 The mysteries of Islam fascinate us time and time again. This is no different from the life story of the Prophet. Who was Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa alihi wasallam? An illiterate dozen merchant who one day stumbled upon amazing Arabic rhetoric. Or was he the creation of Allah's greatest light, sent down to earth to pull man out of ignorance and bring them to the purest of truths? I, Ali Burji, am on a journey to discover the real story behind the Prophet, the real story behind our religion, the roots, the beginning, the cradle of civilization. I seek refuge with Allah from the devil. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful, the Merciful. Ustad al Aziz, doctor, so with regards to the early days of Islam, so we've discussed that the Quraysh have made numerous attempts to stop the Holy Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, either by bribing and when they saw bribing would not help either by force. Now, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, slowly, slowly, the numbers of the Muslims kept increasing, people would come and embrace Islam because they would listen to him and what he had to say and nothing of what he said contradicted logic and reason. Now, what I'd like to know is in detail with regards to the persecution of the Muslims and the struggles and the hardships they had to go before Hijrah, before the migration to Medina, those years in those dark and difficult years for Rasulullah, the Muslims in general, but also for Benny Hashem, where now what happened is that Quraysh tried to block everything from the Muslims. What were the events occurring at that time in history? I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon him. Yes, when Quraysh saw that few people, more and more people gathering, they weren't great, many people. What numbers do you think? Probably you're talking about between 100, 150, according to some narrations, no more than 200, no more than 200. So that's within the first 10 years? The first 10 years, yes, until they were in Makkah. You're talking about that sort of number. Okay. But at the outset, when they saw more and more people are coming, they started using threat and harassment, even going as far as torture and killing, the Muslims. And most notable are the parents of Ammar, Ammar ibn Yasir. They were tortured and killed. Were they the first martyrs? They were the first who were, you know, tortured, if you like, and killed. Yes, the first. So there were intense persecution started. The Quraysh waged against the Muslims and the followers of the Prophet. They could not accommodate this new religion, because obviously they thought that it undermines everything they stood for. Of course, the values that they stood for were nothing to be proud of, worshipping idols, and the fact that women had no right or no value indeed. They had known that some people, or at least took place frequently, that if a female was born, they would consider that as a disgrace, and they would kill her or bury her alive. And so these are the sort of values which they had. And of course it's known that, for example, Ammar says that he buried his daughter alive as part of that culture. And the Prophet was against, yes, against that culture and against the sort of religion that they had. But Quraysh was having none of that, and they used extreme methods in order to persecute the Muslims. Their property and wealth were being confiscated. To the extent that it became so hard that the Prophet, peace be upon him, ordered some of the Muslims under the leadership of Ja'far al-Tayyar, what became of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, the elder brother of Imam Ali, peace be upon him, to migrate to Ethiopia. He said there is a just Christian king who rules that country, and you will find safe refuge there. So he recommended that they go there, and he ordered them to go there, and they did. Of course we'll come and talk about that, inshallah, in a future episode, in a bit more detail as to what happened, and it can be very interesting. So here we're trying to concentrate on the issue of the persecution that the early Muslims faced while in Mecca and the Prophet faced. This persecution continued until it got so bad that they were surrounded, if you like, in the valley of Abu Talib, peace be upon him. So they pushed all the Muslims, did they force them to all live together? Yes, in the valley of Abu Talib, peace be upon him, there was an official boycott embargo just so I can understand the Muslims and the Prophet. Geographically, do we know where was the valley of Abu Talib? Yes, it's well known. If you go and ask in Mecca, it's still there. Would be outskirts? No, it's in the city of Mecca, and they would point you to it, and you can, people go and visit it. And while as part of that embargo, the sanction against the early Muslims and the Prophet, peace be upon him, no one was allowed to trade with the Muslims, and no one was allowed to even talk to them, no one was allowed to marry them. So they blocked them completely from society. Was their intention to force them to leave Mecca, or they just wanted to slowly just kill them? They wanted to force them to give up on this religion. To abandon Islam and go back to their traditions of their forefathers. So they wanted them to have nothing to do with Islam. This is their aim. They didn't want them to expel them from Mecca. They didn't want them to leave Mecca, because basically they are mostly towards this religion and its followers. And probably they thought that if