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The Firsts | The Forerunners of Islam
Trendsetters, Revivers, and Strangers
Zaid Ibn Amr (ra): A One Man Ummah
Waraqa Ibn Nawfal: The First to Confirm Prophethood
Khadijah (ra): His First Love, Our First Mother
Umm Ayman (ra): The Woman Who Never Stopped Caring
Ali ibn Abi Talib (ra): Courageous & Steadfast
The First Family: The Beautiful Marriage of Ali and Fatima
The First Family - Part 2: From Love to the Pain of Death
Abu Bakr (ra): Second to None in the Pursuit of God
Abu Bakr (ra) - Part 2: Setting His Own Standards
Abu Bakr (ra) - Part 3: There Will Never Be Another One
The Plague that Killed Sahaba and the Coronavirus
Zayd Ibn Al Haritha (ra): Loved and Liberated
Sumayyah (ra): The First Martyr
Khabbab Ibn Al Aratt (ra) - Under Burning Hot Coals
Bilal ibn Rabah (ra): The Voice of Certainty
Suhaib Ibn Sinan Al Rumi (ra): From Persia, to Rome, to Paradise
Al-Arqam Ibn Abil Arqam: The House of Islam
Lubaba Bint Al-Harith (ra): The First Woman After Khadijah (ra)
Zaynab Bint Muhammad (saw): The First Daughter (ra)
Uthman Ibn Affan (ra): The Possessor of Two Lights
Uthman Ibn Affan (ra) - Part 2: The Possessor of Two Lights
Saad Ibn Abi Waqqas (ra): His Prayers Always Answered
Abdullah Ibn Masood (ra): A Mighty Legacy of Qur'an
Abu Dharr Al Ghifari (ra): Living and Dying Alone
Jafar Ibn Abi Talib (ra): Flying in Paradise
Najashi - Ashama Ibn Abjar (ra): The Righteous King
Umm Salama (ra): A Separated Family (Part 1)
Umm Salama (ra): A Legacy of Wisdom (Part 2)
Umm Habiba (ra): A Dream Come True (Part 1)
Umm Habiba (ra) - Part 2: Royalty Redefined
Saffiyah Bint Abdul Mutallib (ra) : A Warrior Aunt
Zubayr Ibn Awwam (ra): The Disciple
Asma Bint Abi Bakr (ra) : The Possessor of Two Waist Belts
Talha Ibn Ubaydillah (ra): The Living Martyr
Abu Hudhaifa Ibn Utbah (ra): Seeking Another Status
Saalim Mawla Abu Hudhaifa (ra) : The Imam of the People of Quran
Sawda Bint Zama’a (ra): The Prophet’s Joy
Abu Ubaydah Ibn Al Jarrah (ra): The Trustworthy One
Abdurrahman Ibn Awf (ra): A Generous Soul
Hamza Ibn Abdulmuttalib (ra): The Lion of Allah | The Firsts by Dr. Omar Suleiman
Miqdad Ibn Aswad (ra) : Better Than A Thousand Men | The Firsts
Khawla Bint Hakim & Uthman Ibn Madhun: The Righteous Couple | The Firsts
Omar Ibn Al Khattab (ra) - The Convert Who Changed The World | The Firsts
Omar Ibn Al Khattab (ra): 10 Unique Virtues | The Firsts
Omar Ibn Al Khattab (ra): The Opening of Jerusalem | The Firsts with Dr. Omar Suleiman
Omar Ibn Al Khattab (ra): His Leadership, His Legacy, His Death | The Firsts
Abu Jandal, Abdullah, & Suhayl Ibn Amr (ra) : Switching Sides | The Firsts
Abdullah Ibn Umm Maktum (ra): After Abasa | The Firsts with Dr. Omar Suleiman
Musab Ibn Umair (ra): The Man Who Gave It All | The Firsts
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
Khunais ibn Hudhafah (ra): The First Husband of Hafsa (ra) | The Firsts Shorts
Abdullah ibn Hudhafah (ra): The Man Who Wouldn't Flinch | The Firsts Shorts
Atika bint Zayd (ra) - The Wife of Many Martyrs | The Firsts Shorts
Ayyash ibn Abi Rabiah (ra) - The Guilt Trip That Led To Captivity | The Firsts Shorts
Utbah ibn Ghazwan (ra) | The Humble Governor | The Firsts Shorts
Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
Abdullah ibn Jahsh (ra): An Accepted Prayer | The Firsts Shorts
Abu Ahmad Abd Ibn Jahsh (ra): The Other Blind Companion | The Firsts Shorts
Zaynab Bint Khuzayma (ra): The Mother of the Poor | The Firsts Shorts
Ukasha ibn al-Mihsan (ra): He Beat You To It | The Firsts Shorts
Nuaym Ibn Abdullah (ra): Redirecting History | The Firsts Shorts
Subay'a Al-Aslamiyya (ra): The Iddah of a Widow | The Firsts Shorts
Khalid Ibn Sa’id Ibn al-'As (ra): A Dream of the Prophet | The Firsts
Rayta Bint Al-Harith (ra): Poisoned on the Way | The Firsts Shorts
Anisa, Al-Numan, and Amir (ra): On A Boat From Abysinnia | The Firsts
Amir Ibn Fuhayra (ra): The Guide on the Hijrah | The Firsts
Zinneera (ra) and Aflah (ra): The Tortured Ones | The Firsts
Umm Kulthum Bint Uqbah Ibn Abi Muayt (ra): The Enemy's Daughter | The Firsts
Mihja, Umayr, and Ubayda (ra): The Martyrs of Badr | The Firsts
Loving the Ansar | The Firsts
As’ad Ibn Zurara (ra): The First Convert of Madinah | The Firsts
Usayd Ibn Hudayr (ra): Transformed by the Quran | The Firsts
Sa'ad Ibn Muadh (ra): The Man Who Shook The Throne | The Firsts
Sa'ad Ibn Ubadah (ra): The Generous Chief | The Firsts
Umm Sulaym (ra): Her Dowry Was Islam | The Firsts
Anas ibn Malik (ra): In Service of the Beloved | The Firsts
Umm Haram (ra): When Dreams Come True | The Firsts
Ubadah ibn al-Samit (ra): A Man Equal to a Thousand Men | The Firsts
Al Bara' Ibn Malik (ra): The Underestimated Hero | The Firsts
Abu Ayyub Al Ansari (ra): The Host of the Prophet | The Firsts
Abdullah ibn Salam (ra): The Righteous Rabbi | The Firsts
Salman Al Farsi (ra): The Truth Seeker | The Firsts
Salman Al Farsi (ra): Back to Persia | The Firsts
Abu Darda (ra): The Scholar Who Wouldn't Sleep | The Firsts
Abdullah Ibn Rawahah (ra): The Warrior Poet | The Firsts
Ka'ab Ibn Malik (ra): The Greatest Story of Repentance | The Firsts
Hassan Ibn Thabit (ra): The Master of All Poets | The Firsts
Nusaybah bint Ka'ab (ra): The Woman Warrior | The Firsts
Zayd ibn Thabit (ra): The Scribe of the Prophet ﷺ | The Firsts
Muadh Ibn Jabal (ra): Most Knowledgeable & Beloved | The Firsts
Ubayy ibn Ka'b (ra): The Master of all Reciters | The Firsts
Umm Waraqa bint Abdullah (ra): The Martyred Hafidha | The Firsts
Asma Bint Yazid (ra): The Orator of the Women | The Firsts
Amr ibn Al Jamuh (ra): No Limping in Jannah | The Firsts
Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubayy (ra): The son of the Chief Hypocrite | The Firsts
Hanzala Ibn Abi Amr (ra) and Jameela (ra): When Angels Bathe You | The Firsts
Jabir ibn Abdullah (ra): The Orphan With 7 Sisters | The Firsts
Kulthum ibn al-Hadm (ra) and Sa'ad ibn Khaythamah (ra): The Hosts of Masjid Quba | The Firsts
Aisha bint Abu Bakr (ra): The Early Years of Sacrifice | The Firsts
Aisha bint Abu Bakr (ra): The Love Story | The Firsts
Aisha bint Abu Bakr (ra): Slander and Death of the Prophet ﷺ | The Firsts
Aisha bint Abu Bakr (ra): Legacy and Life after Rasulallah ﷺ | The Firsts
Hafsa bint Umar (ra): Saved by Devotion | The Firsts
Zaynab bint Jahsh (ra): The Longest Arm | The Firsts
Juwayriya bint al-Harith (ra): A Blessing to Her People | The Firsts
Safiyya bint Huyayy (ra): A Heart of Gold | The Firsts
Maymunah bint al-Harith (ra): A Blessed Wedding | The Firsts
Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (ra): The Secret Keeper | The Firsts
