Today and the next lesson we'll catch up with issues in the life of the prophet

PBUH we previously overlooked. We discussed the battle of Tabuk and then the del
egations which spanned 4 years. There are things happening in the life of the pr
ophet PBUH during this time we've missed out. In order to discuss we once again
go non-chronologically. As we noticed if we did the delegations chronologically
it would have been too much i.e. mentioning a delegation every episode. Rather i
f you lump them together it makes sense. Similarly we'll discuss one issue which
spans the course of around 2.5 years. And it is the 8th, 9th and 10th year of t
he Hijrah which we are discussing in. We begin by discussing the death of the so
n of the prophet PBUH. And in order to talk about Ibrahim we need to discuss Mar
ia, and of course this topic is very sensitive. Nonetheless its better to discus
s it here and now, frankly in the confines of an Islamic ethos rather than here
it from someone who misinterpretated it and does not believe in Allah and His me
ssenger. The fact is these topics are often glossed over, but this does not make
sense. We should not hide information anymore, nor distort what happened.
Maria's name was Maria bint Sham'un. She was gifted to the prophet PBUH by Jurai
h ibn Mina, who was the muqawqis of Egypt. The 'muqawqis' is a title just like t
he ceaser. The books of seerah say this is the 'ruler' of Egypt but this is inco
rrect because even Egypt at the time was not independant. It was under the Roman
empire. So Juraih was not a king, rather he was a governer appointed by Rome. O
f course back then they appointed religious people, so they appointed Juraih who
was a patriart. And it looks like Juraih was 'Siris of Alexandria'. So Siris wa
s his latin name. This Siris was a melokyte christian, who become roman catholic
s. To this day the greek orthodox chruch admires this person Siris. So the proph
et PBUH sent him a letter to Islam. This letter is probably around the 8th year
of Islam. We have no reports from Egypt about him recieving the latter and what
his reponse was unlike the ceaser of Rome. However it's not too far fetched to a
ssume he recognised the prophet PBUH as being true and this is why he was so pol
ite. Neither did he tear the letter up or reject it. Rather he gifted a mini for
tune with highly expensive gifts, and wrote back a very polite letter to the pro
phet PBUH. Therefore it's not too much of a stretch to make an assumption that h
e recognises the prophet PBUH is a true prophet. Note he's well known as being a
n aalim in Christianity so he is knowledgeable. However as is typical he dosen't
want to convert.
So what does he do? He sends a mini fortune: 1000 satchels of gold, and many fin
e garments. And he sends a donkey called Dhul Dhul. And he sent a servant by the
name of Ma'boor; he sent honey, and among those gifts he send two sister slave
girls by the name of Maria and Sireen. These two girls were of course Christians
. Some later books mention that these girls were gifted to the church by their f
athers. So these two girls are daughters of a noble family, and the patriart gif
ts them to the prophet PBUH. And the books of seerah mention that these two youn
g ladies were exceedingly beautiful. Because they were sisters, the prophet PBUH
gifted Sireen to Hassan ibn Thabit, the poet; and they had a child by the name
of Abdur Rehman ibn Hassan ibn Thabit. Ibn Sa'ad mentions when the prophet PBUH
recieved the letter from Siris, it was a polite leter with all these gifts. So t
he prophet PBUH said "this evil person has managed to preserve his kingdom by be
ing polite to me, but his kingdom won't last". Meaning he will be the last of hi
s dynasty, but because he was polite he won't be harmed himself. And of course t
his is what happened, Siris died a natural death and Amr ibn Al As' conquered Eg
ypt years later.
