We continue the story of Ka'ab ibn Malik.

He was one of the three people who was

honest enough to say "Ya RasulAllah we simply did not obey the commandment to g
o for jihad - we have no excuse other than we were lazy" so the prophet PBUH tol
d them they should be boycotted. 50 days went by and then the command came that
their wives should leave them and go elsewhere. So all the wives left other than
the wife of Hilal as she wanted to take care of him and feed him, otherwise he
may have died in those 10 days because of his greif (he was just sitting next to
the wall crying non stop). Ka'ab was told "why don't you ask for your wife" but
he said "what excuse do I have, I am a young man".
So he narrates: "one day when I was in the state that Allah described me". He is
referencing the Quran: Allah says that "for those three who were left behind, u
ntil the whole world seemed to condense on them even though it's so vast, and th
ey realised there is no way to save yourself from Allah except by going to Allah
". So this is the description Allah gave of them in the Qur'an. So he said "one
day in this state, completely depressed and I had prayed Fajr on my rooftop". Th
is shows us he was so depressed he stopped going to the masjid and the marketpla
ce. So difficult it was he didn't even leave his house. He continues "I was just
sitting there worried about myself, when finally I heard somebody who had gone
to the top of Jabil as Sida (the mountain you see when exit masjid an Nabwi) cry
out 'Ya Ka'ab bin Malik be happy'. As soon as I heard this I fell down in sadja
h realising there is only reason for happiness." Indeed, happiness for what? The
re's only one thing: Allah's help had come. The prophet PBUH had announced Allah
had forgiven Ka'ab, Murara and Hilal after Fajr.
And he said "The people came to congratulate us; some people rushed out to my tw
o companions. A horse man came galloping towards me in haste, and the man on the
mountain, his voice reached me first but the one who came on the horse riding h
e came to convey me in person. And I was so happy I gifted him the clothes on my
back and that's all I had at the time". This means in the 50 days he had gotten
rid of all his money in sadaqah. He said initially that "I had more wealth than
I ever had" - but in these 40/50 days he spent all this wealth. Why? He dosen't
say but clearly to give in sadaqah. And the guy came all the way rushing to giv
e the good news, and he was so happy he gave the clothes on his back. Also, this
shows us the genuine love the sahaba had for each other. So much so that when t
hey heard Allah had forgiven the three companions they rushed to them to congrat
ulate them. They genuinely wanted good for each other. They aren't even from the
same tribe - it's just another sahabi, and Ka'ab is so happy he gifted the clot
hes on his back.
This also shows the poverty of the sahaba. Walahi if one of us was to be gifted
a worn thobe, we would be insulted. But the sahaba were so poor, and this is the
general rule among the sahaba, that being gifted a used thobe is a big deal. As
we know most of the sahaba only have one garment. Even the prophet PBUH only po
ssessed two garments. The point is to be gifted a thobe was such a big deal. The
n he said "I did not have any other thobe, so I had ta knock on my neighbours do
or and borrow a garment from him to go to the prophet PBUH". This literally show
s us in these 50 days the house wealth is completely gone. He dosen't even have
clothes to wear. And Ka'ab rushed to the masjid and said "the people began to re
cieve me in batches - whereever I went they would congratulate me and give me gl
ad tidings at the acceptance of Allah's repentance. And when I entered the masji
d of the prophet PBUH, I saw the prophet PBUH and all the people around him". Th
is shows this was a festival for all the sahaba. Walahi imagine this - what has
it to do with the rest of the sahaba that Allah has forgiven these three people?
But, when you have that type of love, when your brother has been saved you feel
you've been saved. So everyone is rejoicing and celebrating.
Ka'ab said "I saw the prophet PBUH in the middle of the masjid, and Talha ibn Ub
aidillah stood up to rush to greet me, and he shook hands with me. By Allah out
of all the muhajiroon he was the only one who did this, and I will never forget

