Seerah

Session # 8

Calling unto Islam beyond Makkah

THE THIRD STAGE

JOURNEY OF TA’IF

• In Shawwal, ten years after receiving his mission from his Lord, the Prophet set out towards At-Ta’if, about 60 kilometres from Makkah, in the company of his freed slave Zaid bin Haritha, inviting people to Islam.

• Contrary to his expectations, the general atmosphere was terribly hostile. • He approached the nobel

families in town. But, to his disappointment, all of them turned deaf ear to his message and insulted him thoroughly.

• Three brothers from the chieftains of Thaqeef met the Prophet who invited them to embrace Islam and worship Allâh, but they daringly mocked at him and refused his invitation.

• "He is tearing the cloths of Al-Ka‘bah; is it true that Allâh has sent you as a Messenger?" said one of them.

• "Has not Allâh found someone else to entrust him with His Message?" said the second.

• "I swear by Allâh that I will never have any contact with you. If you are really the Messenger of Allâh, then you are too serious to retort back; and if you are belying Allâh, then I feel it is imperative not to speak to." said the third.

• For ten days he stayed there delivering his message to several people, one after another, but all to no purpose.• The people hooted at him, threw stones

and used abusive language and forced him to leave the city in great distress and sorrow.

• Blood flowed down both his legs; and Zaid, trying to shield him, was wounded in the head. • The mob did not stop until they had

chased him two or three miles across the sandy plains to the foot of the surrounding hills.

• Wearied and exhausted, he took refuge in an orchard belonging to the sons of Rabi’a and turned to his Lord.• He prayed in the following touching

words that are still preserved as those through which his oppressed soul gave vent to its distress. He was weary and wounded but confident of the help of his Lord:

"O Allah! I complain to You of my weakness, my scarcity of

resources and the humiliation I have been subjected to by the people. O Most Merciful of those who are merciful. O Lord of the weak and my Lord too. To whom have you entrusted me? To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy to whom you have granted authority over my affair?

So long as You are not angry with me, I do not care. Your favor is of a more expansive relief to me. I seek refuge in the light of Your Face by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the next is set right, lest Your anger or Your displeasure descends upon me. I desire Your pleasure and satisfaction until You are pleased.

There is no power and no might except by You."

• Heart-broken and depressed, Prophet set out on the way back to Makkah. When he reached Qarn Al-Manazil, Allâh sent him Gabriel together with the angel of mountains, who asked the Prophet for permission to bury Ta’if between two mountains.

• The Prophet said, “No, I hope that Allah will let them beget children who will worship Allah alone, and will worship none besides Him.”

• During his stay in wadi Nakhla on his way back to Makkah, Allah sent him a company of Jinns, who listened to him reciting the Quran and accepted Islam.• Allah revealed about this conversion

in Surah Jinn.

HOPE INSPIRING BREEZES FROM

MADINAH

Six Pilgrims from Madinah11th year of Prophethood

• Six men from Khazraj tribe of Madina came to Makkah for hajj.• They were also the allies of Jews,

who often used to mention that time of the last Prophet is near• These six men recognized the

Prophet and accepted Islam

• These handful of Madinese converts remained steady to the cause and they preached Islam with full zeal and devotion with the result that they succeeded in winning supporters for Islam from amongst their fellow citizens and hardly was there a house in Madinah not talking curiously and enthusiastically about the Prophet

AL-ISRA’ AND AL-MI‘RAJ13th year of Prophet hood

The Miraculous Night Journey from Makkah to the Farthest Mosque in Jerusalem, and the Ascent through the Spheres of

Heavens

• Prophet was carried in body from the Sacred Mosque in Makkah to the Distant Mosque in Jerusalem, on a horse called Al-Buraq, in the company of Gabriel.• There he tied the horse to a ring in

the gate of the Mosque and led the Prophets in prayer.

• After that Gabriel took him to the heavens on the same horse where he met many Prophet on different heavens.

• Then he was carried to Sidrat-al-Muntaha (the remotest tree).• He was also shown Al-Bait-al-

Ma‘mûr [(the much frequented house) which is like the Ka‘bah (Sacred House) encompassed daily by seventy thousand angels, so that the angels who once encompass it will not have their turn again till the Resurrection.

• He was then presented to the Divine Presence and experienced the thrill of witnessing the Divine Glory and Manifestation at the closest possible propinquity. There the Lord revealed unto His servant and ordained obligatory daily prayers for him.

• He had the opportunity to see Malik, the guardian of Hell, with a cheerless frowning face. • He saw the Hell dwellers, of whom

were those who unjustly eat up the property of the orphans. They have snouts similar to those of camels, swallowing red-hot stones and then issuing out of their backs.

• There were also the people who take usury with bellies too big to be able to move around• They are trodden by the people of

Pharaoh when these are admitted into Hell. • In the same abode he saw the

adulterers offered tasty fatty meat and rotten smelly one but they make option for the latter.

• The ‘Night Journey’ raised a good deal of stir among the people and the skeptical audience taunted Prophet with all sorts of questions.• The disbelievers on their part went

to see Abu Bakr on account of this event, and he readily said: "Yes, I do verify it." It was on this occasion that he earned the title of As-Siddiq (the verifier of the truth)