The difficult topic today is that of Maria. The fact of the matter is this is a
topic that is simply impossible to talk about without some bias. We are bias in
one direction, and that is the prophet PBUH is a prophet. Therefore we'll automa
tically view everything that has done as permissable and sanctioned by Allah at
least for the time and place. Even if not in our times back then it was fine. So
we accept that these things were morally possible at the time. The fact is, no
matter of sugar coating removes this reality. That Maria and her sister were not

wives, but they were concubines. It does appear Maria later on converted to Isl
am, but she was not a muslim when she came. And in our shariah one cannot take a
non-muslim as a concubine. So she comes as a christian, she converts later on a
nd she very much becomes a concubine. The basic ruling is that the biblical prop
hets had multiple wives and also concubines. Soloman had over 1000 ladies accord
ing to the bible. So how can you compare the prophet PBUH marrying 9 later on in
his life to 900 plus? So we point this out and it's a valid point. But the prob
lem is, there are few faithful christian and jews. More and more people are turn
ing agnostic, and they have no problem criticising biblical figures aswell. To t
hat person, all we can say is that, that was a different world in a different ti
me, place, custom and land. People across the globe had different views.
In a jewish website, a questioner asked a rabbi "how can Soloman have used 1000s
of slaves to build the temple? Isn't this against humanism etc? How can I be a
jew after this?" So this rabbi responds "the thing about history is that it does
tend to be brutal, and it strips us of our most cherished illusions. We have to
approach it cautiously; Soloman was a great builder and as such he needed build
ers through slaves. This was not an uncommon practice for the time. Shall we rea
d it as slavery? Or as employment? Did he enslave the masses or provided them jo
bs? We tend to think of slavery as an ultimate evil, but the fact is this was an
accepted form of labour for thousands of years, and our disillusion with it is
only 300 years old." Of course we only have one Maria thats treated very nicely,
been given her own house etc. But at the end of the day its not something human
s find palatable. So the rabbi says "this is not a defence of slavery. I, like y
ou, am a child of the anti slavery movement of modern times. And to read what go
es on in ancient times through our contempary eyes and then judge it is not fair
to our ancestors". Also the way that slavery existed in America in the 1800s wa
s perhaps the most brutal manifestation of slavery in the history of humanity. R
ealistically speaking the way that America used slaves, imported them, caught fr
ee people and enslaved them worse than animals - even the ancient greeks were be
tter. One of the byproducts of being so harsh to slaves was the antislavery move
ment that came out of it. The point is that, slavery did not exist in Islamic la
nds the way it existed in America. It is very true historically speaking the fir
st europeans that visited muslim lands were amazed at how the slaves were treate
d. One of them remarks "the slave speaks back to the master". And we know that s
ome slaves even became kings. The mamlook dynsasty (the great grandson of Genghi
s Khan) which fought against the mongols was a dynsasty of slaves that eventuall
y rose to power and ruled the muslim world for 500 years. Note the shariah uncat
egorically forbids taking a free person and making them into a slave. There's a
channel to be a slave: prisoners of war not randsomed. There's no comparison at
all with whats happening in modern times.
Further, scholars in our era have agreed slavery is a thing of the past. No scho
lar or aalim is calling to a return of slavery. Things have moved on. Sheikh ibn
Uthaymeen, when the Bosnian war was taking place, he was very much involved wit
h giving advice to the people. And that was a legitimate war. Everyone acknowled
ged the serbs were massacaring the muslims. There was so much bloodshed; the UN
has since done a tribunal and crimes court against the serbian leaders. The poin
t is it was a legitimate jihad, and sheikh ibn Uthaymeen was asked by those on t
he ground "we have prisoners of war, we can't randsom them off - can we take the
m as milkyameen (concubines)?" And the sheikh said "no not allowed in our times"
. This is a sheikh that is considered to be ultra-conservative. This is a faqhi
- he understands you can't do this and resurrect it from the books of fiqh. It w
as permissable at that time, but not now. The point is: the prophet PBUH was ind
eed gifted Maria, she was not our mother so we don't view her as being a mother
of the believers. She remained a concubine and we know Maria gave birth to the s
on of the prophet PBUH, that is Ibrahim.
There is one story mentioned about Maria. In a different time and place not ever
ything needs to be mentioned. However, in these days, we need to talk about thes

e matters frankly. We don't want our youth being misunderstood because of someth
ing they hear from someone else. The sheikh (yasir qadhi) references to a young
boy who called him and said he is a murtad because he heard about things in the
seerah. And these are legitimate things in the book. But the question is where d
id he hear these things from? Not from a scholar or aalim, but rather islamaphob
es and people that have a certain agenda. And these people put ALL the narration
s together and ignore everything else that forms the true character of the proph
et PBUH. And they concentrate on these two, three events which aren't lies - oft
en quoted directly from the source i.e. Thabarani, ibn Ishaaq etc. So the point
is its better to talk about these things, clarify them and understand properly.