Tufayl ibn Amr (ra): The Hidden Legend | The Firsts
Abu Huraira (ra): The Preserver of Hadith | The Firsts
Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari (ra): A Voice Like No Other | Sahaba Stories (The Firsts)
Umm Ma’bad (ra): The Description of the Prophet ﷺ | The Firsts
Suraqa ibn Malik (ra): The Bounty Hunter | The Firsts
Burayda ibn al-Husayb (ra): An Unlikely Convert | The Firsts
The Amwas Plague | The Firsts Documentary Special
Abu Dujana (ra): The Red Bandana | The Firsts
Asim ibn Thabit (ra): Protector of Faith | The Firsts
Khubayb ibn Addiy (ra): A Prisoner of Many Miracles | The Firsts
Saeed ibn Amir (ra): Haunted by Murder | The Firsts
Rabiah ibn Kab (ra): Falling in Love with the Prophet ﷺ | The Firsts
Abu Saeed al-Khudri (ra): The Jewel of Madinah | The Firsts
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): Becoming the Sword of Allah | The Firsts
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
Amr ibn al-As (ra): The Conqueror of Egypt | The Firsts
Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl (ra): The Pious Son of Pharoah | The Firsts
Abu Sufyan ibn Harb (ra): Forgiving the Enemy | The Firsts
The Prophet ﷺ’s Brother: Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith (ra) | The Firsts
Mothers of the Prophet ﷺ: Amina and Halima al-Sa’diyya | The Firsts
Hakim ibn Hizam (ra): When Money Stops Mattering | The Firsts
When Allah Guided the Children of Abu Lahab | The Firsts
The Most Honored Man By The Prophet ﷺ: Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (ra) | The Firsts
Urwa ibn Masud (ra): The Chief Who Resembled Isa (as) | The Firsts
The Prophet ﷺ’s Bodyguard: Mughira ibn Shu‘ba (ra) | The Firsts
Addas (ra) of Ta’if: The Brother of Yunus (as) | The Firsts
The Jinn Who Became Muslim | The Firsts
Abu Bakra (ra): The Freed Slave of Allah | The Firsts
Abu Mahdhura (ra): The Kid Who Mocked Adhan | The Firsts
The Children of Ta’if Who Stoned the Prophet ﷺ | The Firsts
A Foiled Conspiracy: Umayr ibn Wahb (ra) & Safwan ibn Umayyah (ra) | The Firsts
Muhammad ibn Maslama (ra): The Knight of Rasulullah ﷺ | The Firsts
Thumama ibn Uthal (ra): The most powerful Muslim of his time? | The Firsts
Ka’b ibn Zuhayr (ra): The Story of the First Burda | The Firsts
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Thabit ibn Qays (ra): Promised Jannah After A Sin | The Firsts
Abbad ibn Bishr (ra): The Friend of the Qur’an | The Firsts
Adi ibn Hatim al-Tai (ra): From Christian King to Companion | The Firsts
Jarir ibn Abdullah (ra): The Yusuf of this Ummah | The Firsts
Tamim al-Dari (ra): The Palestinian Sahabi That Met Dajjal | The Firsts
Ammar ibn Yasir (ra): A Legacy of Sacrifice | The Firsts
Hasan ibn Ali (ra): The Beloved Grandson of the Prophet ﷺ | The Firsts
Husayn ibn Ali (ra): Redefining Victory in Karbala | The Firsts
Loving Husayn (ra) and Hating Yazid
Zaynab bint Ali (ra): A Voice of Courage | The Firsts
Umm Kulthum bint Ali (ra): Daughter of Nobility and Tragedy | The Firsts
Abdullah ibn Ja’far (ra): The Story of My Mother’s Ancestor | The Firsts
The Four Abdullahs (ra) Every Muslim Should Know | Dr. Omar Suleiman
Abdullah ibn Abbas (ra): The Ocean of Knowledge | The Firsts
Fadl ibn Abbas (ra): How The Prophet ﷺ Made Him Lower His Gaze | The Firsts
Ubaydullah ibn Abbas (ra): The Rich Little Brother | The Firsts
Qutham ibn Abbas (ra): The Prophet’s ﷺ Lookalike | The Firsts
Abdullah ibn Umar (ra): The Prophet’s ﷺ Shadow | The Firsts
Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr (ra): The Defender of Mecca | The Firsts
Urwa ibn az-Zubayr (ra): The First Muslim Historian | The Firsts
Abdullah ibn Amr (ra): The One Who Preserved The Sunnah | The Firsts
Usama ibn Zayd (ra): The Prophet ﷺ’s Chosen Grandson | The Firsts
Fatima bint Qays (ra): She Preserved Hadiths About Dajjal and Divorce | The Firsts
Zayd ibn al-Arqam (ra): Exposer of Hypocrites | The Firsts
Umayr ibn Sa’d (ra): The Young Man Who Exposed His Father | The Firsts
Al-Baraa ibn Aazib (ra): With the Prophet ﷺ In the Trenches | The Firsts
Al-Baraa ibn Ma’roor (ra): He Made Two Good Mistakes | The Firsts
Bishr ibn al-Baraa (ra): The Story Behind the Poisoning of the Prophet ﷺ | The Firsts
Umm Mahjan (ra): The Woman Who Cleaned the Masjid | The Firsts
Zahir ibn Haram (ra): Low Self-Esteem Until He Met the Prophet ﷺ | The Firsts
Julaybib (ra): The Most Beautiful Story | The Firsts
Safina (ra): The Prophet’s ﷺ “Ship” | The Firsts
Thawban (ra): The One Called “An-Nabawi” | The Firsts
Abu Muwayhiba (ra): What Happened on the Prophet’s ﷺ Final Nights | The Firsts
Abu Rafi al-Qibti (ra): The Man Inside the Prophet’s ﷺ Home | The Firsts
Salma (ra) and Ubaydullah ibn Abu Rafi (ra): A Legacy of Serving the Ahl al-Bayt | The Firsts
Playing
Mariya al-Qibtiyya (ra): Mother of the Prophet’s ﷺ Last Child | The Firsts
The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
Mariya al-Qibtiyya (ra): Mother of the Prophet’s ﷺ Last Child | The Firsts
Mariya al-Qibtiyya (ra), “the gift of Egypt,” embraced Islam and her life with the Prophet ﷺ wholeheartedly, even as slander and jealousy tested her.
She delivered a baby boy, Ibrahim (ra), who wouldn’t live past being a toddler.
Find out how the Prophet ﷺ reacted and remained steadfast in his belief in Allah even during this personal tragedy.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
I want to welcome you all back to the first, alhamdulillah wa abu alameen. Tonight, inshallah ta'ala, we'll actually have an extended biography.
I know that many times we're doing much shorter biographies, and the biography of this person that we're covering today, Hadiyyat Misr, the gift of Egypt, Marya al-Qibtiyyah radiallahu
ta'ala anha, is extensive because you get to recreate, if you will, the world around her, but not necessarily through her own words, because we have virtually nothing from her
own words radiallahu ta'ala anha, but we get to understand so much of the world of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam through her, and then of course through his son Ibrahim,
and how the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam dealt with such an important incident in his own life, and how human the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was with the death of his own son alayhi wa sallam.
When we talk about Marya al-Qibtiyyah, we actually start with the place that she came from, and
I want to actually take you back to the political situation in Egypt, and how this woman ends up in the household of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in the first place, because it really is an extraordinary story.
