We are winding up with the seerah now; maybe two or three more lessons after thi

s and we will be finished alhamdhulillah. Today we'll do the very final incident
s in the 9th and 10th years. Again what we went through in the last few weeks wa
s primarily delegations and family incidents. We had to break our chronology and
we explained why: the delegations occured from the 6th year all the way to the
10th year. And it's better to mix them all together. Of course the most signfica
nt delegations was the tribe of Taqeef accepting Islam in the 9th year, and the
christians of Najran in the 9th year also. Perhaps the most melodramatic was tha
t of Musaylama the liar. Some of the delegations we discussed occured in the 10t
h year aswell, but for the sake of discussing them all together we jumped forwar
d to the 10th year. Now however we go back chronologically and talk about the ne
xt big incident that occured in the 9th year of the Hijrah, and that is the hajj
of Abu Bukr as-Siddique RA.
Now, when was the conquest of Mecca? Ramadan of the 8th year of the Hijrah. In t
he 8th year, could the prophet PBUH and muslims have performed hajj? Yes. Of cou
rse. Because they conquered Mecca in Ramadan, yet there was no concerted effort
to do so. Why? If we say the prophet PBUH was too busy with delegations then we
say a fard is being delayed so that is non-sensical. The battle of Hunayn was Sh
awwal 8th year, so they could have come back for hajj in the 8th year if they wa
nted to. So why didn't they? Mecca is not yet fully safe. Najran, Taqeef, Tabuk
etc. In other words, even hijaaz - Ta'if is literally the next neighbouring city
with a huge population that is very hostile. Therefore the reason why the proph
et PBUH did not make an effort to do Hajj in the 8th year was because it simply
was not feasible. There were too many security threats. Thus, in the 8th year of
the Hijrah there was no special Hajj delegation coming from Madinah. Rather, a
few muslims performed Hajj for the first time. This of course had not happened s
ince the beginning ever. The books of seerah mention the prophet PBUH placed one
of the members of the Abd Shams, Ataab ibn Aseed, as the governer of Mecca. He
converted at the conquest of Mecca, so he's a late convert. Why then didn't the
prophet PBUH appoint one of the elites as the governer? Umar, Uthman etc? Why di
d all the sahaba go back? They have to go back. The muhajiroon are also obliged
to go back. One of the points of the hijrah because of which they were honoured
by Allah, is that the muhajir cannot go back to where he came from, or else his
hijrah is nullified. So none of the muhajiroon were able to go back to Mecca, in
cluding the prophet PBUH. This is only special for the actual muhajiroon - as fo
r us, if we do hijrah from a dangerous land we can go back if it becomes safe in
the future. But that group of muhajiroon had to promise to give up everything a
nd never return. So there was no permission for the muhajir to go back to Mecca.
Thus who was allowed to stay in Mecca? Those who never left.
Thus Ataab ibn Aseed was the governer in Mecca. And for the first time a small g
roup of muslims led by Ataab performed Hajj in the 8th year. As for the prophet
PBUH and the sahaba in Madinah, they did not. In the 9th year, what happens? Tab
uk takes place and that is taken care off. Najran is also taken care off at the
end of the 9th year / beginning of 10th. The main threat was Taqeef, and as we k
now that is also taken care of in Madinah. We discussed their delegation, how th
ey didn't want to pray, they wanted to keep kamr, zina, riba etc. So, the tribe
of Ta'if accepts Islam, so now in the 9th year of the hijrah, the prophet PBUH d
ecides to send Abu Bukr with an official delegation from Madinah to Mecca. The p
rophet PBUH himself does not perform the Hajj. Why? He explicitly says to Abu Bu
kr "verily the mushrikoon performed tawaf naked in front of the ka'bah, and I do
not wish to perform the Hajj until that is eliminated". So he gave the ultimate
reason: it is not befitting for the prophet of Allah to participate in the Hajj
where you have mushriks acting in this manner.
