Recall we began to discuss the preperation for the Hijrah and the two types of c

ovenants that took place between the prophet PBUH and the people of Yathrib. The
main difference between the first and second was that the first was a 'women's
covenant' - based on religious commitment only. The second was a commitment of p
rotection and war as well as religious. Notice also the second covenant mentions
a defensive protection, not an offensive attack. Therefore as we will mention,
when the battle of Badr took place the prophet PBUH had to ask the Ansar "is thi
s ok, can you fight?". It was moreso about defence and the prophet PBUH said "yo
u will protect me like one of your own and you will get Jannah".
And right before they gave their oath, for one last time, As'ad ibn Zurara "don'
t be hasty, we have travelled all this way knowing he is the prophet PBUH, but r
ealise this covenant is not like the first one - if you say yes, you will lose c
hildren, make women widows etc. If you are ready to do this, take this oath or o
therwise excuse yourself now!". Clearly As'ad is thinking about the future. But
when he said this the people said "you have spoken enough, get your hand off the
prophet PBUH and let us give our bay'ah".
All the while Abbas is standing there not pleased, "I don't know any of these pe
ople they are all youngsters". And he is thinking in terms of Jaheleya. That the
re are no elders there - there is no real loyalty. How can such youngsters prote
ct you? Why would they? This is what tribalism is. If the leader says it, the wh
ole tribe follows. But there is no leader there and this is what Abbas was worri
ed about. But of course Allah already chose them for this.
In ibn Hishaam its narrated while the oath was going on they heard a loud voice
in the valley of Minah. The voice cried out "oh people sleeping in the tents, do
you now know a group of blameworthy people have gathered together with the 'saw
be' to wage war against you?" Note here a 'sawbe' is someone for the Arabs that'
s left the religion of the forefathers and paganism, and become a monotheist. No
te in the Qur'an, the term 'sawbeoon' is different. Who are the 'sawbeoon'? A gr
oup that go back even before Christianity. So much so they claim to have a book
from the son of Nuh AS, Sheeth AS. They say they have a book from that time. The
y still exist in our time, very small quantity. They don't eat pork, have to do
ghusl after janaaba etc. In these days they believe in the stars. They come from
the land that is the crade of civilisation that has all the religions, cultures
etc, that is Iraq. In our times they are called 'al mandaa eyoon'. Or Mandaeans
.
So a voice cried out saying "they are waging war against you under the 'Sawbe'"
meaning the prophet PBUH. And the prophet PBUH said "this is the shaytaan of Aka
bah - I swear by Allah I will deal with you". The shaytaan felt so overwhelmed t
hat something will happen and Islam will now grow, he screamed out. This shows t
hat indeed shaytan can't do anything - he is so scared Islam will now spread he
shouts out. And its as Allah says in the Quran "verily shaytan is your enemy, so
take him as such". SubhanAllah the prophet PBUH knew the name of the shaytaan a
nd knew he was the leader. And this shows shaytaan live in valleys and areas not
inhabited by humans.
The Ansar when they heard this said "should we not launch an attack now? We are
70 strong, we have our swords but they are unarmed". Note in Hajj you can only c
arry one weapon, that is a defence sword. So the Ansar said "we are 70 strong an
d we can have a huge victory". The prophet PBUH said "I have not been commanded
to do this." So the meeting wrapped up quickly and the Ansar went back to their
tents quickly.
The next morning a delegation from the Quraysh went to each camp and said "do yo
u know of anybody that met with this man? Did you see anything?" Until finally w
hen they went to the Khazraj tents, the Quraysh said "who amongst you has met wi
th this man?" And so the muslims remain silent, but the pagans sweared by Allah

they haven't. And the pagans of the Khazraj are the ones who spoke up and the ma
tter was resolved. This clearly shows the Ansar are developing their imaan and s
trength in Allah. Not only are they the ones who say "for how long will we let t
he prophet PBUH beg tribes for protection, why don't we adopt him and take him o
n?" And then they are the ones who volunteer "why don't we launch an offensive a
ttack?" They are so eager to protect the prophet PBUH. Therefore when the battle
of Badr took place they all volunteered. Even though the letter of the contract
was only defensive! SubhanAllah.
