Today is the third and final instalment on the delegations.

We could have done o

ne more section but as we can see these are all small stories put together and e
ach one might have one or two benefits; but if were to do another episode on thi
s, it would just be a list of tribal names. So today we'll mention the most impo
rtant delegations and finish it off. But be aware the books of seerah have menti
oned a list of over 110 delegations by name; the bulk of them we don't know any
of them other than just their name. The more interesting ones we've mentioned.
We begin with one of the more bizzare one - the delegation from the tribe of Ban
u Hanifah. The leader was Musaylimah al Khadhab. His name is actually Musaylimah
al Habib. He was relatively old; maybe late 60s or early 70s. He was a christia
n, and his tribe was a chritian tribe. In his younger years he had gone to Jeres
ulem to study christianity and he knew latin. So his people gave him a lot of re
spect until when Islam came he was someone who had the respect of his entire tri
be; and also the region of Yamama (north Arabia). His arrogance got the better o
f him - after being respected for so long, he couldn't imagine giving that up an
d becoming a servant to another person. So when the delegation arrived; and reca
ll the purpose of a delegation was to negotiate. The Banu Hanifah didn't plan to
submit - also note the Banu Hanifah was the largest, worst and most problematic
tribe in the time of Abu Bukr RA during the battle of Riddah.
so Musaylimah saw his tribe split due to Islam. One of the nobleman of his tribe
converted along with his followers; Thumama ibn Athal. The one who was tied to
the masjid for three days. When the prophet PBUH asked him "what will you do?" A
nd he said "if you will kill me, you will kill someone whose blood is weighty. I
f you let me go, you'll forgive someone who is good. And if you want money, you
are asking the one who has plenty". So three options: kill me, free me or randso
m me. After the three days the prophet PBUH just let him go - but during those d
ays he saw Islam, salah, Qur'an so he embraced Islam. And he went to Mecca and s
aid "I'll never allow wheat to the Quraysh unless the prophet PBUH allows me". T
humama is from the same tribe as Musaylimah. Therefore, the tribe of the Banu Ha
nifah, some of them are converting; others remained on their religion. So Musayl
imah said to his people "If the prophet PBUH gives me power after his death, the
n I'll follow him. And he shares with me in prophethood like Musa AS shared with
his brother Harun". The books of seerah mentioned his followers brought him int
o the masjid and they were sheilding him with fancy clothes i.e. they are decora
ting him like a king. So already Musaylimah is being treated with such reverence
; clearly it's gone to his head. And he thought he was much more than he was. Be
cause of this he could never imagine giving up this power. So even before he dec
lared himself to be a false prophet he thought this in his mind. So he had the a
udacity to claim prophethood, and the prophet PBUH predicted that "after my deat
h you shall see 30 dajjals that are liars". The first was Musaylimah who said to
the face of the prophet PBUH "make me in charge after you and share with me in
your prophethood".
The prophet PBUH was amongst the sahaba and he had in his hand a tree branch. An
d he said to Musaylimah "walahi if you asked me for this stick I wouldn't even g
ive this to you, and Allah will deal with you and humiliate you. And you are the
fulfillment of what Allah warned me". Ibn Abbas asked Abu Hurairah several year
s later "what was that dream the prophet PBUH talked about?" Note ibn Abbas is j
ust 12 years old. His knowledge came after the death of the prophet PBUH. So Abu
Hurairah said (hadith in Bhukari): I heard the prophet PBUH say "once when I wa
s sleeping, I saw myself wearing two bracelets of gold (which is haraam). And I
felt disturbed at this. So it was inspired to me to blow on them. And they broke
off and departed. So I interpreted them to be two false liars after me. And the
first of them will be from the tribe of Anas (Talha) and the second will be Mus
aylimah from al Yamama".