Now, this concept of doing hajj without your clothes is mentioned in the Qur'an
in Surah A'raf verse 28. Note right before this verse Allah mentions how Howa an
d Adam AS were persuaded by Iblees to get rid of their clothes. And Allah then s
ays "oh children of Adam let not Shaytan seduce you to take off your clothes. We

have sent down clothes from the heavans." What does that mean? Clothes are not
natural. We are the only creation in this world that wears something on our bodi
es. So Allah is saying, He sent clothes down to us. The very next verse, in the
context of clothes and covering oneself up, Allah says "when the quraysh do some
thing evil..." and word for evil is 'fahisha'. Note 'fahisha' is a sin of a sexu
al, lude or preverse nature. So Allah says when they do a 'fahisha', "they say a
s an excuse, 'our forefathers did it' and 'Allah commanded us to do it'". Then A
llah negates this and says "tell them Allah does not command that which is a 'fa
hsha'".
26. O children of Adam, We have bestowed upon you clothing to conceal your priva
te parts and as adornment. But the clothing of righteousness - that is best. Tha
t is from the signs of Allah that perhaps they will remember.
27. O children of Adam, let not Satan tempt you as he removed your parents from
Paradise, stripping them of their clothing to show them their private parts. Ind
eed, he sees you, he and his tribe, from where you do not see them. Indeed, We h
ave made the devils allies to those who do not believe.
28. And when they commit an immorality, they say, "We found our fathers doing it
, and Allah has ordered us to do it." Say, "Indeed, Allah does not order immoral
ity. Do you say about Allah that which you do not know?"
The sahaba and tab'ioon interpreted this verse and said "the 'fahisha' was to pe
rform tawaaf without clothes on". Clearly the context before verse 28 is about c
lothes, and then Allah mentions the fahisha. Note they gave two reasons. Allah l
et go the first reason because it was factual. Not because it was valid, but it
was true. However Allah responded to the second accusation; the first one was te
chnically true, but obviously not legitimate. However the second reason they gav
e was 'Allah told us to do it' and then Allah immediately said "No". Ibn Kathir
and others mention two justifications for doing what they did.
1. They said that "We should do tawaaf the same way our mothers gave birth to us
". Meaning they are saying 'we should return to our original state that Allah cr
eated us in'. Now, this is intruging because this is exactly the same excuse we
find the modern practitioners use of the same jaheleya practice. There is this n
udest movement, and they implement the exact same logic. That "God created us th
is way, why should we preverte nature?" SubhanAllah its exactly the same patheti
c excuse as the people of jaheleya in the time of the prophet PBUH. However, All
ah says in the Quran 'No' for He send down clothes for us.
2. The second excuse they give is "how can we do tawaaf in the exact same clothe
s we disobey Allah in? Isn't it shameful that in these garments we've disobeyed
Allah we do tawaaf in them?" This really shows us how easy it is to find any log
ic for anything. Without any divine guidance and sharia, anyone can justify anyt
hing. SubhanAllah this notion of our intellect being all powerful, our intellect
can justify anything. You want to toture innocent people, your 'intellect' will
give you reasons to do so. Whatever it is, you will find your justification. Th
at's why you need a sharia from Allah to tell you right from wrong. Otherwise le
ft to our own whims and devices, anyone can justify anything as we have indeed s
een. Here we have people justifying doing tawaaf, the greatest of deeds around t
he greatest of houses, fully naked. They too believe the ka'bah is sacred like u
s. But somehow they say 'let us be natural how Allah created us'.
