl
am - the main point is theology, and we should not have this inferiority complex
that Islam is all about science. Another extreme is 'our daw'ah is only through
tawheed'. But here's the prophet PBUH doing daw'ah through social politics.
5) Also from the story of Adi, we also find out culturally aware the prophet PBU
H was. He judged and read Adi so quickly until finally Adi finds nothing to stop
him from accepting Islam.
Adi visited the prophet PBUH multiple times, and in one of these visits he asked
a very important question. He said "Ya RasulAllah my father used to be good wit
h his relatives, and be generous to his people, and do this and that. Shall he b
e rewarded?" So Haatim at Thai, the most generous of all Arabs, the legand of ho
spitality, is being asked about. And the prophet PBUH repsonds in a profound sta
tement: "your father desired something and he got what he desired". And that is
the hadith. What did he desire? Fame. Or prestige or love. And he got it to the
level that 14 centuries later the Arab later knows of Haatim at Thai to this DAY
. He was generous and he wanted something, and he got it. This is an excellent h
adith to use when people who are very beloved to mankind but do not do things fo
r the sake of Allah, they die. Whether they are nobel laruets etc - they did som
ething for whatever reason, and they got what they desired. As for the akhira, i
t's given to those who don't want the fame in this world. Allah says "whoever wa
nts the akhira and strives for it while he's a believer, that is the one his rew
ard will be given to him". It's very simple: when a person did not do good for t
he sake of Allah, why should Allah reward him? It's very clear - nothing illogic
al at all. Let him get his reward for whatever he did. People love and respect t
hem, they become legands in this dunya, but in the akhira we leave their affair
toThis
Allah.
is Adi ibn Haatim, he lived a full life before Islam and after; more than
120 years old.
In this year aswell, some interesting things happened in the personal life of th
e prophet PBUH. There was a marriage, divorce, birth and death all in the house
of the prophet PBUH.

Marriage and divorce: It's one of the most bizzare stories, we'll mention it her
e because we don't want to be accused of NOT mentioning something that is well k
nown. What happened is the prophet PBUH proposed to a lady by the name of Fatima
h and there is an ikhtliaf about her name. When the prophet PBUH entered upon he
r on the night of the marriage, she for some reason said "I seek Allahs refuge f
rom you". So the prophet PBUH said "you have sought refuge in one who was very g
reat so go back to your family". So the prophet PBUH married her, but the marria
ge was not consumated. Why did it occur? It is unclear - frankly you just do not
record these personal things. Even in our own household, it's just not recorded
. Why did she say this? There are multiple theories; ibn Hajar suggests she was
mentally unwell. Others say this was a plot some of her jealous relatives told h
er and she was jahil in this regard. But when she said "I seek refuge in Allah"
this was a very big thing, so the prophet PBUH sent her back. Whatever the case
might be, clearly Allah did not will she become one of our mothers. Later on she
regretted this until she died.
It also shows us, it is allowed to divorce indirectly (kinaya). The prophet PBUH
did not use the word 'divorce' so he simply said "go back to your house" and th
at was divorce. Also the myth that the prophet PBUH never divorced is not true.
Unfortunately there is a stigma attached to the very notion of divorce, but the
majority of the prophet PBUH wives were in fact divorcees. That divorce is evil,
and the two parties must be evil. But the prophet PBUH himself divorced, and he
divorced Hafsah too. And she was in her iddah. But Jibreel AS came and said 'ta
ke her back' so he took her back. So the stigma we as a culture have for divorce
is completely wrong. Sometimes personalities don't match up. We already discuss
ed Zaid and Zainah. They are both excellent companions but they just did not get
along. Sometimes it's better for the couple to move on.
Death: It was Zainab bint Muhammad, his eldest daughter, in the 8th Hijrah. She
was both 10 years before the daw'ah. So she is know around 31. What was the caus
e of her death? She fell down from the camel at the Hijrah, and she never fully
recovered from the bleeding. For 8 years she is in some pain until she passes aw
ay. We know 3 of the 4 daughters died in the prophet PBUHs life: Zainab, Ruqqaya
h and Umme Kulthoom. Order of deaths was Ruqqayah, Zainab and then Umme Kulthoom
and Fatimah died 6 months after the prophet PBUH. Recall Zainabs husband was Ab
u al-Aas ibn al-Rabee and at Fajr Zainab shouted out 'I have given him protectio
n'.
Birth: As for the birth, the prophet PBUHs son Ibrahim who will die in the 9th y
ear of the Hijrah.
With this we finish the 8th year of the Hijrah.