this gesture from Talha". The fact that Talha stood up, Ka'ab remembers this; su
bhanAllah, one act of good you will change a persons heart for the rest of his l
ife. Just a word of comfort, a handshake etc. It does the world of good at times
of distress. And when is Ka'ab narrating this? 40 years after it happened, yet,
he remembers Talha stood up. Then he said "I greeted the prophet PBUH and his f
ace became bright with joy like the full moon". This phrase we find in many hadi
th; notably in the hadith of Jabir. And the prophet PBUH said "be happy Ka'ab fo
r you have been given the best news since your mother gave birth to you". Why? B
ecause Allah has announced and accepted his repentance. So the prophet PBUH said
"be happy and rejoice for the best day ever since your mother gave birth to you
". Ka'ab said "oh messenger of Allah, is this from you or from Allah?" And the p
rophet PBUH said "no it is from Allah". This shows us again and again, the sahab
a made a clear distinction between the prophet PBUH and Allah. Ka'ab is saying "
is it your forgiveness, or is it Allahs?" This again demonstrates a crucial poin
t: the status of the prophet PBUH. So Ka'ab is saying "who is this from that I s
hould be happy?" And the prophet PBUH says "from Allah".
Ka'ab said when he sat in front of the prophet PBUH he said "Ya RasulAllah becau
se Allah has accepted my repentance I will give up ALL my possessions for the sa
ke of Allah". What's left? Property, land etc. What did the prophet PBUH say? "K
eep some of your wealth with you, that is better for you". So Ka'ab said "very w
ell I shall keep my share of Khaybar". Remember the ganeema of Khaybar was the l
argest fortune the sahaba ever got other than Hunayn - but of course at Hunayn t
he ansar got nothing. This shows us we shouldn't act on raw emotion. We have to
think wisely. Ka'ab is so happy he thinks he should give everything up; but here
we have the wisdom of the prophet PBUH saying "no calm down keep some of your w
ealth with you and your family". What about some of the sahaba such as Abu Bukr
who gave everything for the sake of Allah, leaving nothing at all at home? The r
esponse to this is easy: that is why he is Abu Bukr. None of the other sahaba, e
ven Umar, did not do. We have not and will not reach that level. It's foolish to
give all our money away to the poor, and make our family poor at the same time.
This is not what Islam teaches. Rather the prophet PBUH told Ka'ab to keep suff
iciently for our family and give the rest for the sake of Allah.
We also learn that when someone good happens to us, we should give charity to th
ank Allah. When a child is born you give sadaqah equal to the weight of the chil
ds hair i.e. a small amount of charity. So our tradition tells us whenever somet
hing good happens we should give for the sake of Allah. Then Ka'ab says "Allah h
as saved me by telling the truth, so as apart of my tawbah, I promise never to t
ell any lie as long as I live". So he makes a promise to Allah - then he tells h
is son (who is in the chain of narration) "walahi, I don't know any muslim whom
Allah tested more with lying than me, but I remembered my promise and thus I hav
en't told a lie intentionally to this day, and I hope Allah will save me for the
remaining of my days". We can assume this hadith is when he is around 75 years
old, and he just has a year left; so he hasn't told a lie for 40 years yet throu
gh his humbleness he is saying "may Allah protect me for the remainder of my lif
e". He's already such an old man, but still there's always this humility. Also n
otice he said "I never intentionally told a lie" - even in this we see his humil
ity and caution in that he is thinking maybe he told a lie by mistake.
Ka'ab goes on and says "Allah revealed the verse in the Quran that: Allah has ac
cepted/forgiven the prophet and the muhajiroon and those who are with him." Ka'a
b said "walahi Allah has never bestowed upon me a blessing greater than Islam ot
her than that day I didn't lie to the prophet PBUH, because if I had lied I woul
d have been destroyed like the hypocrites, because Allah described the hypocrite
s with the worst description". Ka'ab quotes the Quran (surah Tawbah). And again
we will review surah Tawbah to find all the gems of Tabuk. So Allah says "they s
hall swear to you when you come back to Madinah (that they have an excuse) just
so that you turn away from them." So Allah says "turn away from them". Notice it
is beautiful: Allah is saying they want you to turn away, but he is commanding

the prophet PBUH TO turn away (in his mercy).

and they shall be in the fire as a punishment
uide the faasik people" (verse 95-96). Notice
d to Allah. The muslim attributes all good to
in Alllah attributes the good to himself.