If you go back to the life of Ubadah ibn al-Samit radiallahu ta'ala anhu, and I mentioned this incident in a khutbah as well recently, you have this standoff between him and al-Muqawqis,
who is a leader in Egypt at the time, and it's a conversation that shows the beauty of Islam and that shows really how degraded the morals of the Byzantines, of the Romans, were at that time.
But you also have to peel back and say, what was it like when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam first reached out to this person, and how did Islam reach them a decade or two before through an invitation from the Messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wa sallam, where
they're hearing about something happening in a part of the world where nothing significant politically typically happens. And so we start with al-Muqawqis, this ruler in Egypt, and he is the Byzantine ruler of
Egypt at the time. Al-Muqawqis is a title, so it's not actually his name, similar to al-Najashi, similar to Kisra, similar to Qaisar, right, the Caesar of Rome or the al-Najashi of Abyssinia, it's not actually his name, but it's the title that he holds as the Byzantine ruler of Egypt.
Egypt was under Byzantine rule at the time, and most historians identify him as actually Cyrus of Alexandria.
So he's a major figure in the Greek Orthodox Church, and of course this is before Catholicism and before the Lutherans and before the Protestant Reformation and all of these different trends that are fairly modern when you look at world history.
So he's a pretty major figure, Cyrus of Alexandria. In Arabic sources, he is called Juraij, his name is Juraij, and he's simply referred to as al-Muqawqis, and he holds two roles, and this is where it becomes very significant
to understand the world at the time. He's both the Patriarch of Alexandria, so he's a religious authority, as well as the Byzantine governor in Egypt, so he's a political authority, and it's really interesting when
you actually think about the implications of that, when you have both the religious leadership and political leadership combined in one. So he's not an independent king. If you study the Roman Empire, obviously they used to have these client kingdoms that would
rule under them, and they would report back to them. He rules on behalf of the Byzantine Empire, but he does have some political authority, and it's very real political authority, even though it's not the ultimate authority, right?
So it's still a sub-state, a client state, and he still is ruling on behalf of an imperial empire, and Egypt at the time, was a province of Eastern Rome, and it's a significant
province of course, and it's very interesting because the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam Egypt has a connection with each of these regions, to where you know, Sham can claim
some of the hadith of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam talking about them, Yemen can claim some of the hadith of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam talking about them, the Persians can claim some of the hadith of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam talking about them, and Egypt as well, can claim this connection to the Messenger
of Allah salallahu alayhi wa sallam even though he doesn't physically go to these places, but the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, as he speaks about the future of these places, and the current state of these places, even though he's not there, he's establishing a
connection to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So al-Muqawqis is the person that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam will address when he calls the various leaders to Islam after Hudaybiyyah, when he has the opportunity to
send out letters, so we're talking about around seven years after the hijrah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And the religious orientation of al-Muqawqis matters here, as does the religious orientation
of the people of Egypt, because when you say Christianity, you think of it in a very specific way perhaps because of the way that you experience Christianity.
But the Christianity in al-Habasha, in Abyssinia, was very different from the Christianity in al-Sham. And this is of course still a relatively short time after Isa alayhi wa sallam, and an even
shorter time, we're talking about less than three centuries after the Council of Nicaea, where there is a standardization of Christianity as a religion, right, under Constantine.
So there are very different iterations of Christianity that exist at the time. Some of them are certainly closer to Islam and how they are trying to reckon with this
imposition of Isa alayhi wa sallam, of Jesus peace be upon him, as a god-like figure, or as God himself, the son of God, or a god-like figure. So what you would call the Christians that would rule on behalf of the Byzantines were
Malkite, Malkite, which comes obviously from the root word of kingship, because they aligned themselves to the Roman Empire in the general sense.
And I don't want to get too far into this, because I realize that I'll end up pushing this too far, and I won't even get to start with, you know, Marya al-Qibtiyyah herself.
But these are people that were loyal to the Byzantine theology. Now the majority of the people of Egypt did not actually align themselves to that type
of Christianity. So when you say they were Qibti, they were Coptic, they actually represent a different
strand of Christianity. And so what did their Christianity look like? They were indigenous to the land, obviously.
They were more spiritual in their nature. When you look at their practices, they were more zuhd-oriented, more ascetic in their orientation. They had a much more devotional expression of Christianity, less theological, is what
historians would say about them. So it's a very spiritual expression of Christianity, less focused with some of the theological debates that are happening in the church.
And the Byzantines are ruling them, and there is an alignment in the broader sense of Christianity, but they're not actually the same type of people. And subhanallah, when we talked about Heraclius himself in Rome, Heraclius, actually when you
read about him and his knowing that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was a prophet, was a very, very controversial figure in the Christian church because his views clearly were aligning
towards a more pure interpretation of Christianity that would align with Islam. In any case, let's move on inshallah ta'ala because this is a rabbit hole that will not
finish. You get the point. There is a political and religious authority that rules on behalf of the Byzantines. His name is Juraij. He is al-Muqawqis, that's his title.
He is technically implementing the Christianity on behalf of Imperial Rome, and he's ruling over the Copts, even though he's not necessarily amongst them, who have a more devotional and simple expression of Christianity, to which Marya radiallahu ta'ala anha clearly is
going to belong to. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam sends his letter to him after Hudaybiyyah, and the
letter is reported in secondary sources, but it's pretty much identical to what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would have sent to Kisra or sent to the other leaders around
the world, inviting them to Islam. Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam sends the letter with Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah, who's probably the next long biography that we will do because Hatib radiallahu ta'ala anhu is famous for something entirely different.
But he was the one that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam sent to Egypt with the letter to al-Muqawqis. He arrives to al-Muqawqis, and the letter, Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, from Muhammad
the Messenger of Allah to al-Muqawqis, the Azeem, the Great One of Egypt, peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance, I call you to Islam, aslim taslim, aslim taslim,
accept Islam and you will find peace. Yuatika Allahu ajraka marratayni, Allah will give you the reward twice. Your own Islam and the Islam of your people, fa in tawallayta, fa innama alayka ithmul qibt,
and if you turn away, then you have not only your personal sin, but you have the sin of the Copts as well. Some of the sources mentioned that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam had written out
at this point, the ayah, ya ahlul kitab, say to ahlul kitab, oh people of the book, ta'alu come to a common word between us and you, baynanah wa baynakum, ala na'buda illa Allah, that we will not worship except Allah, wa la nushrika bihi shay'a, and we will not
associate a partner with him, wa la yattakhidha ba'duna ba'dan arbaba min duni Allah, and none of us will take priests besides Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, fa in tawallayta, fa qulu shahadu anna muslimun, and if they turn away, then say, bear witness that we are Muslims.
So when al-Muqawqis receives the letter, because he's a religious authority, he's very familiar with the fact that there is a prophet that is to come, similar to Heraclius, and
that was the point of me mentioning where he comes from, being Malkite or Malkite, that he has this understanding of Christianity, he's deeply studied in the scripture, he's
not Kisra in Persia, he's not a leader in some other part of the world that is not going to be able to capture the essence of what the prophet is saying.
So he responds to the prophet, not accepting Islam, but also not like Kisra tearing up the letter or mocking the prophet.
He very much so wants to be on the good side of the prophet. He's not strong enough to accept Islam because he knows that means the loss of his kingdom, or he worries about his people overthrowing him, and the prophet has not demonstrated
power up until now. Hudaybiyyah is a treaty. This is before Fatah Mecca, this is still a small movement that's coming from Mecca
and now taking root in al-Madinah. and now taking root in Al-Madinah. By all means, it's still very small.
So he responds to the prophet, "Peace be upon you. Afterwards,
I read your letter, and I understood what you have mentioned within it, and what you
are calling to." "I knew that there was a prophet that was to come. I thought that that prophet would be
in al-Sham, somewhere in Palestine, somewhere in Syria, somewhere in the region. The place of al-Anbiya', Ard al-Anbiya'."
And he said, "But I have honored your messenger, being Hatib," and he said,
"and I'm sending you two bondwomen, two maidservants that have a high status amongst the Copts.
And I'm also sending you, beyond that, some garments, some clothes, and I'm gifting you a mule for riding."