Note not everyone did tawaaf naked. It was something, believe it or not, was a s
ign of piety amongst the jahaleya arabs. And therefore not everyone did it, but
it was something that wasn't uncommon. The people of Mecca by the way did not fo
llow this practice. Why? They view themselves as being elitist. They literally t
hought they were elite, and so they reasoned "these rules don't apply to us beca
use we are people of the haram, people of the holy place". So this was a custom

of the non-qurayshis. And that is why in Hajj season this act increased because
that's when the non-qurayshis came. And there were ways out of this too. Even th
ose who wanted to do it had ways out of it. They would either purchase brand new
clothes, or they would get a qurayshi to lend one of his garments because his c
lothes for some reason are 'holy' since they are being used in Mecca. The sheikh
says such a theory must have been invented by a merchant seller; of course they
will benefit alot from such a thing. The books of seerah mention even the women
would sometimes do this. Can you imagine the vulgarity? For the women however t
here was a license to wear a garment to cover their private parts; the rest of t
heir body would be covered with their hands, and they would versify a poem, that
"today my body is apparent, but whatever is apparent I don't allow anyone to st
are at it". Allegedly when she says this no body will be able to look at her (of
course this is ridiculous in and of itself). Also the books mention it was comm
on for women to do this during the night i.e. not during the day in public.
The point is this was the custom that existed, and so the prophet PBUH explicity
said he did not want to do Hajj in this environment. It's very interesting to n
ote the prophet PBUH made a very firm stand to not go for Hajj because of this.
This is definately the appropiate thing for him to do. BUT, he sends Abu Bukr an
d 300 other people. And, for the first 53 years of his life, without a doubt thi
s must have been taking place in Mecca. Obviously this must have been happening
during his life and of course he was lowering his gaze. But the point is that, m
erely being in an environment of 'fahisha' is not in and of itself haraam. The p
rophet PBUH did not leave Mecca for 53 years of his life even though women were
doing tawaaf of this nature. And it is clear that it's public. We do have a lot
of people who think everything is haraam, living in the west is haraam etc. Why?
Because there is fahsha everywhere. In response, the east has probably the same
if not even more fahsha. Especially with the internet, there is no place on Ear
th where there is no fahsha; there is no more utopiah. Secondly, this incident c
learly shows our prophet PBUH when he is the minority and oppressed, what will y
ou do? You lower your gaze and fight your own battle. Just because it's happenin
g outside dosen't mean your presence there is haraam. This is especially true wh
en there is no place to go especially in our times. As long as we protect oursel
ves, there is no sin for us to be in the west.
So the prophet PBUH sent Abu Bukr to lay the foundations for the final year of h
is own life, and his first and last Hajj, Hajj a tul-Wada'a. There are no idols
in Mecca, but there are still going to be pagans coming from all over Arabia wit
h their weird and bizzare customs. So he sends Abu Bukr RA to make sure that the
re are no rituals, and further no pagans from henceforth. As soon as Abu Bukr RA
left the city of Madinah, Allah revealed the first 3 pages of Surah Tawbah. And
these verses are directed at the pagans of Arabia. Why did Allah delay it? Alla
h knows best, but maybe it was because of exactly what happened: when someone sa
id to the prophet PBUH "why don't you send these verses to Abu Bukr as-Siddique?
" The prophet PBUH said "No one shall convey these verses on my behalf other tha
n someone from my own household". So he chose Ali ibn Abu Talib, who wasn't part
of the initial congregation to Mecca. There was a group of 300 chosen to go, al
ong with 25 sacrificial animals. At the head of Abu Bukr, Ali stayed in Madinah.
However within in a few hours, surah Tawbah comes down, so the prophet PBUH tel
ls Ali ibn Abu Talib to catch up to Abu Bukr, take these verses and announce the
m to the people during Hajj.
What are these verses of surah Tawbah? Of course this surah was one of the very
final surahs to be revealed. Some scholars say it was the final large surah to b
e revealed, others say it was surah Maida. And at-Tawbah of course we all know d
oes not start with Bismillah. There are a number of opinions why this is:
1. Narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib, he was asked why there is no Bismillah; and
he says, which makes sense from todays lecture: "Bismillah-hirahmaa-niraheem is
what your write at the beginning of a contract of protection. Of mercy. Surah Ta

wbah is about cutting off and dissaciation. Thus you will not start this surah b
y saying 'in the name of Allah, the merciful'." Because Allah is saying He has "
nothing to do" with the pagans. So Ali is saying its not befitting such a surah
starts with Bismillah.