they leave Mecca, they go somewhere else, then they will spare that religion over there. So yes, no trade, no marriage, no, if you like, social economic clique with the people, with the Muslims. And there was a round there, because of that embargo, people couldn't get enough food to eat, of course, with the money that, say, the Khadija, peace be upon her, had given to the Prophet, her entire wealth, had given to the Prophet, peace be upon her, they used that money to buy secretly, if you like, goods and food, foodstuff for the Muslims in this valley of Abu Talib, peace be upon him. Were they now able to plant in the valley? No, no. And they used to buy them, of course, secretly, and of course, the foods that they used to buy were highly overpriced, because of the situation. But despite that, the Prophet, peace be upon him, used the wealth of Khadija, peace be upon him, to buy whatever foods they could and distribute amongst the Muslims secretly, amongst the Muslims in the valley. But despite that, they couldn't get enough food. Many Muslims died, and they were buried in that valley. And notable amongst them was Sayyeda Khadija and Abu Talib. So, first Abu Talib died, and then Sayyeda Khadija died. And this was a massive blow to the Prophet, peace be upon him. One of his biggest supporters from one side of Abu Talib, and then from the other, his wife, Sayyeda Khadija, passing away, Abu Talib was, if you like, a shield for the Prophet, peace be upon him, against Quraish. No one cared for the Prophet, peace be upon him, in terms of his protection and his proactive endeavor to make sure the Prophet is saved like Abu Talib did. It is well known that while in the valley, in the valley of Abu Talib, they spent very long time there, years. And at night, Abu Talib was concerned that the Prophet may be harmed or even killed by assassins during the night when he is asleep. So he used to keep vigil, Abu Talib, and he used to get his sons to sleep in the place of the Prophet, peace be upon him. So the famous incident with Amir al-Mu'mineen, No, we'll come to that. Okay, so it's been repeated in the past? Yes, if you like. Abu Talib, peace be upon him, used to place his sons. Which was how important the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, was. Make them sleep in the place. For example, for a couple of hours, the Prophet was sleeping. Then the Prophet, he would wake up the Prophet, make someone else, one of his sons to sleep in his place. So that if they are monitoring the Prophet, peace be upon him, and if they want to do any harm, at least the harm will come to his sons rather than to the Prophet, peace be upon him. This was Abu Talib, peace be upon him. And that on a daily basis or nightly basis, the Prophet, Abu Talib, peace be upon him, was very concerned for the well-being of the Prophet, peace be upon him. The Prophet died. Sorry, the Abu Talib died. And then 45 days later, Abu Talib is said to have died on the 26th of Rajab. And of year 10 after Mab'ath. And Sayyid al-Khadija died on the 10th of Ramadhan, year 10, on the same year. Abu Talib, 26, of Rajab. And Sayyid al-Khadija, 10th of Ramadhan, that makes it about 45 days, plus one day, makes it about 45 days after the death of Abu Talib. Sayyid al-Khadija, peace be upon him, dies. And this was a huge blow for the Prophet, peace be upon him. Not only emotionally, he loved them both dearly, but also in terms of support. They were the most loyal of the people around him, alongside people like Imam Ali, peace be upon him. And he was very saddened to the extent that people were worried about the well-being of the Prophet, given the sadness that he showed. That's why they called the Am Al-Hus, the Year of Sorrows, in the year that the Prophet lost his loyal uncle and his loyal wife, peace be upon him. So this was a big blow. And of course, it was later on, the Muslims, as I said, many other Muslims had died in the valley of Abu Talib. And they were buried there. The graves are people, when they reside in Fatiha, if you like, when they visit the valley, the She'ab of Abu Talib, peace be upon him. After this, it comes to the stage when Archangel Gabriel descends on the Prophet, peace be upon him, and says that your protector and loyal supporter, Abu Talib and your devout supporter, Sayyid al-Khalij, they have died. You've lost your supporters here. It's time for you to migrate to Medina. Before we can mention this, as part of, while they were, before this boycott and also afterwards, the Prophet, peace be upon him, met people from Medina who had embraced Islam, and they had invited him, they would show him support if he goes there. So I'm being very briefed in here. So the Prophet, peace be upon him, on instruction from Allah, planned for his departure of, his plan to depart Mecca and head for Medina. Which, inshallah, we'll talk about the Hijra, at least from the time that he left Medina, he left Mecca for Medina. And the fact that he placed, just as Abu Talib used to do, he placed, asked Imam Ali, peace be upon him, to sleep in his place, as a decoy, if you like, so that the Prophet, peace be upon him, can leave Mecca safely and head for Medina, inshallah. Inshallah, we'll talk about this in the next episode, inshallah. And we have Hadith from the Prophet, peace be upon him, who says that Jafar ibn Abi Talib, he is engaged in jihad in the land of Habash, doing jihad for Allah in the land of Abyssinia. He was conveying the teachings of Islam to them, the message of Islam to them, and inviting them to embrace Islam, in which he was very successful.