This is why the prophet PBUH said after the conquest of Mecca "were it not for t
he Hijrah, I would of been a man of the Ansar, and if the Ansar went in one dire
ction, and all of mankind went in another, I will follow the Ansar". In Bhukari.
Amazing. And the prophet PBUH said "loving the Ansar is apart of imaan". And in
another hadith "hating the Ansar is a sign of hypocrisy". Therefore we must lov
e not only all the sahabah but the mujaahids and the Ansar. In another hadith he
said "oh Allah forgive the Ansar and their children". And one of the most beaut
iful ones when the prophet PBUH gave many of the leaders of the Quraysh, Hunayn
and Thakif large amounts of money; so much so an entire valley full of sheep; an
d the Ansar felt that "we are the ones that fought and did all the hardship and
yet they get the bulk of the booty?!" Of course they got a share but its up to t
he commander what to do with the surplus. In this instance the prophet PBUH gave
the bulk to those leaders whose imaan was very weak to gain their trust. And in
deed one tribal leader when he got a large share, he said to his people "embrace
Islam for walahi this man does not fear poverty or love wealth". What did the p
rophet PBUH do? He called a meeting just for the Ansar. Note this shows the leve
l of the Muhajirun are higher than the Ansar. And the prophet PBUH gave such a b
eautiful and loving speech to them. Mentioning all the hadiths above. And then s
aid "oh people of the Ansar are you not happy these people go back with the shee
p and dinaar, and you go back with the prophet PBUH?" Amazing. And of course aft
er this they all broke down and they were satisfied. Even after the conquest of
Mecca the prophet PBUH did not stay in Mecca.
One of the most important lessons is the element of being genuine and sincere at
every opportunity presented to you. That the prophet PBUH was not expecting vic
tory from just six people sitting in the middle without a tent. And yet he plant
ed the seed and it became the islamic empire. Also look at how the prophet PBUH
built them up. Firstly he talks to them and then they think about it. Some of th
em perhaps converted. They come back the next year with the first batch of 12 ac
tual converts. The prophet PBUH then sends them back with Musab and in one year
Islam spreads to at least one household in each subtribe throughout Madinah. The
next year more than 75 convert and they invite the prophet PBUH back.
Also notice the wonderful ways of Allah. Here's the point: when Allah is on your
side everything will always look. Firstly look at the battle of Bu'ath. This wa
s a massive gift. When Abu Talib was alive the wars in Madinah was going on. Its
not even relevant but look at how important it was. Also notice the irony that
the jews who felt themselves superior to the (then) pagans of Yathrib. They told
them "We have a book, and a prophet will soon come and we will kill all of you"
. Notice this dawah actually flips against the very people who are giving the da
wah. The very jews saying this don't even accept it. Whereas the actual ansar kn
ow a prophet is coming, know he will preach the message of one God from the Jews
! They've been hearing it for generations. Look at the ways of Allah. Simply ama
zing. Also notice how the imaan grows in the Ansar. Again its important to point
out they are the ones who said "we will protect you". He did not impose himself
on the people of Madinah. They wanted him to come. Initially it wasn't a majori
ty but it did become.
Notice also out of eagerness they all said "lets just get rid of these people no
w". It would have been easy. Its the middle of the night; last day of Hajj. The
enemy is unarmed. But what did the prophet PBUH say? "This is not our Islam. I h

ave not been instructed to do this". We find the clear message of Islam: its not
about voilence and bloodshed. Even though its been 10 years of toture for the p
rophet PBUH.