And Musaylimah's story is well known. He wrote a letter to the prophet PBUH. And
look at the arrogance. He said "From Musaylimah, the prophet of God to Muhammad

. Peace be on you. Know I have been placed in this matter alongside you. And the
Quraysh have half, and I have the other half. But the Quraysh are a people who
go beyond trangression". Look at the ridiculousness. Two people came to deliver
this letter to the prophet and he asked them "what do you think about Musaylimah
?" They said "we are upon the letter". So the prophet PBUH said "were it not for
the fact that envoys are not harmed, I would have executed you". This is pure k
ufr. There are two types of kufr: normal kufr of being a kaafir, then the kufr o
f riddah i.e. kufr going beyond the line such as claiming to be a false prophet.
So the prophet PBUH said "were it not for the fact you are envoys I would have
killed you". SubhanAllah. To this day everyone gives 'diplomatic immunity' i.e.
you can't kill a messenger. Musaylimah was the first human ever not only to decl
are prophethood but to attempt to imitate the Qur'anic style. That's a whole dif
ferent topic altogether. He had ridiculous statements that he considered to be t
he Qur'an. And everything he narrates, he tried to copy the language the Qur'an.
One such example is he tried to copy surah Kauther by changing certain words. O
ne of his most famous ones narrated in all seerah books is: "Oh toad, daughter o
f two toads". Talking about a frog. "Continue to purify..." This was a myth that
they believed toads purified the water. And so on. He called it 'the chapter of
the frog'. He also had the most bizzare surah, the surah of the Fil. It goes on
and on in a frankly silly manner. It's narrated that one of the arabs passing b
y asked Musaylimah "are you too a prophet? Do you have anything the other prophe
t has?" So Musaylimah said yes "I have the Qur'an listen to this". And he recite
d his own surah Fil. So this arab said "walahi you know that I know you are a li
ar". This is a testimony of someone not even a muslim. In any case Musaylimah wa
s eventually killed by none other than Wahshi because he wanted to atone for kil
ling Humza RA. So he took the same javelin and executed Musaylimah al Kadhab, Mu
saylimah the liar.
Notice up until the coming of the prophet PBUH the entire Arab world had never h
eard of someone being a prophet. It was completely unknown to the arabs; only th
e Judao-christian tradition had this. Remember when Heraclius was questioning Ab
u Suffyan one of the questions he asked out of the list of 20+ was "is this a co
mmon thing of someone claiming to be a prophet?" And Abu Suffyan said "no". And
the Qur'an says "they ask you what is a prophet?" So the concept of a prophet wa
s not known; however with the coming of the prophet PBUH and his success, all of
the copycats came.
There was another interesting story: from the tribe of Azd. And this was a mirac
le that happened. The tribe of Azd was one of the large tribes of Yemen; and its
reported a delegate came to accept Islam, so the prophet PBUH put in charge of
them a sahabi called as-Surad ibn Abd'Allah al Azdi. And he gave him the task of
conquering a neighbouring tribe that was still pagan called the tribe of Jurash
. It so happened the tribe of Jurash (the pagan tribe) sent two envoys to Madina
h to guage the pulse of the prophet PBUH and see whether he would accept a truce
or not. In the meantime when the envoys are on the way, the prophet PBUH has al
ready told the tribe of Azd to attack the tribe of Jurash. So when the two envoy
s arrive, it so happened the day they arrived, Surad, the muslim commander had a
ttacked the tribe of Jurash. Of course the envoys do not know this [note Surad h
ad put the tribe under seige first, and the seige broke etc so he was winning ov
er the tribe of Jurash]. The prophet PBUH asked these two envoys "which tribe ar
e you from?" as every day different delegations were coming. They said "from the
tribe of Jurash". So the prophet PBUH said "verily Allahs camel is being sacrif
iced at Jurash as we speak" - they didn't understand this reference. So Abu Bukr
and Uthmaan told them "don't you realise he is saying your tribe is being massa
cared; your only hope is to beg him to ask Allah to save the tribe of Jurash". S
o they asked the prophet PBUH to save the tribe and the prophet PBUH made dua to
guide the people of Jurash.