Whoever wants to have a different position on the matter that's their right and
we leave them to be.
So its reported Maria, who isn't a muslim at the time and is coming to a strange
land all alone, rumours began to spread the servant gifted along with Maria, Ma
'boor, was "visiting" Maria. Some reports also mention this servant Ma'boor was
a distant relative of Maria. The following hadith is reported in Sahih Muslim, t
hat the prophet PBUH commanded Ali RA to take his sword and deal with Ma'boor. A
nd of course Ali RA is assigned these tasks because anything to do with the pers
onal family of the prophet PBUH, it was Ali RA who was the man. Because he is ah
lul bayt. So Ali RA took the sword and asked "should I go as a silent person who
obeys the command, or shall I hear and see what the person absent will not hear
and see?" Meaning, he is asking the prophet PBUH "do you want me to investigate
the rumours, or shall I just kill him?" The prophet PBUH said "No go as someone
who hears and sees". So Ali RA was told to indeed investigate. Note, because of
this phrase, ibn al Qiyyam and others say the prophet PBUH was NOT sending Ali
RA to execute him. He was sending him to find out. The other position is that, h
e was indeed sent to execute him. This is a bit of a contraversy because there a
re fiqh ramifications: the main one is, Ma'boor was not given a trail. Evidence
was not presented, but Ali RA here is being told "take your sword and do it". So
:
1. One opinion says the prophet PBUH sent Ali RA to kill him and he has the righ
t to do this.
2. The other opinion, by ibn al Qiyyama and others, is that NO this was not judg
e, jury and execution. The prophet PBUH did not send Ali RA to kill him. Rather
to investigate and frighten him to find out what is happening.
So Ali RA finds Ma'boor, according to one report he was in a date grove collecti
ng dates or getting water. When Ma'boor saw Ali RA he became terrified. There ar
e multiple reports here. One says he tried to climb a tree but fell down. Anothe
r mentions he intentionally exposed his awra. In either case, his awra was expos
ed and lo and behold, it was obvious that he had been mutilated i.e. he did not
have the mans organ. It was then clear to Ali RA that the rumours simply can't b
e true. He returned to the prophet PBUH and informed him of this.
In any case, in dhul hijjah of the 8th year, Maria gives birth to a son, Ibrahim
, and of course the prophet PBUH was especially happy. We don't know when Maria
embraced Islam. Was it before this or after? We don't know. One can assume livin
g with the prophet PBUH, obviously you will embrace Islam. So one can assume by
the time Ibrahim is born, Maria is a different person with imaan. In Sahih Musli
m its reported the prophet PBUH came to the masjid beaming with joy. And he said
"last night a baby boy was born to me, and I shall call him the name of my fath
er, Ibrahim". And he said about Maria "her child has freed her" meaning, this is
a ruling our religion has: and again this shows slavery in Islam was completely
different to other civilisations. In our shairah, if a concubine gives birth, t
he child is fully legitimate and exactly the same as all other children in inher
itance, taking the name of the father etc. Most of our khalifah of the Ummayads
and Abaasids, almost all of them were sons of slaves. So being sons of slaves di

dn't have a negative smear or effect at all. So when a slave women has a child,
she automatically gets a free upgrade, and is known as "Umm-al-walad" meaning sh
e's no longer a concubine. She cannot be sold, transferred and she'll become fre
e as soon as her husband passes away. So you simply cannot get rid of the lady w
ho gives birth to your child. So our prophet PBUH gave this fiqh ruling through
Maria.
One of ladies of the ansar voluntered to become a foster mother. In fact its men
tioned there was a competition to be the foster mother of the prophet PBUHs son.