So he sent him basically his best mule, and he sent him his best donkey, and he sent him some garments, and he sent a male servant as well, along with the two female servants,
as gifts to the Prophet, peace be upon him. It's very interesting. Basically, "I'm not ready to accept your religion, but I kind of know who you are, and here are
some gifts from me to you, so that we can be on good terms," right? In comes now, Mariya al-Qibtiyyah.
So the two women are Mariya al-Qibtiyyah and Sirin al-Qibtiyyah, Sirin al-Qibtiyyah. They're either sisters or first cousins, but they're different.
Her name is Mariya bint Sham'oon, Mariya bint Sham'oon. Now Sham'oon is what in English? Sham'oon is Simon. Mariya is very interesting.
I was trying to figure out what the name means, because it's not Maryam, and it sounds like Maryam. So what is the meaning of the name Mariya?
And very interestingly enough, there's a Hadith in Bukhari and Muslim, that Aisha radiallahu said that when the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was ill, some of the wives
of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, were mentioning to him that we remember a church in Abyssinia that was named Mariya, okay?
So they actually mentioned a church called Mariya in Abyssinia, which is a Christian land and obviously comes from, you know, some of the other expressions of Christianity that probably were not dominant in mainstream imperial Roman Christianity at the time.
So they actually mentioned a church named Mariya, and they mentioned that it was called Mariya and that it had these statues, and when a pious man would pass away, they would build a place of worship over his grave.
And the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said these are the worst of Allah's creatures, those that build these statues and they turn these graves into places of worship. And obviously that was the implication, that when the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
was passing away, he was very committed to not turning his grave into a place of worship or turning him into an object of worship, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and elevating him to a god-like creature.
So the point is that the name of the church that they remembered in Abyssinia and Habasha was Mariya. And so, you know, it appears that Mariya comes from some derivative of Maryam.
It's like a Hellenized version of Maryam, like a Greek derivative of Maryam from the same root of Maryam. But we don't actually know what the meaning of the word is definitively, but it appears to be something like Maryam.
So it would make sense, Mary the daughter of Simon. These are very Christian terms, very Christian names. And she was from a place in modern-day Egypt, which is called Zawiyat al-Amwat. I'm not testing the Egyptian history here.
Back then it was called Helwan, Helwan, Zawiyat al-Amwat, which means the place of the dead, basically, right? The place of the dead. And it's an ancient city at the time.
So what does he mean by these two women have a great position amongst us? Obviously, they are of superior beauty. They are of superior status. They're native to the land.
And while they're from what appears to be a family of servants, it's like an elite servant class, if you will, right?
So most of those that have dug into the history of Mariya, they say that the suggestion seems to be that even her parents would have been servants. So they kind of grew up in that environment, but they're of the most elite of the servants
and they have a higher social lineage. There's also some narrations that say that her mother may have been Roman as well.
So her mother might have actually been Rumiyyah, which would, you know, obviously, you know, refer to her status in that land if her father was native Qibti, but her mother was Roman. So she was a beautiful woman. She had high status. She had high social status. She was someone that al-Muqawqis is saying is prized here, her and her sister, and I'm sending her and her sister
to you. And Subhan'Allah, there's something really interesting about this, that the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, would receive in his care a woman from the Jews and a woman from the Christians. How?
Safiyyah, may Allah be pleased with her, is a woman who grew up Jewish and who would come into the house of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
And now Mariya, may Allah be pleased with her, is a woman from the Christians who would come into the house of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
And the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said in an authentic hadith, that there are three people that have twice the reward. And the first category he mentioned, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, someone,
a person from the People of the Book who believed in their Prophet and then believed in Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. And in some narrations, the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, specified 'Isa, peace be upon him, Jesus, peace be upon him.
The point is someone who comes from a Christian background, may Allah accept it from all of those in our midst as well, who believed in Jesus and then believed in Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
that person would have double the reward, as the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, mentions. And there are multiple narrations in this regard.
So what we know is at this point, Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah travels back with the mule, with the donkey, with multiple pieces of cloth.
And he also has Mariya and Sirin coming to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Now at what point did they embrace Islam?
What appears to be the case is that Hatib actually called them to Islam on the way, introduced them to Islam on the way.
And basically gave them da'wah on the way so that by the time they reached Medina, they were already Muslim. And here's what I would nickname Mariya al-Qibtiyyah in this regard.
She's basically the Hagar of this ummah. Her story has incredible parallels to the story of Hagar, peace be upon her.
Why? Because Hatib is basically telling her that, you know, they're distressed because this is a foreign land.
I mean, you're going from Egypt, from the palace of al-Muqawqis to a place that you don't know, that's very unfamiliar amongst the Arabs. And Medina is not the power center in the world that it is yet.
This is before Fatah Mecca. Like, what is this world that I'm entering into? And basically Hatib's da'wah would revolve around what? That you are not the first women to walk these exact footsteps.
But if you go back to Hagar and how Allah wrote her story. What was Hagar's story? She was a bondwoman to the ruler of Egypt at the time.
And Ibrahim, peace be upon him, and his wife Sarah were picked up in Egypt. And that ruler tried to basically force himself onto Sarah.
And Sarah made du'a against him three times until he recognized that there was something about Sarah that was very special. And he told her, you know, when she made du'a against him the third time.
And he basically couldn't move because he was trying to approach her. And he was saying, "I won't approach her again." He sent her away and as basically a way of ransoming himself. Like, "Get away from me." He said, "Here is your gift."
And he gave Sarah Hagar. "This is your compensation." Just get out of my face and leave, please. He gave her a bondwoman from the palace in Egypt. Can you imagine Hagar?
We don't even know her real name. Right? Like, Subhan'Allah, her name actually revolves around this concept of just being a bondwoman. Then ends up with Ibrahim, peace be upon him, in Mecca in the middle of nowhere.
So think about, Subhan'Allah, the parallel from Egypt to Mecca with a prophet. And you have no idea what's happening. Okay?
And here from Egypt to Medina to a prophet and you have no idea what's happening here. Right? And so you're not the first women to walk this path.
To walk these footsteps. And Hatib tells them about the character of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and informs them about Islam. And obviously aligns with or strikes a chord with them. The point is that what appears to be the case is that by the time they got there,
they went from crying to anticipation of meeting the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. And by the time they got to Medina, they were already Muslims. And so when she entered upon the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, she gave salam to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
So she's already coming into Medina as a Muslim. Now, this is where you start to see the discussion about, did she now enter into the status of Umm al-Mu'minin?
Of a mother of believers? Did she come in the house of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, as through the contract of nikah? Or did she remain a bondwoman that was freed by the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him? What is in the Qur'an as "ma malakat aymanukum." It's what the right hand possesses.
Clearly, this is something that is abrogated, that doesn't exist in our time. But that was entirely universal at the time. And Islam established more rules around what would have been known as slavery at the time.
So much so that people would not recognize it as slavery today. Right? The concept of riq. So this is where it becomes very interesting. And I can tell you the very first conclusion that I have,
when going into research on this, is that this wasn't an issue for them at the time. Because obviously, the idea of captives was common practice around the entire world
with zero exception at the time. And so, debating her status, whether she came in as through the contract of nikah, or through the contract of captive and then was freed by the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was actually not an issue for people back then.
And that's why you find zero deliberation around it for decades. Right? Centuries. Because it didn't really matter that much. And Christians or Jews would be in the least position,
because you think of Islamophobes and what they attack Muslims with today, to make this claim because in Judeo-Christian thought, Hajar is unanimously not a wife of Ibrahim ﷺ.
She's a jariyah. She's the bondwoman of Ibrahim ﷺ. Right? She is the maidservant of Ibrahim ﷺ, not the zawja. She doesn't actually have the title of being the wife of Ibrahim ﷺ
in any dominant Judeo-Christian thought. Obviously, Sulayman ﷺ had many maidservants. Ya'qub ﷺ, you go through his story.