2. There is a hadith in Tirmidhi which says Uthmaan ibn Affan was asked by one o
f his students why he didn't put Bismillah at the beginning of Tawbah. And also
why did he combine Anfal and Tawbah even though the former is early Madinah, whi
le the latter is late Madinah. Recall Anfal is Badr yet Tawbah is Tabuk and post
Tabuk (all 9th year). So the student is asking why Uthmaan combined these two s
urah? Uthmaan replied that "the content of the two are similar, and Tawbah was r
evealed very late, and we didn't know whether it was a seperate surah or not, so
we just put it with Anfal. And because we did this we didn't write a Bismillah"
.
So let us go over a few verses of Tawbah:
1. [This is a declaration of] disassociation, from Allah and His Messenger, to t
hose with whom you had made a treaty among the polytheists.
It's a very powerful begining from Allah. That He begins by cutting off all ties
. There is no such word in english like 'Baraa-a' in Arabic. So Allah is saying
he is cutting off all the treaties with any pagan. Note you cannot suprise break
off a treaty. Before you break a treaty off, you have to tell the other party.
It's against Islam and ettiquite that there is a notice. This is why our sharia
also operates; if you have a peace treaty with someone you cannot break a treaty
as you attack someone. So this is what is happening: Allah is revealing this su
rah to break any and all treaties.
2. So travel freely, [O disbelievers], throughout the land [during] four months
but know that you cannot cause failure to Allah and that Allah will disgrace the
disbelievers.
Then Allah gives
ies will come to
ly safe and free
, la howla wa la

the conditions and time period, and that is 4 months. All treat
an end within 4 months. So for these 4 months they are complete
to go anywhere they want. And this is not because Allah is weak
quita, rather its a generous gift to the pagans.

3. And [it is] an announcement from Allah and His Messenger to the people on the
day of the greater pilgrimage that Allah is disassociated from the disbelievers
, and [so is] His Messenger. So if you repent, that is best for you; but if you
turn away - then know that you will not cause failure to Allah. And give tidings
to those who disbelieve of a painful punishment.
So Allah is saying this will be announced after the day of Arafat, the day of sa
crifce, that Allah and His messenger has cut of all relationships with the pagan
s.
4. Excepted are those with whom you made a treaty among the polytheists and then
they have not been deficient toward you in anything or supported anyone against
you; so complete for them their treaty until their term [has ended]. Indeed, Al
lah loves the righteous [who fear Him].
However Allah gives an exception. Here Allah is saying if there is a pre-set spe
cific time clause already in place and they have not broken their promise at all
, then in that case Allah is telling the prophet PBUH to fulfill that treaty to
the end of the agreed time. For some tribes the prophet PBUH put a time clause;
being fair Allah puts an exception to these treaties.
5. And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever yo

u find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every
place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, le
t them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
THEN, the 5th verse comes. This is the the MOST misinterpretated verse by Islama
phobes. It is called 'the verse of the sword'. And you have to understand this v
erse in the context of the entirety of the seerah, and hijrah. After the conques
t of Mecca, paganism is being eliminated etc. Now what is the 'sacred months' be
ing referred to? Some say the famous sacred months of the Hijri calender. Others
say, Allah called the four months in verse 2 the 'sacred months' because those
are the four months you cannot fight for this particular year. So basically, whe
n those months finish, then what? Then there is an open license to attack, kill,
take them prisoner etc. Here's the point, this verse was revealed for the haram
and the Arabian world. To ensure there is no paganism and idol worship in that
sacred land anymore. You cannot worship an idol in the lands of the haram. So th
ey were given four months, and two options: either get rid of paganism and accep
t Islam which is exactly what Allah says in verse 5 (if they repent and start pr
aying then they are your brethern and allow them to be whatever they want), OR p
ack your bags and leave; otherwise face war. Because it is not allowed in our sh
aria for idoletry to be practiced in the Arabian Peninsula.