Then Allah says "they are filthy,

for what they do. Allah does not g
again Ka'ab is attributing the goo
Allah, the one who dosen't believe

Ka'ab said "we, the three people, were the ones whom gave no excuse to the proph
et PBUH. As for us he told the people to leave us, and this is the reference in
the Quran (verse 118)". So Ka'ab is explaining the verse; he is doing tafseer of
the verse. He is saying the verdict of the three people was disconnected to the
verdict of all the others. The normal translation is "as for the three who were
left behind, they were cut off". Ka'ab is correcting this misunderstanding: he
is saying their verdict was suspended i.e. they were in limbo. As for the munafi
q they were not in limbo because the prophet PBUH outwardely accepted their excu
se but left their affair to Allah. So the translation is (correct) "the three on
whom no verdict was made" - that is the reference to Ka'ab and the other two. S
o the reference isn't them remaining behind in the actual gazwa Tabuk, but it's
the fact that the prophet PBUH did not make a decision about them. The story is
one of the famous stories of the seerah; in addition to some of the benefits der
ived above, let us discuss the benefits from different angles.
Note, Ka'ab was amongst the two/three most famous poets of Madinah, Hasan ibn Th
abit, his poetry is more famous to us because Hasan specialised in a genre of po
etry we are more known to i.e. attacking the Quraysh. But Ka'ab ibn Maliks poetr
y was not of the attacking type - Hasans genre was attacking the oppisition. But
Ka'abs genre was enticing the muslims to be more brave and steadfast in the bat
tlefield. And his poetry is well known. So he is amongst the same group of elite
poets as Hasan ibn Thabit. Also Ka'ab ibn Malik was the one who substituted his
armour for the armour of the prophet PBUH, so people would think HE is the prop
het PBUH. Therefore alot of the mushrikoon targeted and attacked him - as a resu
lt he was wounded 11 different times through spears and arrows. This is Ka'ab ib
n Malik. He lived a long life through the period of Abu Bukr, Umar, Uthman and A
li, and he eventually died in the reign of Muawiya at the age of 77. From the bo
oks of seerah we know he became blind in his old age (and from this long hadith)
. Note this hadith is mutafak alayk, in Bhukari, Muslim, ibn Ishaaq etc. It's in
teresting imam Bhukari puts this hadith in the chapter of Tabuk but imam Muslim
puts it in the chapter of tawbah. So this hadith is beautiful because it makes u
s optimistic about tawbah, that someone who commits a major sin can be forgiven.
And indeed it was a major sin because it was fard ayn for Ka'ab to go. He direc
tly disobeyed the prophet PBUHs command; the fact that one can still be forgiven
is the main point.
Of the benefits we can derive:
1. The permissability of narrating the stories of the sinners and repenters. The
re is a popular genre of 'so and so was a singer and he repented and became a qa
ri of the Quran'. We are all happy that masha'Allah this happens. The point bein
g, some of the stricter scholars frown on these stories and say "why are quoting
the stories of the sinners? Stick with the Quran and sunnah". But we say, the Q
uran and sunnah is the ultimate, nothing can compete with it. But it allows us t
o occasionally narrate these type of stories. And we like to hear such stories b
ecause it gives us hope of Allahs forgiveness. And it's something to relate to these are people who live amongst us. Stricter scholars say these stories shoul
d not be related and have valid arguments for this position. However one can mit
igate them by saying the stories should be put in perspective; don't base all of
your hope on these people etc.
2. We learn the permissability to narrate your achievements without boasting. Th
e evidence is when Ka'ab listed out in the beginning he was at akabah, he gave t
he baya, he fought in every battle except Badr etc. So he's telling his son his

