 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. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, Ustadi al-Azeez. InshaAllah we're continuing. We were left at Amir al-Mu'mineena alaihi salam approaching the Holy Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi wasallam. And as you've mentioned quoting from the book, Amir al-Mu'mineena was very shy and for three days he'd go. So on the third day eventually the Holy Prophet understood why Amir al-Mu'mineena was coming for. So he got the proposal, he went back to Fatima al-Zahra, sallallahu alaihi wa alihi. And Fatima al-Zahra indicated through her silence that she approved and the Holy Prophet went back to Amir al-Mu'mineena. Oh there was something you wanted to mention before him, before the Holy Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi going back to Amir al-Mu'mineena, the Malaiqa, something you wanted to add. So inshaAllah we'll continue from there. Bismillah. Audhu billahi min ash-shaytani r-rajim, Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim, wal-hamdulillahi rabbil al-alamin wa s-salatu wa s-salamu ala Sayyidina Muhammad al-Mu'mineena, tawibin al-tawibin al-ma'asumeen, wa l-la'nat da'imati ala ada'im as-ma'in. Yes, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi went back to Imam alaihi al-salam and he reported that Fatima al-Zahra has approved because the last thing that Fatima al-Zahra said was, at least the final thing was that, I am content with whatever Allah and His Messenger are content with. So the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi went back and said that to Imam alaihi al-salam and in order to clarify he said, are you happy to become the husband of Fatima al-Zahra? Imam alaihi al-salam says, oh yes, oh Rasulullah, yes, oh Rasulullah. And then the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi said, before you came today, one of the Malaiyis, one of the angels came down to me. And did he say, which angel by the way, Doctor? Yes, and I'll tell you, says that he came down and he said to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi that, your status in the south of Allah is the highest and there is nothing higher than that. And the Prophet said to him, oh Jibrail, I hadn't seen you in this form before because Jibrail appeared to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi in different forms, even in the form of some individuals, which we won't go into at the moment, individuals like some of the Sahaba who were good, he used to, and they passed away, they appeared to them like that. So he said, I haven't seen you in that, in this form before. And the angel said to him, I'm not Jibrail. My name is Sarsail. And I have, Allah has dispatched me and I've come to instruct you or to give the good news of the marriage between the light and the light. And I've just come down to say this, but Jibrail and Mika'il and Israfil and another Malaika Isma'il, they will come down along with 70,000 Malaika, they will come down to you in a short while. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi says, O Sarsail, what do you mean by when you say the marriage of the Nur with the Nur, the light with the light? He said, I mean the marriage of Fatima and Ali. So the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi wanted to make sure that when this narration, this report, this hadith is narrated, he didn't suffice by saying light with light and a thousand years later, people, when they read it, it's a bit ambiguous as to what they mean by it. They might talk about always the wedding of George and Sarah, whatever, yeah. So he specifically says, what do you mean by light with light? And Sarsail replies, the marriage of Fatima and Ali, Ali Mus'alaam. See, that's the thing that, subhanallah, the Holy Prophet and the Ahlul Bayt, Ali Mus'alaam, them being aware constantly of the future and obviously them being given knowledge, which we don't know, they understood of the complications that would occur throughout the time. So they would emphasize and make these obvious questions just for us to hear it, not for them or anyone else, it's for us. Exactly. It's all for the benefit of the reader who would come in a thousand years' time or two thousand years' time. How truly blessed we are. Insha'Allah. The narration says that when the Sarsail was saying goodbye and he left, the Prophet says, I saw it's written on his shoulder, there is no God but Allah, Muhammad is a messenger and he will be supported by Ali, who is his wasli and the authority after him. And when I saw this, I said, since when this is written on your shoulder? He says that this was written 24,000 years before the creation of Adam. Subhan Allah. Subhan Allah, imagine. Okay, then when he left, when the Sarsail left, Jibrail along with Mikael and Israfil and Isma'il and 70,000 Malaika arrived, and first of all they gave like some perfume to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi and they said that this perfume is for Fatma al-Zara'a, and then they brought a document from Paradise and I said to Jibrail, what is this? This was written in this document. O Muhammad, Allah chose you for the Rasala, for the mission, for conveying his message, Allah's message to the people, to creation and then he chose a brother for you and a wazir, a vice-chairman and a helper and a son-in-law so that you would marry Fatma to him. And he said, now this is just before Ali bin Abi Talib comes for the third time and he says, oh my beloved Jibrail, who is this second person? Who is this brother and wazir and helper? What's his name? He says he is your brother in religion and your cousin in blood, he is Ali bin Abi Talib. So again, another example of that. Emphasizing again. First of all, he did it with Fersa'eel, which that was some, if you like, some time ago, a short time before. Now Jibrail comes, he brings this document and this is what Allah says, Allah has chosen the Prophet for the mission, he's chosen Imam Ali, he's chosen someone to help the Prophet, to be his brother and to be his helper and to be his son-in-law and he instructs him to marry Fatma to him, he asks who is he? The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, asked who is he? Just to make sure that who, these are all come from Imam Ali, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Okay, so the Prophet, now this is the quote which the Prophet made to Imam Ali when he said to him, before you came, this is what happened. He again emphasized, are you content to be the husband of Fatima? He says, yes, I am content. And then he goes on to say that you will marry Fatima