The two messengers were in confusion; they eventually realised the same day they
were in Madinah, the tribe of Azd had overcome the tribe of Jurash. And there w

as about to be a massacare/winning over but Surad decided to forgive. And so the

re was no bloodshed in the end. When the two envoys told their tribe what happen
ed, they all took it as a miracle and embraced Islam.
We also learn a number of tribes came very eager to learn Islam. Spending time t
o memorise Islam, learn fiqh and ask some very interesting questions. Perhaps th
e most interesting question that was ever asked was asked from the tribe of the
Himyar, from Yemen. It's a very famous hadith narrated in Bhukari and Muslim tha
t's generated alot of commentary in the books of theology. THis is the hadith of
Imran ibn Hussain who said "when I was sitting in the masjid a delegation came,
firstly from Najd which is up north (Banu Tamim), and they came announcing Isla
m, so the prophet PBUH said 'I give you good news oh people of Tamim' (meaning J
annah)". The people from up north were considered to be crude and harsh bedouins
. The people within the hijaaz were more cultivated and civilised; but the peopl
e up north were more bedouins (this is where most of the Ahzaab army came from a
nd other problems). So when the prophet PBUH said "good news rejoice!" they unde
rstood 'good news means you are giving us something good i.e. money'. So they sa
id to the prophet PBUH "you are giving us good news so give us money". Their lim
ited minds only understood good news to be money. So the prophet PBUH was silent
which shows us his adhab - when someone misunderstands you just ignore them. Th
en the himyarites arrived and they also announced their Islam. So the prophet PB
UH said "oh people of Himyar, accept the good news since the people of Banu Tami
m did not". So they said "we accept the good news and we've come all the way fro
m Yemen asking you about this creation, and how did Allah create it and how did
it all begin?"
SubhanAllah this is a very deep theological question. They want to ask the great
est questions imaginable: the creation of time itself. Imran ibn Hussain is narr
ating this hadith, and he said the prophet PBUH said "there was Allah and there
was nothing before Him. And He then created the heavans and the Earth while his
throne was on the water". This shows us heavans and Earth are not the only creat
ions of Allah. There are things before the creation of this world i.e. his thron
e. And this is the point ibn Tammiyah and others have made. This hadith is one o
f the main evidences use. Then Imran ibn Hussain says "as I was sitting there, s
omeone yelled out 'oh Imran your camel has fled'". So Imran rushed out and said
"I saw my camel fleeing so I ran after it. Neither did I get the camel, nor did
I catch the hadith. How I wish I let the camel go and finish the hadith". Subhan
Allah how we wish aswell he let the camel go and got the full hadith about the c
reation. Imran is a madani and ansari so he was the only one to finish the hadit
h; the delegation from Himyar went back to Yemen and didn't narrate it.
Other delegations came from Yemen, and so many hadith praise the people of Yemen
. In sahih Muslim the prophet PBUH said "the people of Yemen have come to you; t
hey have the best of souls and softest of hearts." Then he said the famous hadit
h that "faith is yemeni and wisdom is yemeni". Also in Bhukari the prophet PBUH
said "oh Allah bless us in our sham and yemen". When he said this neither sham n
or Yemen was under muslim control. The fact that he says 'OUR' means that these
are the places of Islam. A man said "how about najd oh messenger of Allah?" The
scholars differ if this is northen Arabia or Iraq (stronger opinion). And the pr
ophet PBUH repeated sham and yemen. The man asked again. So the prophet PBUH rep
eated sham and yemen. For the third time this happened. And then the prophet PBU
H pointed to najd and said from there comes fitnah and problems, trials and trib
ulations will come from there. Of course 'sham' includes Syria and Palestine and
so we see these lands are blessed by Allah. The prophet PBUH also said "I'll be
the one in charge of my fountain, and I'll be the one to make sure people make
space for the people of Yemen, and I'll beat with my stick until space is made f
rom them". This means the people of Yemen will be the first to drink from the pr
ophet PBUHs fountain. The number of hadith about the people of Yemen is indeed m
any. Yemen also includes not the ansar. Where did they come from? The Aws and Kh
azraj go back to Yemen - so all the praise of Yemen is the praise of Ansar, alon

g with anyone who converted from Yemen. Ibn Tammiyah said the people of Yemen we
re the ones who were at the forefront fighting in the battle of Riddat, and they
opened so many lands. Through them Allah brought about much good for the believ
ers.