entire CV. There is nothing wrong with telling someone the good Allah has blesse
d with you, as long as your intention is right. Allah says in the Quran "as for
the blessings Allah has given you, tell the people your blessings". So you are a
llowed to tell somebody of a positive you've done to encourage them. For example
to say 'alhamdhulillah I've memorised surah Baqarah'. If you're saying this to
get praise, then there's no point. However if you're doing it to encourage the p
erson to say "if I can do it, you can do it" then the intention is right. We mus
t be careful to be factual and have humility. Ka'ab said "I participated in all
the battles except Badr" - he wants to make sure he clarified he didn't fight at
Badr.
3. No matter how noble your past, it dosen't mean your future will be noble. If
you look at Ka'abs CV before Tabuk, who would've imagined he would disobey a dir
ect command of the prophet PBUH. He was one of just 70 sahaba who gave the baya
at Akabah. This is the elite of the Ansar, to accept Islam before the hijrah. He
is the one who took the armour of the prophet PBUH and endured 11 different att
acks. Who would have imagined this might happen? We have in the dua of Ibrahim A
S enough of this warning: while he's building the ka'bah he is making the dua "O
h Allah make sure my children and I do not worship idols". He's scared of not wo
rshiping an idol! So you should always be humble about your future.
4. It's permissable to narrate ones sins to others, as long as it's done with th
e right intention. We must cover up the sins of others, as for our own sins, we
have the right to narrate them if there is a moral. If there is no moral, then w
e bring Allahs wrath. Our prophet PBUH said "all of my ummah shall be forgiven e
xcept those who boast of their sins". This is so common in the ummah: people boa
st "I was with so-and-so, I did this, I did that" etc. This is a complete lack o
f imaan. If however someone says "yes I used to drink alcohol" etc but then he w
arns the people, this is fine as we learn from the hadith of Ka'ab.
5. The sacrifice of the sahaba, and the obediance they had to the prophet PBUH.
Imagine 20,000 obeying the call of the prophet PBUH, giving up their agriculture
, walking in the July heat in the desert from Madinah all the way to Tabuk. How
many remained behind? Just 3 (of the sahaba). What is the obediance rate? 3/30,0
00 disobeyed, so 0.001%. Those types of statistics are unparalleled. When the pr
ophet PBUH says "go forth", the whole ummah goes forth. This shows us the love a
nd imaan the sahaba had.
6. We also see again the prophet PBUH took constant precautions. Because it was
such a difficult journey in the case of Tabuk, he told them exactly where they a
re going. He gave them time to prepare; he told them to arrange their matters fo
r their family and crop before they go. This shows us the reality of the difficu
lty of Tabuk and the reality of preparing for the sake of Allah. It is foolish t
o go forth in any endavour whether it's a battle or anything, and say "Allah wil
l take care of me". No. Rather, Allah will take care of you, when you take care
of yourselves and put your trust in Him. This is precisely what the sahaba did.
7. Also notice as our prophet PBUH said, feeling guilty is the essence of tawbah
. This whole hadith, we can sense how guilty Ka'ab felt, especially the phrase t
hat he says to his son "oh how I wish I prepared and made it with them". Notice
he is saying this 40 years later, yet still in his heart, even though he knows h
e is forgiven, but still 40 years later he is telling his son "how I wish I didn
't have to go through that". This is the sign of genuine tawbah - when you feel
guilty for the sins "why did I do that". Even if we know for a fact Allah has fo
rgiven us, still you feel guilty.
8. Also we see the dangers of delaying and procrastination. The mu'min is NOT la
zy. And every time you feel like postponing something for tomorrow, we must reme
mber the story of Ka'ab. Days went by and he kept on saying "yes tomorrow, tomor
row, tomorrow" until finally the prophet PBUH left and he said "ok today I'll do

it" but today also nothing, then the next day the same thing, and after that it
was too late. So don't delay - we must act immediately.
9. The simplest and most important lesson is that of always telling the truth. T
he prophet PBUH said "I oblige upon you the command of speaking the truth, becau
se it leads to piety, and piety leads to Jannah. And a man continues to speak th
e truth, until Allah writes him as a siddique. And I warn you against lying for
lying leads to evilness, and that leads to Jahannam. And a person continues to l
ie until he is written in the eyes of Allah as a liar". Hadith in Bhukari and Mu
slim. So we must always speak the truth. Even when the prophet PBUH was joking,
he would speak the truth. The prophet PBUH once said to a sahaba to write down e
verything he says, but a sahaba said "sometimes you joke with us". At this the p
rophet PBUH held his tongue and said "write because I swear by the One whose Han
ds is my ruh, nothing comes from this except the truth". Even his jokes the prop
het PBUH told the truth. For example when an old lady came to him and said "make
dua to enter Jannah". The prophet PBUH said "oh my aunt don't you know old ladi
es don't go to Jannah". And she began to wail - but the prophet PBUH smiled and
said "Allah will convert you into a young lady and then enter you into Jannah".
And there are other hadith where he is joking with a truth. The prophet PBUH nev
er ever said a lie.
10. Making excuses for good deeds is the sign of hypocrisy. The munafiqun just m
ade excuses - so making excuses for performing good deeds is not a good sign; it
's not a sign of imaan.
11. Pleasing Allah will eventually make Allah please mankind about you. And plea
sing mankind at the expense of Allah, you will lose both mankind and Allah. Ka'a
b said "Ya RasulAllah I could earn your happiness but Allah will expose me and y
ou will eventually hate me". The prophet PBUH said "whoever seeks the pleasure o
f Allah even if it means getting the people angry at him, shall gain both the pl
easure of Allah and the people. And whoever gains the pleasure of the people by
displeasing Allah, will never gain the pleasure of Allah or the people". There a
re times when speaking the truth and standing alone is a very difficult thing. I
t's so much easier to go with the flow "what will the people say". But in the st
ory of Ka'ab, he became beloved to Allah and His messenger and all of us. Look a
t the munafiqun, they are despised by Allah and by us to this day.
12. We also see the importance of following righteous people at times of doubt.
Look to what pious people are doing; when Ka'abs tribesman said "just go and mak
e an excuse". What did he say? "Did anyone else say what I said?" and they said
"yes so-and-so". He said "they mentioned two righteous men who had participated
in Badr". Thus at times of difficulty and doubt we must turn to the people of kn
owledge.
13. It is the sunnah of the prophet PBUH and our sunnah that no matter what it l
ooks like outwardely, we judge people by what they say, and we leave their affai
r to Allah. Everyone knew the hypocrites are lying; Ka'ab said "I was walking ar
ound Madinah and I could only see the hypocrites". Everyone knows who the hypocr
ites were. Yet when they came and made their excuse, the prophet PBUH accepted i
t. If this is case of the prophet PBUH, how about us? We leave intentions to All
ah.
14. Note though it is not unislamic to have a perception of a person who has a b
ad reputation without verbalising it. Clearly the prophet PBUH and sahaba knew t
he hypocrites were lying, but did they say it? No. This is very simple: when you
know someone is a fraud/regular liar, and then he comes and gives you excuses,
who will you believe? The proven criminal or the guy who has a positive track re
cord? Clearly the latter. But you don't pronounce a verdict outwardely. There is
a famous hadith that the prophet PBUH said "Isa AS once saw a man steal. So he
said to the man 'why did you steal?' So the man said 'walahi I didn't steal'. So