Also notice the beauty of the preperations of the prophet PBUH. This meeting is
taking place in the middle of the night on the last night of the Hajj. The next
morning is the end of Hajj. And everyone is so dead tired and is fast asleep for
the journey ahead. So the meeting takes place when they least expect it, and it
s also taking place right under the people's noses in the next valley. He also s
tationed people, Ali, Abu Bukr etc as look outs to make sure no one is coming. N
otice he is the prophet PBUH - but there must be a plan. He knows Allah will pro
tect him but there has to be a plan! If this is the prophet PBUH, how about us?
We must also have a vision and plan taking into account our situation. Also clea
rly there is a clear participation of women even in these matters. The women cam
e and he took their oath. So women clearly have a roal to play - and by the way
this treaty was not the covenant of women. It was a covenant of war. So those tw
o women gave a promise of protection just like the men did. And indeed these two
lived up to their roles.
And one final point: we are already sensing a change in Islam. Its as Abass says
, there are new face and its a new phase. From the time of humiliation and weakn
ess, over night the muslims will change to a powerful force that will continue t
o grow and grow. And thus the Ansar returned home and they waiting for the proph
et PBUH in Yathrib, which will later be called the Madinah of prophet PBUH.
Also there is a very clear and important point to mention that has a clear impac
t to our modern life. When we look at the seerah, we find the prophet PBUH using
different tactics and methadologies in different times for different situations
. We had firstly the early closed, private dawah of Mecca. We had then the open
non-confrontational dawah in Mecca. We had the political asylum immigration to A
byssinia. We have the political state immigration to Madinah. In the Madinah pha
se there are times of peace and war. We also have an all out war with all the tr
ibes.
The question that arises: are all of these phases equally legitimate based on th
e circumstance? OR is it that the early phases were all just building up to the
final phase in Madinah and that is the only legitimate phase? And this is a ques
tion clasically discussed alot. Ibn Hazam said "all of the earlier phases cannot
be used - we must go in the last phase, which is all out offensive war". And he
was writing at a time of decline, so there was a level of desperation here. How
ever this is a minority opinion. The majority of scholars have understood these
phrases were not abbrogated. Therefore our religion has given us many options po
litically. Some groups only have one vision for the whole ummah. The ikhwaan, hi
zbul tahriya etc they have one unified vision for the ummah. But this is naively
foolish. It's not academic. It dosen't work this way. Every group of people nee
ds to look at their own situation. What's happening in UK is not happening in Sy
ria. Even in western countries, what's happening in France is not what is happen
ing in USA. So with respect to all the groups, the scholars of each locality nee
d to study the seerah fresh and new as the seerah will always be a source of how
to live our lives. So we should always go back to the seerah and find that whic
h is the most suitable for the time and place now. One of the models closest to
our model is the model of the muslims in Abyssinia. They had no political ambiti
on to conquer Abyssinia. Its narrated some people converted. Of course Neegas hi
mself converted. But besides the point, there was no ambition to challenge the a
uthority of the status quo. This is a basic premise we as UK or American muslims
use. There's no question the perfect vision is that of Madinah but all other vi
sions are acceptable.
After the treaty of Akabah, the prophet PBUH made an announcement to the muslims
, and he said "Allah has shown me the land you shall immigrate to. It's a land o

f date palms between two volcanic planes". And indeed Madinah is the middle of t
wo volcanos either side. In various narrations the prophet PBUH said either Yath
rib, or Kabar etc. So the muslims secretly migrated to Madinah. The reason for t
his is of course the Quraysh would not willingly let this happen.