Note Yemen was seperate from Arabia in many ways. Firstly it was a majority of c
hristian and jews were there. Some of the largest concentration of jews in the w
orld was in Yemen up until 1947. Many isralies are descendants of yemeni jews. S
o much so they still speak arabic and they consider themselves to be PURE jews they don't think european jews are as pure as them. THe point is, Yemen typical
ly had more christian and jews, not paganism. This was different to all of Arabi
a. Also, Yemen was divided into small mini kingdoms which was also very differen
t.
So there was more stability and civilisation in Yemen. One of the main k
ings of Yemen from Himyar accepted Islam, and so the prophet PBUH sent Mu'adh ib
n Jabal to be the deputy and judge. This is the famous incident when the prophet
PBUH is walking with Mu'adh ibn Jabal and he accompanied him all the way. Mu'ad
h was on the animal and the prophet PBUH is the one walking. This is a great hon
our for Mu'adh. And he gives him alot of advice, and tells him "you will go to a
group; they are people of the book, make sure you call them to tawheed. If they
listen tell them to pray, if they pray tell them to give zakat etc". Also in th
e end he said "ya Mu'adh it is possible I won't see you after this". And this wa
s the farewell to Mu'adh ibn Jabal. Note this took place after the hajj of Abu B
ukr in the 9th year of the Hijrah, so not now but a few months from now. After A
bu Bukr returns a few months later the prophet PBUH sends Mu'adh to Yemen. And t
he prophet PBUH also sent Abu Musa al Ashaari to another province in Yemen. So Y
emen is embracing Islam en masse. And subhanAllah the ease with which the yemeni
people accepted Islam did not happen anywhere else in central/northen Arabia. T
hat's one of the reasons why the prophet PBUH said "they have the best of hearts
and softest of hearts".
As he sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal, the last peice of advice he gave him is "make thing
s easy and don't make things difficult. And give people glad tidings and don't t
urn people away. And cause people to come together and don't cause people to dis
unite". Walahi this is a beauitful peice of advice. That we shouldn't make Islam
difficult. Look at the level of the people and then do what is right for them.
Don't make it difficult and turn them away. It's sad to say so many ulama make I
slam so difficult; even if they speak the truth it's without wisdom and the appr
opiate context. Or talking to people not ready for it. Here is Mu'adh ibn Jabal
being sent yet the prophet PBUH told him to take it easy.
One of the very interesting things about all these small delegations, we see so
many things about fiqh and aqeedah narrated from people who are not famous sahab
i at all. Rather they are one time sahabi i.e. the delegates. Some of the standa
rd hadith about fiqh and theology are from these people, which shows they came t
o study Islam. So when they go back and narrate to their own people, their hadit
h become the hadith of fiqh we use today. One of the famous hadith is narrated b
y someone from Yemen by the name of Muawiyah ibn Haidha, that he asked the proph
et PBUH "what is allowed to show of our awra?" This is the famous hadith of awra
and there's only one hadith explicit about the awra. It's narrated by someone w
ho only saw the prophet PBUH once his whole life, which shows us the delegates w
anted to study fiqh and aqeedah. The prophet PBUH said "cover your awra from eve
ryone other than your spouse". Muawiyah said "what if I am alone?" The prophet P
BUH said "There is more right upon Allah that you be shy of him". SubhanAllah.