So the prophets all had multiple wives and they had multiple maidservants. So it's not something that anyone would have objected to from a Judeo-Christian perspective. But in the contemporary sense, with everything that we're bombarded with
and obviously the accusations of our Prophet ﷺ, it becomes very difficult and it's like, wait, what does this mean? So let's talk about this for a moment, insha'Allah ta'ala and we agree that however the Prophet ﷺ entered her into the home
was honorable and dignified and noble and befitting of his character ﷺ. And that's the part that's praiseworthy throughout history. You're governed by laws. You don't have a woman that can be transferred from place to place
that has multiple people that can be intimate with her, who doesn't have any say over herself, who doesn't have a living accommodation, who doesn't have status in society. All of that literally contradicts who Marya al-Qibtiyyah would become.
And so we know right off the bat that our Messenger ﷺ was on an exalted standard of character and how he dealt with the situation was so noble that the way that she was treated would have made it indistinguishable
even in that society. And the Prophet ﷺ talks about those that Allah has placed under your care of captives and the enslaved are your brothers. Dress them with how you dress. Feed them with how you feed yourselves. There is no hitting them. There is no abuse.
None of these things were allowed at the time. So the Prophet ﷺ revolutionized these things to a point that they would be unrecognizable to us today. But just for the sake of sort of talking about this debate,
insha'Allah ta'ala, and putting it to the side, did she come in through a contract of nikah, zawjat al-Nabi ﷺ, or was she from the mawali, from the freed slaves of the Prophet ﷺ? Those that make the argument that she was a zawja,
and it's definitely a minor opinion and something that is more in secondary literature and contemporary literature that try to make that argument. They do so because some of the wordings of the early reports will refer to her that way,
but it appears that that's loosely the way that you would speak about this beautiful, noble woman who clearly came into the house of the Prophet ﷺ. So when you read in a report in al-Hakim,
فَمَا تَزَوَّجَ رَسُولُ اللهِ ﷺ مَارِيًا that the Prophet ﷺ married or brought her in through the contract of zawaj, is it referring to the actual status of nikah or is it referring to the Prophet ﷺ
receiving her as a captive and then freeing her ﷺ and then she reaches the status of umm walad, which is a mother of a child?
Almost every authentic narration suggests the opposite, right? That she came in through the contract of a freed slave and the Prophet ﷺ honored her
and the Prophet ﷺ gave her a path to freedom and elevation through a practice that was accepted at the time in a way that demonstrated the most noble way to deal with that situation.
And subhan'Allah, I'll just take like one hadith which is so beautiful about Egypt in particular. The Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّكُمْ سَتَفْتَحُونَ مِصْرَ وَهِيَ أَرْضٌ يُسَمَّىٰ فِيهَا الْقِيرَاطُ
He said ﷺ that you are soon going to conquer Egypt and the currency of that land is the qirat. And he said when you conquer that land, فَأَحْسِنُوا إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا
Be good to its people. Every Egyptian can say the Prophet ﷺ أَوْصَىٰ بِنَا He said be good to its people because he ﷺ said that they have blood ties with you.
They have rahim, they have blood connections with you. Now the scholars say this is obviously first and foremost, she is the mother of the Prophet ﷺ in the grand scheme of things.
The slave of Egypt, the bondwoman of Ibrahim ﷺ is the mother of Ismail, Umm Ismail. And the Prophet ﷺ is a descendant of Ismail. And so they are rahim in that sense.
They are your relatives because I come from a woman who was a bondwoman from Egypt. At the end of the day my lineage traces back to her. And the second element of that lineage
is now through Marya al-Qibtiyyah. That the Prophet ﷺ would have a child with Marya al-Qibtiyyah and that this also establishes a special connection to the people of Egypt.
Now subhan'Allah because the subtext of the hadith is very interesting. It fits the signs of the hour series. The Prophet ﷺ said إِذَا رَأَيْتُمْ رَجُلَيْنِ يَخْطَصِمَانِ فِي مَوْضُعِ لَبِنَةٍ
If you see two men that start fighting over a brick, fighting over the space of a brick, فَاخْرُجْ مِنْهَا then leave it. What does that mean?
Abu Dharr is the narrator of the hadith. And Abu Dharr is someone who couldn't bear to see the fitna after the death of the Prophet ﷺ,
to see materialism, to see empire, to see what he felt was a departure. He was too much of an ascetic and he was too hard. Like he was almost anti-social, and I don't say that in any insulting way,
because of his zuhd, because of his asceticism, his sidq. So I don't mean that in any insulting way whatsoever. I actually mean it as praise. That he is, as the Prophet ﷺ mentioned, the most truthful of men. And that he would live alone and die alone,
and be raised up on the Day of Judgment alone. So when you start to see Egypt take a certain direction, then Abu Dharr, you should leave. So Abu Dharr said that I was in Egypt, and I saw Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Shurahbil ibn al-Hasana and his brother
fighting over a space in Egypt, so that was my cue to leave Egypt. He's the narrator of the hadith. Anyway, you go back to the point that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned a special connection to Egypt on the basis of our relation, our rahim.
Whether it is through Hajar, or through Marya, whose story is so much like Hajar. It established a connection between us, as an ummah as a whole, and the people of Egypt.
Now, Shibli Numani, who is a contemporary writer, Abu al-Hasan al-Nadwi, rahimahu Allah, references his framings in Sirah. He tried to use the argument that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned,
of those who have two rewards, rajulun kanat indahu ama, a person who has a bondwoman, fa addabaha wa ahsana ta'deebaha, wa allamaha wa ahsana ta'leemaha, thumma a'taqaha fa tazawwajaha,
falahu ajran. That a man who comes into possession of a female captive, and then frees that female captive, and then marries that captive, through nikah, has twice the reward.
This is what the Prophet ﷺ actually did with Juwayriyyah. This is what the Prophet ﷺ did with Safiyyah. May Allah be pleased with them. This was the expectation. So he's saying that, you know, an argument could be made that the Prophet ﷺ was always harīs 'alā al-khair.
He was always looking for the highest rewardable option. But there is another way to look at this as well. That the Prophet ﷺ, the function of a Prophet is to teach by example.
So, it may be that the Prophet ﷺ maintained what was the permissible here with Maryā raḍiyallāhu ta'ālā 'anhā, to show the companions a different way of how to deal with a situation like this,
and to still show that same path of elevation, which we will see in the life of Maryā raḍiyallāhu ta'ālā 'anhā. The same pathway to freedom, and truly an honorable and a noble position in society, where even if she did not occupy
zawjat rasūlillāh ﷺ, become through nikāḥ, the zawjat of the Prophet ﷺ, look at the honor and look at the dignity that this woman would have in that society. Some of the scholars also mentioned that
Juwayriyyah and Safiyyah, what makes them different, may Allah be pleased with them, is that while they were taken captive in battle, they were freed women before the battle. And so while it was acceptable practice,
obviously, that captives were taken, the Prophet ﷺ put them back in their status of being freed women immediately, right? Which would have been in the same line, in the same spirit of where they were before,
whereas Maryā raḍiyallāhu ta'ālā 'anhā was born in the state of being a bondwoman, and her whole life was as such, and she comes from that family, and so the Prophet ﷺ provided her through another route in which she would be elevated to the status of umm al-walad,
which has its own parallel track, and has its own honor in the sharī'ah. The point is, I'm going to put this to the side, if all of this becomes something for you, Dr. Jonathan Brown wrote the book,
Slavery in Islam, which is a phenomenal book, and he goes through this in the technical, in the legal sense, and what was historical at the time, and how it was practiced, and demonstrates, subḥānallāh, just amicably, how the Prophet ﷺ
elevated the standards of morality throughout the entire world by the parallel of any civilization at the time ﷺ, and is an example for all time ﷺ. So there's a parallel now of Maryā and Hājar both being bondwomen, both coming from that status in society,
both coming from Egypt to Mecca, Medina, to the Arabian Gulf, right, by the time this lecture goes out, Allah knows best,
right, but they both were brought in that spirit to that time, and both of them, subḥānallāh, will end up being in a status of incredible honor,
and nobility, and dignity, and memorialized for all time, with all sorts of other implications because of who they are.
So in any case, one might ask, how come we don't have many narrations from Maryā ﷺ herself? Is it because she was coming from that social status? Obviously, that's not the case because we've done the stories and the biographies
of so many of those freed slaves of the Prophet ﷺ who narrated tons of aḥādīth. So clearly, it would not be about her social status, right? Typically, when you have someone that was close to the Prophet ﷺ
and you don't have many narrations from them, it's because of a few things. One, how late they came in the life of the Prophet ﷺ, so they came very towards the end of the life of the Prophet ﷺ, or how soon they died after the Prophet ﷺ, right?