It's said the first person to immigrate was Abu Salama, the husband of Umme Sala
ma. Abu Salama was a man who was a free, noble man but was not a qurayshi, and h
e moved to Mecca to live with her wife. He and his wife both moved to Abyssinia,
and when the satanic verses incident happened they came back to Mecca and decid
ed to stay. So they are the few who made 'both hijrahs'. Very few people did two
hijrahs for the sake of Allah. Most of those in Abyssinia went straight to Madi
nah. And Abu Salama gathered his belongings, his wife and his one son and migrat
ed. But Abu Salama didn't do this secretly: when he leaves the Quraysh confront
him with their weapons. And they said "what do you think you're doing?" He said
"I am a free man I am leaving for Yathrib!" They said "Fine, go, you are indeed
a free man we take back your qurayshi passport, as for your wife, she is ours, a
nd we won't let you take her or her son as he is our son now". So they forced hi
m to leave his wife and child and expelled him. Everything is taken from him inc
luding his wife and son. When Abu Salama tribe found out, their jaheleya got the
better of them and they marched to the Quraysh and said "As for the lady she is
yours, but this boy is ours." They took the boy, but the Quraysh held on and it
became a tug of war with a two year old! Until his hand was dislocated. And Umm
e Salama cried out "let them take him". This is all just jaheleya. Not that eith
er party cares about the boy: but its all about loyalty and tribalism. So Abu Sa
lama tribe took the baby, Umme Salama is left with Quraysh and Abu Salama is in
Madinah. And Umme Salama herself says she used to go to the farthest place outsi
de of Mecca for 16 months crying every day, not able to do anything, until final
ly some of her cousins begged the elders of the Banu Makhzoom and they let her g
o.
She got her boy back and walked into the desert putting her trust in Allah, and
so she says by the time she got to Tan'eem, she met Uthman ibn Talha (not a musl
im at this time), and he sees her all alone. And he asks her "what are you doing
?" and she says "I am going to Yathrib". He says "No - i will take you". And he
walked the entire way from Mecca to Madinah; he didn't say a word. Whenever they
stopped to rest he turned away, let her come down and sleep while he stayed wit
h the camel. This was at least a 2 weeks journey and on the way back he had no c
amel. And she said "I do not know a more noble man that Uthman ibn Talha". No do
ubt Allah will reward him. No doubt. And who is this man? Allah gave him the hon
our of being the very last batch of converts before the conquest of Mecca. Him,
Amr ibn Al Aws and Khalid bin Waleed. This was a big honour as this was a genuin
e conversion to Islam - indeed, Allah says the people before the conquest and af
ter are not the same in the Quran. And then in the conquest of Mecca, the prophe
t PBUH is handing out the big prizes of the kab'ah. What are the prizes? Who wil
l get the right to the sikaya (feed the pilgrams water)? Abbas was given the sik
aya. And he said "give me the keys aswell". At this Allah revelaed "Allah comman
ds you to give the amana to those who deserve it". So the prophet PBUH gave the
key to Ali ibn Talib and said give this to Uthman ibn Talha, and it shall be wit
h him and his descendants until the day of Judgement. When he gave it to Uthman
he said "I thought you guys were getting it - the Banu Hashim" but Ali said "All
ah revealed this verse in the Quran that we need to basically give it to you". C
an you believe to this day the keeper of the keys is from the descendant of Uthm
an ibn Talha. SubhanAllah, this shows if you do good Allah will reward you. He s
howed respect and honour and who was it to? Umme Salma, a future wife of the pro
phet PBUH.
There are many other stories aswell. Of the famous stories is the story of Suhay
b ar Rumi, the only sahabah that spoke fluent latin. He was not a roman. He was
conquered and sold into slavery to the Romans so he grew up amongst the Romans.
Its also said he had a ruddy complexion so this gave him the name 'Suhaib the Ro

man'. So he is ethnically Arab, but his culture was Roman. One of his masters so
ld him back eventually to an Arab, and he ends up in the house of Abdullah bin J
udan, a distant cousin of Aisha RA. So Suhaib works his way to become free and
he becomes a businessman. He was clearly intellegant. And his closest friend was
Amar ibn Yasir, and they both accepted Islam together - both among the early co
nverts.