Isa AS said 'I will believe in Allah and disbelieve in what my eyes saw'". Isa
AS saw him steal - but the man mentioned Allahs name, so Isa AS said "I'll say m
y eyes were wrong". We take this as ettiquite - when someone is swearing etc, th
en we let Allah judge.
15. We also learn that if you have something in your heart about your brother, y
ou must express it frankly. When Ka'ab came to the prophet PBUH, Ka'ab knew the
prophet PBUH was angry. What did the prophet PBUH ask? "Didn't you have a camel?
" What does that show? The prophet PBUH feels in his heart 'what is your excuse'
and he expresses it. This shows us when you have something in your heart, you s
hould let it out. Just say it and let the person defend himself. How many times
have we confonted someone with a fact, only to realise after hearing the other s
ide the 'fact' is wrong.
16. Also, and this is a constant throughout the seerah, the prophet PBUH is just
a human. He does not forgive, he does not control heaven and hell etc. And any
one who studies the seerah simply cannot hold any extremist view. Thus the notio
n the prophet PBUH is some medium to get through to Allah, this is completely wr
ong. The sahaba interacted with him directly, but even they did not put him on t
he pedastale that some sufis/brelvis put him on. It's not possible for them to h
old these views because they see him and his life. We see this in Ka'ab story wh
en he says "is this forgiveness from you or from Allah?"
17. We also see that eloquence can be very dangerous. There are so many evidence
s for this. The prophet PBUH narrated "some speech is almost like magic". Bhukar
i. It means just like magic can makes things appear and dissapear, similarly spe
ech can turn black into white, the good appear evil etc. Ka'ab says this "if I w
anted to, I could have done it". The prophet PBUH says "you come to me with your
disputes (about property), and perhaps some of you are more persuasive in argui
ng your case than the other one so I find myself toward him. But he knows that h
e is lying. So let that person realise, if I give the verdict to him, let him re
alise what I'm giving to him is actually a piece of Jahanam." Meaning, Allah obv
iously knows, but that lying person might convince you. But you can never convin
ce Allah. Thus the hadith clearly shows speech can be very persuasive. And it's
so true today; we see how each group is justifying what they are doing. How the
extremists, how Isreal, how USA and it's foreign policy etc. It's so easy to man
ipulate the minds of people. This is what the prophet PBUH is telling us.
18. Being harsh is sometimes needed. And again we see this throughout the seerah
. The image we have of the prophet PBUH that he always forgave is good but not t
rue. You cannot run a civilisation and be a leader where everything is always fo
rgiven. There has to be a line and a balance. Anyone who says otherwise is not i
n politics. Thus the religion of 'turning the other cheek' is the last civilisat
ion to turn the other cheek. This is the reality. The general rule is kindness a
nd forgiveness but you must sometimes take a stance, as in the case of the proph
et PBUH with Ka'ab.
19. Every pain and suffering, Allah uses it to cleanse us of our sins. Thus with
the right intention and attitude, every pain is to our advantage on the day of
Judgement.
20. It is of the ettiquites of the Quran and sunnah that we indicate certain act
ivities in implied wording. When the wives of the sahaba were told not to 'go cl
ose' to their husbands, explicit language was not used. The prophet PBUH said to
the wife of Hilal "make sure he dosen't come close to you". We know what the me
aning of this is, but there's no need to be explicit. And this is of the ettiqui
te of the muslim. In the Quran Allah says "when one of you comes from the restro
om" i.e. Allah dosen't mention what happened in the restroom. Allah says "when y
ou touch women" and the reference is understood. If however the situation is cal
led for, then yes you are explicit. And we have cases where the prophet PBUH was