So if someone died in the era of Abū Bakr or even in the early days of 'Umar, you're likely not to have many narrations from them at all, or they lived in a region that was far away from al-Madīnah
or far away from the centers of where the companions were, and for that reason, their narrations were not collected. So with Maryā ﷺ, she comes very late, similar to Maymūnah bint al-Ḥārith, by the way.
Maymūnah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ who obviously occupies such a high rank, but we don't have a ḥadīth from Maymūnah ﷺ. So late in the life of the Prophet ﷺ,
and so early after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. With Maryā ﷺ, she comes around the eighth year after hijrah. So we're only talking about the last two and a half to three years of the life of the Prophet ﷺ,
and Rasūlullāh ﷺ would travel a lot in those last few years, right? There was a lot of movement as well in those last few years, and she will die just a few years after the Prophet ﷺ. So she comes late, she leaves early.
So you have to look at the narrations about her, rather than the narrations through her, and that has nothing to do with her social status. So in any case, when she first comes,
she's initially provided a home by al-Ḥārith ibn Nu'mān, and then there are some narrations that say that she stayed with Umm Sulaym, and then the Prophet ﷺ establishes a home for her
in what's known as Mashrabat Umm Ibrāhīm, the garden of Umm Ibrāhīm in al-'Āliyah. Now al-'Āliyah, if you go to al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah, is towards Qubā.
It's where the trees that Salmān al-Fārisī was in. It's very prized real estate in al-Madīnah at the time. It's on the outskirts of Madīnah, and there are a lot of palm trees. So I actually have a few pictures of the remains of her home. So the first one is an older picture,
and then the second one is a more recent picture. But today there's a graveyard in that area. So this is actually the home of Maryā al-Qibṭiyyah raḍiyallāhu ta'ālā 'anhā in al-'Āliyah. So the Prophet ﷺ provided her a full home ﷺ,
status once again. She observed the hijāb. She observed the veil.
The Prophet ﷺ used to go and he would visit her ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ clearly developed a special love for this woman, even though he would only know her raḍiyallāhu ta'ālā 'anhā for a very short time. As for her sister Sīrīn,
Sīrīn would go to Ḥassān ibn Thābit, and they would actually have the child, 'Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥassān ibn Thābit. May Allah ﷻ be pleased with them.
Now Maryā raḍiyallāhu ta'ālā 'anhā lives in this home, and the Prophet ﷺ visits her, and she occupies a high status almost immediately. She's someone who's very intelligent.
She's someone who's very beautiful, and clearly someone who will develop a sincere righteousness. Otherwise she would not be blessed with what Allah ﷻ is going to bless her with. Now because of when she comes into the sīrah,
and because of her superior beauty raḍiyallāhu ta'ālā 'anhā, and obviously where she comes from and what she comes from, you can imagine that there's immediate jealousy about her raḍiyallāhu ta'ālā 'anhā.
Right? Now in Sūrat al-Taḥrīm, when Allah ﷻ says, لِمَ تُحَرِّمُ مَا أَحَلَّ اللَّهُ لَكَ "Why do you forbid that which Allah ﷻ made ḥalāl for you?"
You'll often find in the books of tafsīr that this is related to an incident with Maryā al-Qibṭiyyah raḍiyallāhu ta'ālā 'anhā. However, there's a more authentic narration, which is the one that you've probably heard, that 'Ā'ishah and Ḥafṣah basically plotted against Zaynab.
May Allah be pleased with them all. And Zaynab raḍiyallāhu 'anhā had a honey that the Prophet ﷺ used to like, and the Prophet ﷺ would take his time and he would eat that honey. And so they both agreed to say to the Prophet ﷺ that his breath smells a certain way when he would eat that honey.
And so they both agreed to say to the Prophet ﷺ that his breath smells a certain way when he would eat that honey. And so the Prophet ﷺ would say that this is haram for me. Right? That is the most authentic narration.
Al-Imam al-Qurtubi rahimahu Allah ta'ala, he says that asahh hadhi al-aqwal, that of all of the narrations about this, this is clearly the most authentic and the weaker ones come after it. Al-Imam al-Qurtubi rahimahu Allah ta'ala said,
the incident concerning Marya al-Qibtiyyah is not authenticated in the way that this one is. It's not passed down with a sound chain. So we put that to the side. And obviously there are the timings as well.
The surah Tahrim seems to have been revealed before the eighth year after hijrah, before Marya radiallahu anha would have come into the life of the Prophet ﷺ in the first place. But now there's a second narration, this is authentic.
And it's when Marya radiallahu anha was accused by some of the hypocrites in the same way Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha was accused. Obviously the hypocrites want to destabilize the Prophet ﷺ
and destabilize his rule and scandalize the Prophet ﷺ in any way that they possibly can, right? And then Imam Muslim rahimahu Allah puts the narration of the slander of Marya right after the slander of Aisha radiallahu anha,
the hadith of hadith al-ifk and right before the hadith of sifat al-munafiqin, the characteristics of the hypocrites. So he puts the narration very intentionally between these two narrations to show that this was another tactic of the hypocrites
to try to scandalize the Prophet ﷺ household, try to make people talk about the Prophet ﷺ in a certain way, try to collapse the household of the Prophet ﷺ, cause him drama, cause him all sorts of issues. And it didn't work with Aisha radiallahu anha
and so now you have this beautiful woman that came from Egypt, right? Let's throw some commentary about her as well and try to see if it sticks, okay?
So the chapter is Bab Bara'at al-Nabi ﷺ min al-Riba and Anas radiallahu ta'ala anhu, he narrates
anna rajulan kana yuttaham bi ummi waladi Rasulillah ﷺ that some people started to make accusations about the male servant
that was sent from al-Muqawqis to al-Madinah and Marya. They started to make implications about the male servant and Marya radiallahu ta'ala anha, right?
So the Prophet ﷺ, he sent Ali radiallahu ta'ala anhu to investigate. Now what were they saying? And this is sifat al-munafiqin, the characteristics of the hypocrites.
Just like they didn't come outright and say Aisha radiallahu anha committed this act but they made suggestions. They gossiped in that way to where people heard it and they ran with it and then they decorated it. The same way it happens on the internet today, right?
It started off with this and then by the end of it, like he's already got five kids. You know, it's like where did this, what happened here, right? That's how fitna works, right? That's how gossip works. So in the same way, they said about Marya radiallahu ta'ala anha
ma hiya illa al-ajnabiyyah wa al-rajul al-ajnabi yadkhul alayha That she's nothing but a foreign woman and a foreign man enters upon her. So they made that type of an implication.
So the Prophet ﷺ sent Ali radiallahu ta'ala anhu to investigate the matter. Ali radiallahu ta'ala anhu, he said to the Prophet ﷺ, Ya Rasulallah, akun fee amrika kassayfat al-muhamma?
Do you want me to go out like a heated blade? What does he mean? Do you want me to go kill the man because of the accusation? Like, do you want me to just, like the accusation is there? Or are you sending me
aw shahid yara ma la yara al-ghayb? Are you sending me to witness what one who is absent cannot witness? Do you want me to go and investigate and see what's actually happening? Like see with my own two eyes what's actually happening? So the Prophet ﷺ said, bal shahid yara ma la yara al-ghayb.
He said, no, rather the one who's present will see what the one who is absent did not see. So I'm not sending you to kill the man. I'm sending you to just go and see what's going on with the comments that are being made. Right? So it just so happened, subhanallah, that Ali radiallahu ta'ala anhu
when he went out to the area in al-Aliyya where Marya radiallahu ta'ala anha had lived and Mabur radiallahu ta'ala anhu The assumption, by the way, is that he was Muslim, had lived.
He saw Mabur bathing in a cool place. And subhanallah, he saw, as he would say radiallahu ta'ala anhu which was obviously a disgusting practice of the time
that Mabur was majbub, meaning ma lahu zakar that he was, his private part had basically been amputated. Right? So obviously the accusation of zina cannot be true at all.