We also learn that many of them came just to get the dua of the prophet PBUH. So
we have delegates who were murtads such as Musaylama. We have delegates who wer
e non muslims who just want peace treaties. We have delegates who are hypocrites
; and we have delegates whose imaan is weak. Then we have delegates whose imaan
is so strong the only reason they came is because they want dua from the prophet
PBUH, which is a beautiful reason. In this we have one narration from the tribe

of the Banu Kuld, that al Hakam al Hazam, a one-time sahabi who just saw the pr
ophet PBUH once, narrated "we were around 9 people who came to the prophet PBUH.
We entered in upon him and said 'we've come to you so that you may pray for us'
. So the prophet PBUH made dua for us, and he took care of us, and he was hospit
able to us and he fed us. And we stayed in Madinah for a few days, and we pray J
uma'a aswell. I saw him giving Juma'a holding up a stick. And I remember one phr
ase in the khutbah that 'Oh people..." Remember this is the year of delegations
- every Juma'a has total strangers, new to Islam. So the sahabi said he remember
ed one phrase that the prophet PBUH said "Oh people do what you can, and know th
at you will never be able to do everything you've been commanded to do." This or
iginal hadith is in Bhukari. THat the prophet PBUH said "you will never be able
to do everything commanded". Meaning, you won't be perfect. You will make mistak
es and sin. The prophet PBUH continued "but rather cover up and come closer". Th
at is, fill in the gaps. And he said "come as close as you can to what you're su
pposed to do". This is a beautiful hadith narrated by many sahaba.
The final incident is probably one of the more interesting ones. The delegation
of the christians of Najran. Now Najran is of course a very famous province. The
people there were almost entirely christian and had a strong relationship with
the Roman emporer. The prophet PBUH sent them a letter a few months before addre
ssing them in "the name of the God of Abraham, Ishaaq and Ya'qub". And he invite
d them to Islam and said "if you accept it's better for you, otherwise pay the j
izya, and if you refuse then we must fight". So they gathered together (the najr
ans) and made shura. One of them said "we know that there is a prophet predicted
in the Bani Isreal, how do we know its not him?" This shows us they were expect
ing a prophet. And frankly there are clear indications to this day in the old te
stemant that there shall come a prophet from the children of Ismail. The people
of Najran are attesting to this. And the person said "we should send a delegatio
n to find out". Another said "even if he isn't a prophet, we should know his str
ength". So all of them agreed to send a delegation directly to Madinah and judge
for themselves. So they decided to send a large delegation. Ibn Ishaaq mentions
60 people came. That is a huge number, typically delegations would be 1, 2, 5 o
r 10 people. This is a delegation of 60. The purpose of this was twofold: firstl
y to impress the prophet PBUH and the muslims, and second to gauge the reality o
f the situation.
So Ibn Ishaaq and others mention when they entered in upon the prophet PBUH they
were all dressed in a unique garment. These are not the pagans of Arabia; they
have a civilisation similar to the Romans. So they are dressed accordingly. When
they came in the sahaba said "we've never seen any delegation like theirs, and
they arrived at the time of Asr, and it was time for their salah, so they asked
permission to pray their salah, and the sahaba wanted to say no, but the prophet
PBUH allowed them to pray, so they turned towards the east". Facing east means
they are facing not the qiblah, but the left. So they all turned towards one of
the wall and said their prayer in the masjid of the prophet PBUH. This is of cou
rse a very interesting point. And the sahaba said when they had finished their p
rayer, discussions and dialogue began for 3-4 days. On the first day they asked
many questions about Isa bin Maryam. Eventually they asked the prophet PBUH a qu
estion that "if you agree with us that Isa was born of a virgin, then who is his
father?" And our prophet PBUH said "I don't have an answer. Let Allah answer yo
u". So the next day they came and Allah revealed the first 60 verses of Al-Imraa
n. Note the middle of Al-Imraan was revealed at Uhud, but the beginning was reve
aled right now in the 9th year. In it, Allah says "you are asking about the fath
er of Jesus. How about Adam AS? The simultude of Isa in the eyes of Allah is lik
e Adam. He created Adam from dust, and said 'QUN' and he was." Meaning Allah sim
ply says 'Be' and he became. Isa AS does not need a father. Further, they asked
if Ibrahim AS was a christian or a jew. And of course they said he was a christi
an. Allah revealed "Not was Ibrahim a Jew and not a Christian and but he was a t
rue Muslim, and not he was from the polytheists". And in this surah are the famo
us verses called 'the verse of mutual cursing'. Allah says:

(3:61) "Then whoever argues with you about it after [this] knowledge has come to
you - say, "Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women,
ourselves and yourselves, then supplicate earnestly [together] and invoke the c
urse of Allah upon the liars [among us].""