Historically speaking, all the muslim rulers tolerated idol worshipping outside
the Arabian Peninsula. By unanimous concensus jews and christians can live in an
Islamic state if they pay the jizya. The ikhtilaf comes over non-jews, christia
ns and zorostians. Umar RA was the first to conquer a non-pagan, non-jew or nonchristian. When he conquered Persia there were zorostrians, so the sahaba differ
ed what to do. But Umar RA said "treat them like you treat the people of the boo
k except you cannot marry their women or eat their meat". Based on this, all of
the madhab agree jews, christians and zorostrians can live in Darul Islam if the
y pay the jizia. There is no ikhtilaf at all - they can practice their faith, ha
ve their churches etc as long as they pay jizia they are protected by the state.
Of course there are conditions, we aren't painting a post-liberal, post-moderni
st society. You are allowed to be a jew, christian, zorostrian, but you cannot c
onvert others. The ikhtilaf came "what if you're not one of these?" Some say onl
y these are allowed. Others say "no it's okay, what Umar said of the zorostrian
applies to every other religion". And we have to understand fiqh is one thing, h
istory and reality is another. The khulafa basically allowed every single religi
ous group to be who they are as long they didn't cross the line. Classic example
: the yazidis have existed under the abbasids for hundreds of years. They have b
izzare beliefs which go back to ancient times. They are called 'satan worshipper
s' but the point is they were tolerated. Another example is the muguls who were
the largest indian empire, but the muslim states had no problems with these indi
ans being there.
The point is, this verse cannot be taken as a point blank execution order of all
non muslims. One simple historical fact: not a single person lost his or her li
fe over this. This verse is a threat, they have four months to leave or else the
y will die. IT's a threat and it was meant to be a threat to scare the people. A
nd indeed because of it paganism dissapeared from Arabia. So to take this verse
"kill the infidels wherever you find them" and to ignore the entire context, or
even moreso the very next verse, is just plain wrong. Allah says in verse 6:
6. And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him prote
ction so that he may hear the words of Allah . Then deliver him to his place of
safety. That is because they are a people who do not know.
SubhanAllah, verse 6 clearly says, if anyone wants protection, give him protecti
on, explain Islam to him, accompany him to the borders and let him go. He goes h
is own way safely. Not one person was killed or executed as a result of this ver

se. It was meant to threatan the pagans. Either accept Islam or pack your bags a
nd leave. And that's exactly what happened. Paganism was wiped out of Arabia, an
d that was the goal of the prophet PBUH. We do not want idoletry to take place i
n the Arabian Peninsula.
Another major contraversy is the issue of Ali ibn Abi Talib being chosen to conv
ey this message to the pagans of the Hajj of the 9th year. Note, 9th year is the
only year ever where muslims and pagans performed tawaaf and hajj simultaneousl
y. Never before did an official delegation of muslims and pagans perform tawaaf
together. That there were pagans from far north, south etc that came to do Hajj.
So, Ali ibn Abu Talib is sent to announce "go back to your people and tell them
, either leave or convert to Islam, you have four months. If you don't we will a
ttack you". The question is why was Ali RA chosen? As we know Ali RA was given t
he first two pages of surah Tawbah, he rushes to catch up to Abu Bukr, he sees A
li who had the personal camel of the prophet PBUH to be a representative. When A
bu Bukr saw Ali riding on the camel immediately he asked "are you being sent to
be a commander over me? Or am I still the commander?" Ali RA said "No you are st
ill the commander but I've come to recite Surah Tawbah". Of course this causes h
uge tension between sunni and shia groups.