And this was something that was done to him in Egypt before he came to al-Madinah. But it basically confirms, like he comes back to the Prophet ﷺ and he says, Ya Rasulallah, clearly this is not the case. And he says what he saw.
And the Prophet ﷺ says, al-hamdulillah yusrifu anna ahl al-bayt. All praises be to Allah 'Azza wa Jalla who keeps away from us, the people of the household, the family of the Prophet ﷺ.
Like the claims of the people, like subhanallah, how disgusting are the people, these hypocrites that they start to throw these claims and they throw anything that sticks. And this is like objectively impossible. And this poor man was also being dragged.
And subhanallah, because of a crime, truly it is a crime, right? And what they call eunuchs, right? What's a crime, what they would do to the male slaves and castrating them. Right? And unfortunately throughout human history.
And he still was accused with, you know, being with Marya radiallahu ta'ala anha. So it's a crime against, a slander against Marya and a slander against this man as well. And the Prophet ﷺ did not act recklessly. The Prophet ﷺ investigated and he said, al-hamdulillah, khalas, it's done.
Like we don't have to do anything. And this is the way that people would act back then, that how dare you even make the accusation? What did he say and what did he do? No, none of that. Al-hamdulillah, it's over. Like this doesn't have to go any further. Nor does the Prophet ﷺ have to go send Ali radiallahu anhu
to announce in the masjid that I saw Mabur and he's in this situation and that situation. Because that would be humiliating to the man. So it's not necessary to even respond to the claims of the hypocrites at that point. Simply that the slander is clearly false.
So Mabur was a man that would provide, you know, you know, firewood and some of the things at that time. But he also was wrongly accused. So Maria radiallahu ta'ala anha is in al-Madinah.
And then the biggest surprise happens in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. Something that he entirely was unexpecting. Which is that Maria radiallahu ta'ala anha becomes pregnant when he's 61 years old ﷺ.
And I want you to think about like this rizq that comes out of nowhere, right? The sustenance that comes out of nowhere.
The Prophet ﷺ has not had a child now for, you know, pretty much two decades. Khadijah radiallahu ta'ala anha was the only woman
who Allah ﷻ blessed him with six children through. And now all of a sudden at the age of 61, Allah ﷻ blesses him with a child.
And the parallels are so many. Ibrahim radiallahu ta'ala anhu was given his child at a late age. Surprise, right? A rizq. And just like how Ibrahim radiallahu ta'ala anhu who was with his wife,
Sarah for all these years and not given a child through Sarah and then through the bond woman, Hajar. The same thing with the Prophet ﷺ. Rasulallah ﷺ was with Aisha radiallahu anha and Hafsa radiallahu anha and Safiya radiallahu anha, his azwaj.
And he was not given a child through any of them until Maria radiallahu ta'ala anha comes from Egypt. And within the first year, she's pregnant and the Prophet ﷺ is 61 years old.
You can think about like the hikmah that it wasn't Aisha or Hafsa or Zainab. What's the hikmah? Allah knows best, right? And Maria radiAllahu ta'ala anha, she says, Fakhfaytu hamni, like I concealed my pregnancy in the first place
because like if there is jealousy and there's envy towards me already, then I have a child now. I'm going to be the first woman to bear the Prophet ﷺ a child since Khadijah radiAllahu ta'ala anha.
It's, you know, imagine how the hypocrites are going to try to cook something out of this. And so she becomes pregnant. And eventually Rasulullah ﷺ is in the masjid.
Wa ja'ahu Jibreel alayhi salam. Jibreel alayhi salam comes to him and says to him, As-salamu alayka ya aba Ibrahim. Peace be upon you, O father of Ibrahim. Which was a glad tidings that this was his son.
And clearly if the munafiqeen would try to make up anything, this is your child. And go and see your wife, Maria radiAllahu ta'ala anha, whom Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed with a child.
So the Prophet ﷺ, he makes his way over to the home. And Rasulullah ﷺ would name this child Ibrahim. What's the hikmah of that?
He named the child from his first wife Abdullah, a son named Abdullah after his father Abdullah. He names this child Ibrahim after his father Ibrahim alayhi assalam.
So this is the first child that's going to be born now in this incident after Islam in Al-Madinah. He has a whole community around him in Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blesses him with Ibrahim.
And as Ibn Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala narrates, And so this now took Maria radiAllahu ta'ala anha to another status of being Umm Walad. And her nickname becomes Umm Ibrahim.
Salma, who we spoke about last time, Umm Rafi, who delivered all of the children of the Prophet ﷺ, delivers Ibrahim. And you can imagine the way that the community of the Prophet ﷺ was. Everyone wants to nurse this child.
All the women want to nurse this child, right? Who doesn't want to nurse the child of the Prophet ﷺ? So there's excitement amongst the men, excitement amongst the women.
And this is where you find that the Prophet ﷺ gave his child, Ibrahim,
to Umm Saif, a woman by the name of Umm Saif radiAllahu ta'ala anha. She was the wife of a man by the name of Abu Saif radiAllahu ta'ala anhu.
Who was a blacksmith. And he also lived in al-Awali. And so you have Umm Saif and Abu Saif nursing the child of the Prophet ﷺ.
And Rasulullah ﷺ would take this child and he'd love this child so much, his son Ibrahim, so much. And you can think of all the expressions of love and mercy and joy of the Prophet ﷺ with al-Hasan and al-Husayn.
And imagine when his own blood son, and Rasulullah ﷺ is grabbing his actual son and taking him around Medina.
Imagine the celebration, imagine the aqiqah, imagine the way that the community was around the Prophet ﷺ. And it also comes on the back of so much khair, right?
Like this is towards the end of the life of the Prophet ﷺ where finally everything is falling into place.
And the thing about Ibrahim, Ibn Rasulullah ﷺ and Umm Ibrahim, right? This new blessing that came in the life of the Prophet ﷺ.
Is that we often think of Ibrahim and we think of like a child that would have died like within the first few months. He's going to live a full year and a half.
It's not a miscarriage. It's not a child that dies in the first or second month. Not that any of that is easy. But you can think of a baby that's a year and a half old.
That's a full baby that you've really, really, really gotten attached to. And you know how much rahmah is in the heart of the Prophet ﷺ and how much love is in the heart of the Prophet ﷺ in general.
And Rasulullah ﷺ is holding on to this child and showing so much love. The Prophet ﷺ opens Makkah. So Fath Makkah comes in this time.
He comes back ﷺ. And in the 10th year after hijrah, Jibreel ﷺ comes to the Prophet ﷺ. Go to Ibrahim.
The Prophet ﷺ went out from the masjid quickly to go and to see Ibrahim. Ibrahim was sick. And the Prophet ﷺ went out to see him. And he said, so we went and we saw Abu Saif.
Just gives you the human element. The blacksmith. And he was blowing into his bellows. And the house was filled with smoke.
So Anas ﷺ said, I went ahead and I told him to stop so that the dukhan, so that the smoke would not continue to be around us.
And he said, so the Prophet ﷺ went forward. And he asked for his son Ibrahim.
And Ibrahim was breathing his last. So the Prophet ﷺ held his son Ibrahim.
He held him close to him. And he said whatever Allah ﷻ would allow him to say ﷺ.
And the Prophet ﷺ started to kiss him and smell him. And Ibrahim dies in his hands ﷺ. Now you can imagine the heart of the Prophet ﷺ.
And you can imagine the pain of the Prophet ﷺ. And you can imagine what it's like. I want you to imagine if you were a companion now, sitting there, watching the Prophet ﷺ.
So the Prophet ﷺ is holding his son Ibrahim. And as he's holding him and making du'a, the tears of the Prophet ﷺ start to fall on the body of his dead son.
Does it get more painful of a sight than that? Rasulullah ﷺ holding his dead child and the tears coming down from the eyes of the Prophet ﷺ and falling on the body of his child.
And so when that happens, Anas ﷺ says like a group of his companions are watching the Prophet ﷺ holding his son. Umm Ibrahim Marya ﷺ is in the house.
And as he's holding his son, Abdurrahman ibn Auf ﷺ looks at him. And he says, Wa anta ya Rasulullah. You too, O Messenger of Allah.