This was the 'verse of Mubahala' - this was a very big deal, and this shows us M
ubahala is allowed in rare occasions, only once you get to the end of legitimate
argumentation. There's no problem in saying "ok khalas if you are that sincere,
let's do mubahala". And Mubahala literally means 'may Allah curse be upon the p
arty that is lying between the two of us'. This is not how you begin da'wah, its
how you end it. And why do you call your children and wives, and then ourselves
? Because it's much more painful so Allahs punishment on them, then on ourself.
The nex day the prophet PBUH readied his family, his daughters, Hassan and Husay
n and others - yes this is ahlul Bayt. The shias make this a big deal, but what'
s the problem? This is his family. It dosen't mean Ali RA was entitled to be the
next khalifah. Yes its ahlul bayt, of course it is. So the prophet PBUH got the
m ready for Mubahala; in the meantime the christians of Najran discussed amongst
themselves and they said "you know if he is a prohpet and we do this curse, we
shall be obliterated". So the next day they said "we decline the Mubahala and ac
cept the jizya unconditionally". So the prophet PBUH put upon them a jizya which
was reasonable; a certain amount of cloth and silver each year. Cloth was a ver
y expensive commodity for the Arabs. And he said "for as long as Allah wills" i.
e. the prophet PBUH could stop the treaty whenever he wanted. Umar RA of course
during his reign to stop paying the jizya and leave the Arabia entirely. And bec
ause of that there are no indigenous non muslims in the entire Arabian lands. In
deed there were small pockets of pagans after the 9th year but Umar RA wanted to
rid them aswell.
And the people of Najran said "can you give us a judge to resolve our internal a
ffairs because we see you to be honest people?" So the prophet PBUH sent Abu Uba
id Allah Amr as a judge. Note out of the 60 its mentioned 24 of them were from t
he elite and noble. Of them were three who were bishops. Of them was one who was
a patriot. Meaning there were some very senior officials. Al Bayhaqee mentions
on the way back, one of the most senior members said something derogetory about
the prophet PBUH. The patriot (most senior member) said "dont curse him; because
he is the prophet". So he is admitting the prophet PBUH is the prophet. So the
brother said "why didn't you accept him then?!" The patriot said "do you wish to
give up all of the wealth and ties the (Roman) emporer has given us?" And so wh
en the younger brother heard this, he was so shocked he defected, became a musli
m and came back to Madinah. Thus the point is the senior among them recognised t
hat indeed this was the prophet they were waiting for. This shows us the bulk of
mankind simply follows certain people. That's why the prophet PBUH emphasises r
eaching out to the higher ranked people. If they convert everyone below them con
vert. This is the sunnah of Allah amongst his creation.