The shia interpret this and say this is explicit evidence that Ali RA should hav
e been the khalifah. Of course their main evidence is Gadhir Khumm which we'll d
iscuss later on. But here, they say that the prophet PBUH clearly said "no one s
hall represent me other than my family" and he chose Ali RA. This is very easy f
or us to understand in the proper way. Al Baghwee and other mufasiroon mention t
hat it was the custom of pre-Islam, that when a ruler wants to make a treaty or
break a treaty, you have to send someone from his family to do so. Because the p
rophet PBUH is dealing with the jaheleya arabs, he wants there to be no excuse t
hat someone can say "Oh you sent the wrong person". Don't forget these people ar
e still pagans; to them lineage and family is everything. So the prophet PBUH wa
nted to provide no excuse, so he sends Ali RA to break the treaty he himself ena
cted. The simplest correct understanding is that Abu Bukr and Ali are both in th
e same convey of Hajj. Ali RA literally says to Abu Bukr "no you are still the a
meer, and I am still the ma'moor". In this incident you have two of the greatest
sahaba together, and the prophet PBUH sends the both of them but Ali RA is not
sent as the ameer, leader. He is sent for a task which is to break the treaties;
Abu Bukr is the overall ameer. For us this clearly demonstrates what is true. F
or us we love Ali RA the way he should be loved. We are more rightful to be shia
-tul-Ali i.e. we are the ones who support him, and believe him the way he deserv
es it. We have no problems giving every blessing that is given to him; this is i
ndeed a great honour to be chosen by the prophet PBUH to break the treaties. And
we have no stinginess is saying is he ahlul bayt and he represents the prophet
PBUH etc. But that dosen't mean he should have been the khalifah over Abu Bukr R
A.
So as we said it was the only Hajj performed by both pagans and muslims. It was
also the only Hajj wherein the rights of Hajj were performed according to the ol
d ways. The prophet PBUH did not show the correct way of Hajj; so Abu Bukr does
it in the old way. How many Hajj did the prophet PBUH do? Was Hajj an institutio
n? They had their own Hajj, and much of it was taken from Ibrahim AS. Doing tawa
af, sa'ee etc. Did the prophet PBUH do it? The books of seerah don't mention it,
but it was understood he must have done Hajj after the prophethood. The average
makhawi living in Mecca obviously must be doing Hajj. How could the prophet PBU
H not have done Hajj? Yes after being a prophet too. There was nothing wrong wit
h the Hajj of those times. Arafat, tawaaf, sa'ee etc. And of course back then he
couldn't enforce law since he was being persecuted.
So Abu Bukr RA performed the Hajj, Ali RA along with Abu Hurairah make four majo
r announcements. They first recite Surah Tawbah. Then they announce:

1. No one shall enter Jannah other than a muslim.

2. No one shall perform tawaaf naked.
3. No mushrik shall ever perform tawaaf ever given.
4. Any contract with any tribe shall exist for four more months, after this ther
e is no treaty (unless there's a pre-set time clause).
So these were the four major announcements in the Hajj of Abu Bukr RA. The first
point is very interesting. Why mention this? This is now perhaps the final da'w
ah being given to groups of people that might decide to leave Arabia forever. Th
ey know they have two options: convert or leave. It's never ever convert or die.
So they are being told the most important thing, which is that there is no way
to Jannah other than Islam. This is a very important time in modern times, becau
se this principal is being watered down, and many youth find it difficult to swa
llow. The fact it is the first announcement in the final hajj of the pagans real
ly demonstrates Qura'nic wise and logic wise, that if you believe in a religion
it better be one that saves you. If other religion also saves you, why believe i
n a specific one? The purpose of Islam is to guide us to Jannah and the pleasure
of Allah. If we say many religions do it, why even follow one religion? Religio
n by its nature, logically, should be exclusive. In terms of this world, the fiq
h is clear: we have our way and they have theirs. No issues in this world. But i
n the akhira not all religions can be valid. SO the prophet PBUH is telling the
mushrikoon you only have one way to get to Jannah.