This also shows that is was very common for ladies to volunteer to help out and
be a foster child. Every mother knows its difficult to raise a new born alone,
so this is what was done: women would offer to help each other out. So one of th
e ladies of the ansar became the 'wet nurse' of Ibrahim, and the prophet PBUH ga
ve her a stipend because of this. Now, Ibrahim lived for a year and four months;
other reports say a year and six months. There is no hadith mentioning any inci
dent within this year and a half regarding Ibrahim. The reality is we only have
what the sahaba told us about. What we do know, in the first quater of the 10th
year of the hijrah, his son passed way. We all know, not only is the passing of
a child the most painful thing, but that the age of around 1.5 years, is the mos
t tender and cute, adorable age. It is at that age where the child is walking, l
aughing, recognises you etc. That is the cutest age; yet Allah willed at the mos
t beautiful age Ibrahim pass away. There are many reports in the seerah about hi
s death. There was nothing to really report about Ibrahims life: he was just a b
aby whom the prophet PBUH must have been with.
However, the death of Ibrahim is reported in every book of hadith, Bhukari, Musl
im etc. Some of the books mention that the news came that Ibrahim has fallen sic
k and was about to die. So the information is conveyed to the prophet PBUH. The
prophet PBUH visited Maria, and she lived in a place in Madinah called Awari. So
me of the sahaba went with him to see Ibrahim, and he held Ibrahim in his hand.
And Ibrahim was weasing and coughing, and at this the tears of the prophet PBUH
began to fall. This was when a sahaba asked "you also cry oh messenger of Allah?
" This shows us the prophet PBUH rarely cried in public. And that, to see him cr
y was a shock to some sahaba. And the prophet PBUH responded with the famous phr
ase "the eyes cry, and the heart is sad, but we only say that which pleases our
Lord. Were it not for the decree of Allah to pass, and that the latter amongst u
s shall meet the earlier, we would be much more grieved at your departure". Thus
there are two things to console us when someone dies:
1. Kudr Allah i.e. Allah has decreed it to happen.
2. Insha'Allah its only a matter of time all of us are together in Jannah. Death
isn't something that is permenant; you will also die. When your loved one dies,
its only a matter of time until you die. And then you will both be together. Th
is is what the prophet PBUH is saying.
And the prophet PBUH said "we only say that which pleases our Lord". This shows
us
'what does sabr really mean?' It means you control your tongue and actions. Noth
ing to do with emotions. You can feel sad, cry etc. But you control what you say
and do. This is sabr. You don't start wailing and saying things that go beyond
what is permissable. We control our tongue and limbs. The books of hadith mentio
n salaatul janazah was prayed for Ibrahim, thus we learn we can pray janazah for
a young boy. And the prophet PBUH used four takbeerats, as per normal. And he w
as buried in Baqhee in a graveyeard still known to this day. SubhanAllah look at
how many deaths of the family of the prophet PBUH he had to suffer. From the be
ginning right to the end. Ibrahim died less than one year before our prophet PBU
H died. Literally at 62 years old he goes through this tragedy. His mother died
when he was at a young age, his grandfather, his wife of 25 years Khadija RA, hi
s uncle Abu Talib, all three of his daughters. Literally everyone is dead beside

s Fatimah RA. So he is extra happy at the birth of Ibrahim, but Allah tested him
once more with the death of Ibrahim. And all of this of course is to raise his
ranks in Jannah.
What is perhaps even more amazing is that, as we know, on the day of the death o
f Ibrahim, there was a solar eclipse. Within a few hours of Ibrahims death who d
ied in the morning, there is a solar eclipse. Note the solar eclipse is reported
in Bhukari and Muslim, but Ibrahims death is not mentioned. Other books of hadi
th mentioned that took place on the day Ibrahim died. And the people began to sa
y "the sun is greiving at the sorrow of the prophet PBUH. Even the sun is sad, a
nd sheilding itself because its crying". So the news spread in Madinah that the
sun is crying because of the death of Ibrahim. At this, the prophet PBUH gathere
d all of the people and he gave a khutbah. This khutbah is reported in Bhukari a
nd Muslim. And he said: "The sun and the moon are among Allah's (SWT) signs that
don't eclipse for the death or the life of someone. So when you see an eclipse,
hasten to do zikr of Allah and perform the salah." The khutbah is in Bhukari; I
brahims death isn't mentioned. But the khutbah is very clear, that the prophet P
BUH is saying the sun dosen't eclipse because of the death of anyone. Why would
he say that unless there is a death taking place? Clearly it must be for Ibrahim
s death.