Some of these delegations were wondering "should we convert or not?" There's a b
eautiful hadith - this is the delegation led by Abdur Rehman ibn Aqil, one of th
e sahaba and again the only thing we know about him is this one delegation. If y
ou're apart of the delegates it means you only saw the prophet PBUH once; so the
y're not of the level of the badriyoon, or sahaba at Hudaybiyyah etc. The delega
tes are still sahabi and are still respected, but can't be compared to the elite
sahaba that fought in battles and lived with the prophet PBUH. One such sahaba
is Abdur Rehman ibn Aqil. He says "I was one of those who went as a delegate to
the prophet PBUH. And when we asked permission to enter in upon him, there was n
o one in the world whom we despised more than the one we were forced to go and s
ee." Meaning they hated the prophet PBUH but their tribe forced them to meet and
negotiate. And he continues: "But when we ended up leaving, there was no one in
the world more beloved to us than the one we were departing from". So subhanAll

ah look at how it flipped. This is understandable: some people are coming thinki
ng they will be humiliated that their tribe has to give up their freedom, religi
on and accept a new faith. They're angry and hurt and are treating the prophet P
BUH as a conquerer. But then when they see and speak with him, he becomes the mo
st beloved to them.
Then he said "one of our youngsters asked the prophet PBUH 'oh messenger of Alla
h why don't you ask your Lord to give you a kingdom like that of Sulayman AS?'"
So the prophet PBUH laughed and said "maybe your companion has been given a king
dom better than the king of Sulayman". And "Allah has never said any prohpet acc
ept he has given him one request. Some of those prophets asked of something from
this world. Some asked for punishments against their people. As for me, Allah h
as given me a request that I've kept with myself between me and my Lord. It shal
l be my shifa'a for my ummah on the day of Judgement". So he has the better king
dom because his ummah will enter Jannah, inshaAllah.
Note we mentioned all the important delegations over the past three episodes. Ho
wever we will also breifly mention bizzare, fabricated and weak narrations. We d
o this when such narrations are used to embarrass muslims, or they are used by t
he unorthodox sects of Islam. These come from the tertiary books of seerah: not
the primary. Some of these books mention some very bizzare stories. We'll mentio
n them now; they are NOT authentic. But we will mention them because sometimes t
hey are mentioned in the extreme sufi books and so it's important to be aware th
ese are fabricated and not authentic. One such story is that the great grandson
of Iblees came to accept Islam. And he repented and what not etc. This is of cou
rse not true. In Al-Mustadrak alaa al-Sahihain (the Mustadrak of Al Haakim) whic
h is a famous book of hadeeth but has many fabrications, it's reported that Ilya
as AS the prophet came as a delegate and a table from heaven came down, and he h
ad dinner with the prophet PBUH. And then when the dinner was finished Ilyaas AS
when back up to heaven. This is walahi bizzare, strange and clearly fabricated.
We also find such narrations in Thabarani's kitaab al-Awsat, which is a book wh
erein Thabarani intended to compile the most bizzare hadith, not the most authen
tic. Rather the most obscure and strange hadith. Also they appear in the Kamil o
f ibn Adi'. This is a book in which ibn Adi' purposefully compiled all the weak
ahadith. Therefore if you read a book relating hadith from the kamil of ibn Adi'
you wonder what the person is doing when he's narrating a hadith from a book wh
ose known to collect fabricated hadith. That is, the purpose of ibn Adi's book w
as to collect fabricated hadith to make us aware of them. But then when authors
quote from it as if its from Bhukari, there are clearly problems. In one narrati
on its said a stranger came to the masjid of the prophet PBUH and made a sufi-st
ic dua. So the prophet PBUH smiled and said "why don't you add this to the dua".
And there's a back and forth until finally it's discovered this person is appar
ently Kidhr. Clearly all of this is fabrication. No Ilyaas, Kidhr, Shaytaan, ibn
ibn Iblees.
To conclude, what we see especially in the 9th year, how quickly Islam spread am
ongst the tribes of Arabia. We have delegations coming from the north, from the
south and from the east. So from Yemen, Najran, Oman, Najd etc. Thus this was th
e year that, without military campaigns, these are small independant tribes who
realise they can't remain as they are. They too either embrace or enact a treaty
to pay the jizia. Thus an Islamic State is consolidated; this is the first time
in human history the Arabian world was united by one political entity. Never be
fore all the arab tribes consolidated under one rule. This shows us the fruits o
f patience are always sweet. And Allah fulfilled his promise to the prophet PBUH
. In surah Nasr Allah said:
1. When the victory of Allah has come and the conquest,
2. And you see the people entering into the religion of Allah in multitudes,
3. Then exalt [Him] with praise of your Lord and ask forgiveness of Him. Indeed,
He is ever Accepting of repentance.

