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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.