And walahi incidents like these prove without doubt the prophet PBUH was a since
re prophet. He didn't even have to repel against the rumours. He could have just
been quiet. What does it lose him? Let the world know the sun is crying because
of the death of Ibrahim. But subhanAllah he cannot do this because he is a true
messenger. And so he called the people and literally says "the moon and sun nev
er eclipse for the death or birth of anyone. That is just a miracle of Allah". T
his is one of million of evidences that show he is a true prophet. How else do y
ou explain this? The miracle of the eclipse is taking place, and he says "no no
its not for Ibrahim, its just a coincidence".
Of course, the fact that Ibrahim could not be a young man is something that has
already been decreed explicitly in the Quran. Allah revealed this verse before t
he birth of Ibrahim. That surah Ahzab Allah says:
(33:40) Muhammad is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Mes
senger of Allah and last of the prophets. And ever is Allah, of all things, Know
ing.
If Ibrahim had become a young man, this would have contradicted the verse. Notic
e the precision of Allah: He didn't say 'the father of a young boy'. Rather Alla
h said Muhammad is not the father of any MAN. If the Qur'an had said he isn't th
e father to a boy/child/offspring, this could be a contradiction. And subhanAlla
h Ibrahim was never a man. He was always a baby. And therefore one could say the
ologically it was impossible Ibrahim could live beyond early childhood. In anoth
er report from Anas ibn Malik the prophet PBUH said "Allah has given Ibrahim a w
et nurse in Jannah. If Ibrahim had lived, he would have been a righteous prophet
". This is reported in ibn Majah. The majority of the scholars say this is in fa
ct a statement of Anas ibn Malik, not the prophet PBUH himself. This is proven i
n other narrations that in the Musnan Imam Ahmed they mention it as a statement
upon Anas. That Anas said if Ibrahim had lived, he would have been a prophet. Th
at's just a ijtihad he is making. Also, one can add, there's a political wisdom
in not having male lineage of the prophet PBUH. There's no doubt immediately he
would have been the next khalifah and so on; as it is, look at the contraversies
that erupted from the descendants of the prophet PBUH. Look at how groups exalt
ed the ahlul bayt to beyond what is human. We respect and admire ahlul bayt howe
ver there's a big difference between us and the shi'a. We say the ahlul bayt are
special and blessed if they are holy. Whereas shi'a say there are special and b
lessed because they are holy. Whereas we say you being a descendant of the proph
et PBUH does not make you righteous. Your good deeds make you righteous; your bl

ood cannot save you. Walahi lineage does not matter. And its a hadith of course
in Tirmidhi "whosever goods deed hold him back, his lineage won't push him forwa
rd".
There's a final incident about Maria. The books of tafseer mention it more than
the books of seerah because Qur'an was revealed for it. Again its a problematic
story and its in the Qur'an so you can't 'sweep it under the carpet'. Its narrat
ed one day Hafsah went away so the prophet PBUH called Maria to the house of Haf
sa. And it so happened she returned earlier than she was supposed to, and she sa
w Maria leaving her house. So she became enraged and irritated with the prophet
PBUH and said "ya RasulAllah is that how much respect you have for me? In my hou
se and on my day?" And so the prophet PBUH continued to calm her down, until eve
ntually she made the prophet PBUH promise to never ever see Maria again. So the
prophet PBUH said "I swear by Allah I won't see her again". And he made Hafsa ke
ep this between the two of them. And he said "do not tell A'isha". The issue is,
some people think the prophet PBUH is super human. So when they hear these inci
dences the image they have formed in their minds of the prophet PBUH crumbles. T
he problem is this image should not have been in their minds in the first place.