It also shows us, even in the time of the prophet PBUH, people had different lev
els of imaan. We have this naive assumption everyone was like Abu Bukr or Umar.
Rather, we see hypocrites, pagans, people of weak imaan, people of strongest ima
an who came all the way just for a dua. We see people wanting to study Islam, as
king fiqh and theology questions. So the entire spectrum is there. Of the most a
mazing things, many of us assume Islam is so simple, clear and easy that all we
have to do is speak and people will embrace. However, we forget that peoples nat
ures are stubborn. Here we have the prophet PBUH conversing with the christians
of Najran yet many still thought Christianity is correct. The point is accepting
a new religion is not an easy matter. If the prophet PBUH, and people are talki
ng and seeing him directly; if they are not convinced immediately that he is a m
essenger of Allah, then do you think me and you will be able to do a better job
when we give daw'ah? Of course not. There's always people who are 'deaf and blin
d'. This demonstrates that truth might indeed be clear, but only for those who w
ant to see it. If you cover your own eyes and you don't want to change your cult
ure and religion, then even having the prophet PBUH in front of you won't make y
ou change.
Also we learn that the masjid can be used as a place of hospitality for non musl
ims. The tribe of Taqeef stayed inside the masjid, and can be used as a place of
worship for people that are not muslim as an occasional thing. People who are u
ltra strict about this is completely wrong and bizzare. Throughout the seerah no
n muslims walk into the masjid. Here we have christians praying in the holiest m
asjids in Madinah. The sahaba want to stop them, the prophet PBUH says "let them
pray". Thus no doubt you don't make a regular prayer time for them, but if they
are guests then it's fine. This shows us the true spirit of Islam, that we are
tolerant: we don't believe any other religion to be true, but we won't force Isl
am and will let you pray even in our own masjids. This is walahi the height of r
ealistic pluralism. To say "everyone is okay" is nonsensical because each group
believes the other is wrong. Christians say "the only way to God is through Jesu
s"; thus anyone who dosen't follow this can't get to God. We aswell say the only
way to Allah is through Islam. Yet what does that mean? It's up to everyone els
e. And we dialogue; that dialouge must be firm and can even reach the maximum le
vel of Mubahala. But we don't get physical with them. The tribe of Najran in the
end after everything refused to accept Islam. What was done to them? Nothing. T
hey went back with their treaty in peace. This is the height of tolerance; no ot
her civilisation in the world was this tolerant, up until 'secularism' which rej
ected religion as a whole. Of course Europe was extremely intolerant at that tim
e. In any case we learn from the prophet PBUH we must tolerate other faiths.
We also see when delegates come, its the responsibility of the muslim community
to host them, because the prophet PBUH took charge of feeding them. In fact the
books of seerah mention certain houses were used to house them. And these are pa
gans, jews, christians etc. All of them were taken care of by the prophet PBUH.
Thus guests are treated with upmost honour and hospitality. Even in Mecca and Ma
dinah non muslims can come for a temporary period in time. This is the majority
position; some say its haraam for any non muslim to come completely. No - it's h
araam for them to live in Mecca and Madinah. But not haraam to come for a period
of time for a greater community good. For example, when the masjid of the proph
et PBUH was being built, there were germans building the masjid. Why? Because th
ey were experts in that field. You need the technology. What did you expect othe
r than the technicians to come and build it themselves. The point is that, nothi
ng is wrong with this. So here we have the permissability even in Mecca and Madi
nah of non muslims entering for a small period of time.