So Suhaib tries to leave aswell for Yathrib. He tried to be secret but eventaual
ly news spread and since Mecca was a small town its not easy to be discreet. So
the Quraysh heard about this and tried to stop him on the outskirts. Then Suhayb
took his arrow out and said "you know I am the best arrow shooter among you, an
d I promise that none of you will touch me until every arrow has touched human f
lesh, and I promise you won't touch me until my sword is bent and broken on huma
n flesh". So Suhaib said "what if I was to tell where I hid all my wealth will y
ou let me go?" They said "ok deal". So Suhaib told them everything. Suhayb accep
ted to completely free himself from them - but they also wanted his camel. So he
gave that too and after giving that he literally had nothing but the clothes on
his back. And thus he was the only sahabi we know of that performed the Hijra o
n foot. After being the richest mola (freed slave) he was literally peniless and
was crawling on all fours by the time he got to Kuba where he met the prophet P
BUH. He was about to collapse and die and the prophet PBUH himself wiped the dus
t of him, gave him food and drink and he said "your business transaction has bee
n the most successful". Without Suhaib telling him what happened! SubhanAllah. A
nd further Allah revealed "they are those who sell everything they have in order
to get the rewards of Allah".
One more story: the story of Umar RA's two companions. When Umar RA decided to e
migrate he chose two sahabah. Hishaam ibn Al As, the brother of Amr ibn Al As an
d Ayyash ibn Abi Rabiah. The deal was they planned to meet up at a certain valle
y and to meet up when dawn breaks. Whoever is there will go, if you're not there
then that person will be left behind. At the appointed time Hishaam did not sho
w up so Ayaash and Umar migrated to Madinah. By the time they got there, Abu Jah
al and his brother, who were both the half brother of Ayaash travelled all the w
ay to MAdinah and they said to Ayaash "don't you know what you have done - do yo
u know the state of our mother after you've left? She cannot eat, drink, she's m
ade a promise to Allah she will sit in the sun with no shade until she sees you.
" Its emotional blackmail - and so he decided to go back with them. Umar RA said
"They are tricking you! If she's hungry she can eat food, if she has lice she w
ill shave her hair off". But Ayaash insisted and said "No its my mother I'll go
back, sort her affairs out and then come back. I have some money to collect aswe
ll". Umar RA said "if its money, I will give you it all so don't go, if it's you
r mother she will deal with herself". But Abu Jahal kept insisting so Ayaash's h
eart melted. But Umar RA still knew they were tricking him. So Umar RA told Ayaa
sh "take my camel for its faster and stronger; if you sense any trickery you can
ride back". So Umar RA is bending over backwards just to help Ayaash out. Indee
d Umar RA feels more love for Ayaash then his own blood brothers. But Ayaash goe
s back with them. And during the journey he opens up to them and they laugh and
bond. Until Abu Jahal asks Ayaash "Oh Ayaash let me ride on your camel as our ca
mels are tired". And indeed Ayaash's camel was stronger so he said fine. As soon
as Ayaash got off his camel they jumped on him, tied up him like a prisoner, to
ok him back to Mecca in this state and marchhim all around town saying "this is
how we treat our fools". The prophet PBUH is still in Mecca at this time. And fu
rther Ayaash discovers Hishaam is also a prisoner. And he gets thrown in with Hi
shaam and they both share the same cell alone.
When the prophet PBUH migrated, he made dua for them and said "Oh Allah save Aya
ash, save Hishaam, send your punishment on the Quraysh". And he kept on asking t
he muslims "who will volunteer to save Ayaash etc". Saving them meant walking in
to the lion's den, into Mecca itself which was full of Quraysh. However, finally
Al Waleed ibn Waleed, Khalid's older brother volunteered, he said "I will do it

". And so he travelled to Mecca and Allah blessed him to find out where the dung
eon was, and he was able to break into it, rescue both of them and bring them ba
ck. Imagine: walking into Mecca single handedly. Trying to figure out where this
place is, climbing into the building etc. This is literally the stuff of legend
s. And they both come back to Madinah.