As for the issue of doing tawaaf naked, it was enforced even during the hajj of
Abu Bukr RA. So even in the 9th year, no one did tawaaf naked. Because that was
immediately enforced. As for the pagans not doing tawaaf that was not enforced t
hen and there since they were already there. That started from the 10th year onw
ards. Last, they are told they have four months left. Therefore this was a clear
signal that Islam had triumphed over idoletry. This was the final nail in the c
offin for idoletry. And as we've said many times, its one of the most amazing Uturns in human history. That in just 20 years, an entire civilisation gives up i
ts heritage of over 3000 years, and accepts a new religion. There are no pagans
that are arabs. There are still arab-christians. There used to be arab-jews up u
ntil 1948, Islam tolerated this. But nowhere were there arab-pagans. Why? Becaus
e of these verses. And subhanAllah its one of the most interesting miracles of I
slam, that it eliminated idoletry completely amongst an entire civilisation and
our prophet PBUH saw the culmination of his efforts.
Also towards the end of the 9th year, our prophet PBUH sent many sahaba as eithe
r governers or teachers of Islam to various places around the kingdom. Especiall
y in the north and south; Mua'dh ibn Jabal was sent and we know the story how th
e prophet PBUH walked with him. Others were also sent down south, and it seems p
eople there accepted Islam very quickly and easily. One final incident of accept
ing Islam also took place in the 9th year in the province of Najran. And Najran
is a little above Yemen, south of Arabia. So south of hijaaz but above Yemen. It
's the southern most province of modern Saudi Arabia. This province, our prophet
PBUH sent Khalid ibn Waleed in the beginning of the 10th year. And he told Khal
id "do not attack them until you give them three days and tell them they have th
e option of accepting Islam, or if they're christian/jew pay jizia, or they have
to leave". So three days: this shows us again the mercy of the sharia that the
prophet PBUH gave three days. So Khalid ibn Waleed sent criers to inform the peo
ple of Najran, and lo and behold the entire province of Najran accepted Islam. A
nd so Khalid ibn Waleed was really confused since he brought an army but there's
no fighting. So he sent a letter to the prophet PBUH to tell him the people hav
e all accepted Islam and asking what he should do next. The prophet PBUH said "s
end a delegation up to me" i.e. he wants to test them.

So a delegation comes from Najran and ibn Ishaaq mentions an interesting convers
ation. The group enters in and the prophet PBUH did not recognise them, so he as
ks them the equivalent off "who do I have the pleasure of welcoming?" And its re
ported he said "you look like the people of Hind (i.e. indians)". Why would the
prophet PBUH say this? We don't know of any indians (hind) the prophet PBUH ever
met so this is interesting. The people of Najran; the complexion is different t
o other arabs so perhaps this is what led him to say that. Also it's known the p
eople of Najran had a different hairstyle (round and curly) so maybe this. Allah
knows best. When the group said "we are from Najran" the prophet PBUH had some
back and forth with them; a little bit is harsh, but he is testing their imaan.
He wants to see if they are genuinely muslim. In the end they pass the test with
flying colours, so the prophet PBUH asks "tell me what is the secret you are al
ways the victors against anyone who attacks you?" They say two things: "first, w
e are always united prophet PBUH, second we've never done wrong to other people"
. SubhanAllah this shows us, if you want to be successful, ensure teamwork and d
on't take advantage of other people.
So the prophet PBUH then sent Amr ibn Hazam al ansari to be their religious lead
er and governer. And he sent a letter to Amr one month before he passed away ins
tructing him how to be a religious leader. Maybe we'll discuss the letter itself
next time. But it is one of the most famous letters in the seerah, why? Because
it was the last letter our prophet PBUH dictated in his life. And it's over a p
age long and is directed to Amr ibn Hazam, and its basically a whole bunch of co
mmandments (waseeas') telling him how to teach the people. So it is one of the v
ery last things he did; note the people of Najran accepted Islam four months bef
ore he past away which was one month before the prophet PBUHs hajj. So it's the
last major province under hijaaz; it converts to Islam, and then he sends this l
etter to Amr ibn Hazam. It's therefore very famous, and there is one phrase in i
t which most of the fuqaha discuss so much about. And that is "No one should tou
ch the Qur'an except if he is 'taahir'". From this the majority of the madhahib
all say to touch the Qur'an you need to have wudu. This is the number one eviden
ce, the hadith of Amr ibn Hazam.