You too, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ. This is one of the most profound ahadith if you think about it. You too, O Messenger of Allah. What is he saying? Like you're supposed to be superhuman.
You're crying over the death of your child. Remember this when you see the most righteous people in the world. And yes, they cry. And yes, they have human emotions. Wa anta ya Rasulullah. And the eyes of the Prophet ﷺ are full of tears.
As Ibrahim took his last breaths in his arms. And imagine the clarity of the Prophet ﷺ even in that moment as he's holding his dead child. And he says,
That verily the eyes shed tears. And the heart grieves. But we do not say except what is pleasing to our Lord.
And verily we are grieving over you, O Ibrahim. Rasulullah ﷺ in some narrations even spoke directly to Ibrahim.
We're grieving over you, O Ibrahim. We only say what is pleasing to Allah ﷻ. This is one of the most human moments in the life of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
It gives you that dimension of what it means to be broken-hearted prophetically. Because you're not supposed to be invincible. What it means to be broken-hearted in a prophetic way.
That even as the tears are coming down, Rasulullah ﷺ still has that clarity. So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he takes his child. And on the same day,
Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah radiAllahu ta'ala says, The sun eclipsed on the very same day that Ibrahim died.
Now some of us remember what it was like to see the eclipse here. Imagine when you don't have any advance notice. No one tells you that there's going to be an eclipse. You're in the middle of the desert in Arabia and suddenly there's an eclipse. It goes completely dark in the middle of the day.
I mean, what are you going to think? And it happens to come on the same day that the son of the Prophet ﷺ passed away. The saddest we've ever seen the Prophet ﷺ.
The saddest we've ever seen the Prophet ﷺ. So that people started to say that the eclipse happened because of the death of Ibrahim. And Rasulullah ﷺ comes out. And with that clarity.
And subhanAllah, this is one of the many, many, many proofs of his truthfulness ﷺ. The truth needs no lies. He doesn't need to exaggerate. He doesn't even need to be silent on this. And let them maybe think that and let them get carried away.
The Prophet ﷺ wants to correct the record. Even in the moments of his heartbreak. The Prophet ﷺ says after he prays the prayer of the eclipse.
That the sun and the moon are two signs from the signs of Allah. They do not eclipse for the death of anyone nor for the birth of anyone. So when you see them, then call upon Allah ﷻ.
And pray until it is over. He corrected it ﷺ. And then he carried his baby himself ﷺ.
He put the baby in front of him. Rasulullah ﷺ led the janazah of his own son. The Prophet ﷺ carried his own son's dead body to al-Baqi'.
Rasulullah ﷺ placed him in the ground. And the Prophet ﷺ put the soil on his son himself ﷺ.
You can't imagine what it was like for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hasan ibn Thabit. Who is he? He is the nephew of Marya.
Because his mother is Sirin al-Qibtiyyah. He says that my mother said, Sirin said,
The Prophet ﷺ saw a gap in the grave of his son Ibrahim. So the Prophet ﷺ ordered that it be closed. And he said,
That verily it neither harms nor benefits to leave a crack open in the grave to have some sort of sunlight or something else coming into it. And the Prophet ﷺ said,
It brings comfort to the living to see that the grave is fully covered. And he said, And verily Allah loves that when someone does something, they perfect it.
So he covered the entire grave ﷺ himself. And I just wanted to show the picture. So this is the grave of the son of the Prophet ﷺ, Ibrahim, in al-Baqi'
that the Prophet ﷺ himself buried. I'll end with this because I promised you all I would end and I apologize for going over time again.
There is nothing that anyone went through except that the Prophet ﷺ went through it. Six of his seven children ﷺ and this may have been one of the most painful of them all.
And the Prophet ﷺ had this happen to him now at the age of 62 years old. And he said, That verily he has a wet nurse in al-Jannah.
And the narration, he says, That if he had lived, he would have been And this seems to be a saying of mawquf to Anas ﷺ
And had he lived, then every slave would have been freed. Now, whether or not this is an effort of the Prophet ﷺ praising what Ibrahim would have become in the sense of his noble character and what would have been destined for him
or something along those lines or not. You have to wonder as many of the 'ulama mentioned the wisdom of Allah not letting a son outlive the Prophet ﷺ especially a son named Ibrahim
born to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in Islam, witnessed by the community. You can imagine what would have been bestowed upon that son. And perhaps it is from the wisdom of Allah ﷻ certainly from the wisdom of Allah ﷻ
that he took him not just for the reward but also for what would transpire after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. And subhanAllah, how poetic that Rasulullah ﷺ sent Ibrahim to Ibrahim ﷺ.
He sent his son Ibrahim ibn Muhammad to his father Ibrahim Abu al-Anbiya', Ibrahim ﷺ the father of Muhammad ﷺ. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ mentioned that the children that die before the age of puberty
are with our father Ibrahim ﷺ and his Ibrahim and Marya's Ibrahim awaits the parents to hold their hands into the gates of al-Jannah.
What an amazing existence for this young boy that lived for only 18 months and gets to say that I am the son of the Prophet ﷺ and be joined with the Prophet ﷺ in Jannah. And what an amazing life
for this woman Marya al-Qibtiyyah that came from this palace of al-Muqawqis and ended up a believer in Medina and the mother of the child of the Prophet ﷺ the only one after Khadijah ﷺ. Now I'll end with this that the Prophet ﷺ
he carried the death of his own son into the last year of his own life ﷺ. Just think of the timeline. Ibrahim died around Rabi' al-Awwal in the 10th year after Hijrah.
The Prophet ﷺ made Hajjat al-Wada' after that. The farewell Hajj was made after that as we're coming into the days of Dhu al-Hijjah. And then the Prophet ﷺ of course returned and he died himself ﷺ
in the 11th year after Hijrah in Rabi' al-Awwal. So the rapidness of losing his own son ﷺ and then being rejoined with his son ﷺ he loses his son. Then he goes to Hajj.
Then he himself passes away just a few months after ﷺ. And so you can just imagine of course what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was carrying of pain and further detachment from this dunya
after losing someone so beloved to him ﷺ in such a tragic way. Marya ﷺ attended of course the janazah of the Prophet ﷺ and so she has in her mizan, in her scale
the ihtisab, the seeking of the reward of the death of the Prophet ﷺ as well as the death of her son and the son of the Prophet ﷺ. After the Prophet ﷺ passed away
Marya ﷺ lived a very quiet life of 'ibadah in her home. And she would pass away just a few years after the Prophet ﷺ
in the khilafah of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab ﷺ basically about three and a half years after. So not too long after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and when she passed away
'Umar ibn al-Khattab ﷺ went around and he gathered the people personally to come and to pray the janazah upon her. Knowing the honor, the shan of this woman ﷺ Umm Ibrahim, the mother of Ibrahim
the Hagar of this ummah who has so many parallels to Umm Isma'il and he prayed and led the janazah on her himself ﷺ and buried her himself. And subhanAllah when 'Umar ﷺ
years later after Marya ﷺ was buried years later when he sends the delegations to Egypt he has 'Amr say to the delegation in Egypt
ﷺ that verily Allah ﷻ sent the Prophet ﷺ with truth and commanded him with truth
and the Prophet ﷺ commanded us with that truth and he made it known to us ﷺ he made it known to us that we would one day open Egypt
ﷺ and he told us to be gentle with you O people of Egypt because of our blood relationship with you and he said that whatever you have
if you accept our proposition we will grant you protection after protection after protection and he then quoted what Umar ﷺ said that the Prophet ﷺ said
be good to the Copts be good to the people of Egypt and Umar ﷺ said that the Prophet ﷺ
commanded us to treat them well because we have a connection to them and you have multiple narrations in this regard that we were connected to them through one bond woman, Hagar ﷺ
who otherwise would have been forgotten and completely societally discarded and then another bond woman, Maria Umm Ismail and Umm Ibrahim becoming these legends in the history of Islam
may Allah ﷻ be pleased with them and may Allah ﷻ send His peace and blessings upon our Messenger ﷺ Allahumma Amin Jazakum Allah Khayran Wa assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
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