extremely explicit in certain narrations.

21. The general rule of Allah is that victory comes at the darkest hour; at the
lowest point of desperation. If you wait to that point, then victory shall come.
Just like when you feel you can't take it anymore, it comes. So the mu'min is a
lways patient and aware victory is around the corner.
Fiqh benefits
1. The permissability of non muslims entering Mecca and Madinah for a legitimate
reason. We believe non muslims can never enter Mecca and Madinah. This is not t
rue. The majority opinion that has been acted upon for most of Islamic history e
xcept now in the modern era (even now it happens but not explicitly - the umbrel
las of the haram in Madinah were designed by germans) is that non muslims can en
ter Mecca/Madinah. And we learn this clearly from the story of Ka'ab. The nabati
was a christian and he had a letter for Ka'ab from the gasaanid emporer. So in
the time of the prophet PBUH there is this christian buying and selling inside M
adinah.
2. This gives another benefit: you can buy and sell from people of other faiths.
3. The permissability of entering a semi-private property as long as one is sure
the owner would not mind entering such an area. The reference here is of course
to Ka'ab entering his best friends garden. Ka'ab said he "jumped over the wall"
. In many muslim lands there still is a lawn/opening in the front and friends an
d relatives can come in at any time to this front room. But they know they don't
go beyond the curtains. Still to this day there are socities like this. In some
cultures after Asr you can literally walk into your friends house, and there wi
ll be tea and people there etc. You don't have to announce your visit - it's und
erstood it's an open sitting. This is that sort of thing; there are areas that a
re semi private. Ka'abs cousin knows and allows Ka'ab to come into the garden, s
o Ka'ab dosen't knock on the door. It's understood this isn't the inner house, i
t's a place the cousin dosen't mind Ka'ab coming uninvited.
4. The sadjah of shukar. This isn't explicitly mentioned in a hadith of the prop
het PBUH i.e. "when something good happens fall down in sajdah". But the concept
is mentioned in the Quran and sunnah. Here we have the story of Ka'ab; he's on
his rooftop and as soon as he hears the good news, he falls into sajdah. Therefo
re it's sunnah to do this, even though the prophet PBUH didn't directly command
it. And that sajdah does not need wudu. You fall into sajdah in any state you ar
e in. Do you have to say Allah-u-akbar? Minor difference of opinion. Better to j
ust say it.
5. It is permissable to shout out good news to the whole community. Good news is
public; we have the man screaming from the mountain of Ka'ab forgiveness.
6. It's permissable to stand up and greet someone for a legitimate reason as lon
g as it's not habit. We learn this from Talha ibn Ubadillah who stood up to gree
t Ka'ab. The prophet PBUH said "whoever loves that people stand up for him, let
him be prepared to go to the fire of hell" - yes this is authentic. But just rea
ding this hadith and thinking "I will never ever stand for anyone" is dangerous.
Rather there is a hadith in Bhukari the prophet PBUH stood up to greet his daug
hter when she entered the house out of joy of seeing her. Similarly when Sa'ad w
as coming after the battle of the Banu Quraydha, the prophet PBUH told the Ansar
"stand up to greet your leader". So where are we allowed to stand? Scholars hav
e written books on this. You are not allowed to stand up when the person has mad
e it a culture or habit to stand up. If you are forced to stand during court etc
then it's fine. However occasionally you are allowed to: if you haven't seen so
meone for a long time, and he's coming back from a journey, you can stand up and
greet him.

The battle of Tabuk is the final battle of the prophet PBUH, and there are so ma
ny incidences in here, we will discuss Tabuk for at least three more episodes.