Final interesting tidbit: these days Najran has an interesting twist. Theologica
lly, Najran is the only place that has Ismaili arabs. Saudi Arabia has places wh
ere there are twelver shia. Other places have fiver shia. Najran is predominantl
y, ismaili-shia. In the Faatimad reign, al-Azhar university was founded by the F
aatimads. And they were also the one to coin the term 'da'wah' which we now all
use. That a caller to Islam is called 'da'ee'. So they were first group to give
it a technical term, to say 'we are going to send people out to teach people Isl
am, called da'ees'. So they sent out 'da'ees' across the globe to give 'da'wah'
to ismali Islam. And so groups of people converted in India and in Yemen, and ac
ross the places. The group that converted in Yemen remained loyal to the Faatima
d empire. Slowly and surely this empire disintegrated; their was civil war betwe
en two strands: the musta'li and the nizaari. The nizaari strand became agakhani
s. So the agakhani imam claims biological descent from Nizar, the Faatimad khali
fa. And Nizars brother, Musta'li, his chain eventually disappears which became '
buhrar ismaili shiaism'. So buhrar and agakhanis are blood brothers in terms of
shiaism. Musta'li, slowly but surely his line dissapeared, there was a baby by t
he name of Tayyib. And so they say he is in hiding, as all shia groups say their
imam is in hiding. The agakhanis is the only shia group who say their imam is c
lear.
The twelvers say their imam is in hiding. The fivers (zaydis) say anyone can be
imam. The ismailis split it many groups. The buhri, musta'li, tayyibi ismailis (
buhri from the gujrati term 'buhrar' meaning businessman) - they split into two
branches. You have dawudi buhrar and sulaymani buhrar. Why dawudi? Because there
is a split with sulaymani, and the split is over: who is in charge of running t
he ismailis? Not whose the imam, because he is in hiding. The dawudi buhrar and
sulaymani buhrar had a split between two people named Dawud and Sulayman. So the

dawudi buhrars went with Dawud, the sulaymani buhrars went with Sulayman. And t
he dawudi buhrars eventually primarily ended up in Gujrat, India. The split occu
red in the 1500s. Sulayman was denied leadership, so the yemeni community accept
ed him as the leader so they called him from India to come to Yemen. So he start
ed the 'sulaymani buhrar musta'li tayyibi ismaili' branch. From that time on, th
ey call 'daeee al mutlak' i.e. the big da'ee. That is the title given to the big
guy by both the sulaymani and dawudi shia.
So the da'ee al mutlak is the representative of the imam. And because of this he
gets a large share of money from the people (each person gives 10%) and they li
ve a good lifestyle etc. The point is, the da'ee al mutlak of the sulaymani bran
ch lives in Najran to this day. And the saudi political establishment has a very
tense relationship with this. Because Najran is of course in Saudi Arabia. So t
here is HUGE tension; and the human rights watch have lots of reports that these
shias are persecuted, deprived of jobs, education etc. Because obviously they a
re viewed to be of a heretical branch of Islam. So the da'ee al mutlak is a Saud
i, living in Najran, and at least maybe half a million people are following that
version of Islam. They are all najrani. The majority of that region, especially
two/three of the prominent tribes are ismaili. And its something that is very i
nteresting. In any case that is Najran who converted back in the day.
Q. Did the sahaba have the ihraam before Islam? There is no evidence which sugge
sts this. Rather our prophet PBUH explicitly commanded the muslims to wear ihraa
m and therefore the ihraam is something that the prophet PBUH himself came with.
Because he clearly says "don't wear this, don't wear that, but instead wear thi
s i.e. the ihraam".