The prophet PBUH was a human, the best and most perfect human, but he was just
a human. And in this incident there is nothing haraam that has been done.
Hafsa goes and tell A'isha. Why? To make A'isha jealous of her that 'I caused th
e prophet PBUH to give up Maria'. Note Hafsa and A'isha had an interesting relat
ionship: at times they were the best of friends, at other times enemies. So Hafs
a is boasting that she got rid of Maria. And both of them were jealous of Maria
since she had her beauty. In fact it was because of this the prophet PBUH moved
her away to Awari i.e. far away from the masjid. So the prophet PBUH told Hafsa
not to tell, but Hafsa spills the beans and tells A'isha. Then what happens? All
ah reveals in the Qur'an:
1. O Prophet, why do you prohibit [yourself from] what Allah has made lawful for
you, seeking the approval of your wives? And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
2. Allah has already ordained for you [Muslims] the dissolution of your oaths. A
nd Allah is your protector, and He is the Knowing, the Wise.
3. And [remember] when the Prophet confided to one of his wives a statement; and
when she informed [another] of it and Allah showed it to him, he made known par
t of it and ignored a part. And when he informed her about it, she said, "Who to
ld you this?" He said, "I was informed by the Knowing, the Acquainted."
4. If you two [wives] repent to Allah , [it is best], for your hearts have devia
ted. But if you cooperate against him - then indeed Allah is his protector, and
Gabriel and the righteous of the believers and the angels, moreover, are [his] a
ssistants.
5. Perhaps his Lord, if he divorced you [all], would substitute for him wives be
tter than you - submitting [to Allah ], believing, devoutly obedient, repentant,
worshipping, and traveling - [ones] previously married and virgins.
Note here after Hafsa told A'isha, when the prophet PBUH asked her "why did you
tell A'isha?" she replied "who told you I told her?". What is Hafsa thinking? A'
isha told the prophet PBUH. Rather the prophet PBUH said "Allah told me" (verse
3). And verse 4 is meant to bring some fear in the wives of the prophet PBUH. Th
at don't conspire against him or go behind his back. There is no denying that Al
lah is showing the status of our prophet PBUH even to his wives. So Allah reveal
ed the command to break the oath; the prophet PBUH gave the kafara and Maria ret
urned to him. The opinion that these verses relate to Maria is the stronger opin
ion. Some sahaba said these verses relate to some honey given by Sauda, and A'is
ha and Hafsa conspired against the prophet PBUH. But that dosen't fit the events

of these verses; also it dosen't seem that big of a deal that the prophet PBUH
says "I'll never eat honey again" vs the issue of never seeing Maria again. Why
would the wives get so jealous that the prophet PBUH had honey at the house of S
auda? It dosen't make sense.
Note some scholars say the private issues of the prophet PBUH are private so the
y shouldn't be discussed. In response we say, if Allah willed they would be priv
ate. But he revealed surah Tahreem for it. Also this isn't the custom of the sah
aba. Ibn Abass said "I was waiting for the opportunity for years to ask Umar abo
ut surah Tahreem, until I found him by myself and I asked him". And Umar RA says
"A'isha and Hafsa" - subhanAllah its his own daughter but Umar RA answered so e
ven he didn't keep it private. If we look at the story of Maria, we see that eve
n the wives of the prophet PBUH were regular humans. They had jealousy; the poin
t is, if we portray the prophet PBUH the way he is, everything fits into place.
But if we make an imaginary perspective and formulate someone who never existed
then when we read the books of seerah, it completely shakes our understanding. T
his is the problem. We should not make the prophet PBUH into something he isn't.
He didn't do anything wrong - he has halal access to Maria; yes, Hafsa has the
right to get irritated but technically the prophet PBUH did not do anything hara
am. Rather than make the prophet PBUH a superhuman, if we see the whole picture
we understand and appreciate the perfection of the prophet PBUH even more. Maria
lived for only 4-5 years after the death of the prophet PBUH. Umar RA prayed ja
nazah for her and buried her in Baqhee, thus there's no doubt she converted to I
slam. When? We assume before the birth of Ibrahim but Allah knows best.