and she is Sayyidat-e-Nisaal Al-Alamin and Allah, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, will grant you two sons, they are the masters of the youth of Paradise, they are Hassan al-Hussain, the Ummah will rung them and do oppress them. Oppress them and Hussain will be killed in a brutal way. So, right from the outset, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, is telling Imam Ali, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, as to what's going to happen. But he continues that. But I'm pretty sure once again, maybe the narration was not intended for the ears of Amir-e-Mu'mineem Bakr-e-Raz. I'm sure, I'm sure, it's also, and listen, it says that the success is after me, R-12, the number of the months of a year and also Isa-e-Bin-Mari'em, Isa, the son of Mariam, will descend and will pray behind the last Imam, the last one of the 12 Imams. So, in a nutshell, very briefly, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says to Imam Ali, what's going to happen? Because of this, as a result of this marriage, this holy marriage, between these two holy individuals, this is the outcome, the 12 Imams, they're there for the guidance of the people and eventually, Isa-e-Bin-Mari'em, one of the Prophets of Allah, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, will come and pray behind Imam Mehdi, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk about the mahar. About the mahar. Now, mahar, before we start, we tried finding the translation for it in English and we found the word dowry, which we use in English. But however, what I've realized is that we're using a wrong word because the terminology, the definition of dowry is a property slash money or anything of value, whether given by the bride to the husband, which is the other way around. In Islam. In Islam, because we don't have anything in Islam of an obligation from the bride to the husband. So maybe it's best to just describe what mahar means. Yes, mahar is something that the husband is required to give to the wife, to the bride, if you like. It's an obligatory deed, it's an obligation for the husband to do that. And marriage would not be complete without this marriage. As you rightly mentioned, dowry is not the right term for it. Dowry means something completely different. Whatever the origin may be, whether it's India or other cultures. As you mentioned, it's something that the bride gives to the husband, whereas we don't have that in Islam. In Islam, it's the husband gives the mahar, he's obliged to give mahar to the wife and that could be money, gold, silver, or even taking it for ziyara, or even teacher. There were cases where the muhajireen and the sardis say we are poor, we can't give mahar. He says, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam used to say, do you know some passage of the Quran, some surahs of the Quran, they used to say yes. He says, okay, your mahar to her is to teach her those surahs of the Quran. It's not just about money. It's not just about money. It's something that he's obliged to give and that is called mahar or it's called sadaq, another term for it. It seals the marriage, it's like the signature on the contract basically. I don't know whether it's like that, but without it, it cannot be, the marriage will be complete with mahar or sadaq. It's an obligation that the husband should give to the wife. And in this case, in the case of the mahar or sadaq, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the Prophet said, what would you give as a mahar for my daughter Fatim? And he said, I have a horse, a camel, a sword and an armor. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said that, Subhanallah, this is all your blogging, your possessions. You need the sword and the horse for when you go to jihad to do battle. To defend Islam? You need the camel for travel or also for giving water, for irrigating the farm or the palm trees. But you don't need the armor. So go and sell the armor and bring the money here. But Amir Muhammad said, oh, Rasulallah, this armor would be worth nothing more than 500 dirhams. 500 dirhams is minus silver coins. This is not much. But he would like to sell the horse or the camel which will bring more money than 500 dirhams. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, I will marry Fatimah to you with that. You know, I will be happy with that 500 dirhams. And that mahar became the sunnah, the tradition for the weddings? Yes. However, unfortunately, we could maybe be out of the topic, discuss with you guys where we've ended up with our communities nowadays. And unfortunately, certain families ask for extravagant amounts of money. Sometimes it's so ridiculous. And we feel sorry for men who are being struggling. They have to work for years to gather up that amount just to satisfy. And it's truly a shame when you see the best, the purest, the best of personalities, the best of existence, and Fatimah to Zahra accepted 400, 500 dirhams. Then who are we to ask for more than that? In my humble opinion, that should have been the maximum anyone could ask for. It's true that this became known as the mahar sunnah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi always encouraged that the mahar be a small amount or at least stick to this mahar sunnah. And it's true that these days people ask for extravagant amounts. When you say that it should be the maximum, we don't have that in Islam. It's been left open. It's been recommended. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi recommended that they use this as a sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi mahar sunnah and it will be barakah in that marriage because if they choose this mahar which is 500 silver coins and this will be equivalent, if I remember correctly, one and a quarter kilograms of silver and that will be roughly about four, five hundred dollars. That's the sort of money you're talking about. But anyway, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi did not make it a mass, this mahar. So people can ask more, but there have been numerous hadiths and so on to emphasize it, to keep the mahar low. At least there are indications that if you want to give, if you are able to give gifts to the bride, on top of the mahar sunnah. So you keep the mahar sunnah which is 500 dirham and separate the gifts. So that you will have the barakah of this mahar. The mahar of this marriage will be like the mahar of the marriage of Fatima al-Zahra, and the marriage of Fatima al-Zahra, so it's recommended that scholars these days say use that mahar sunnah, 500 silver coins. But if you are well-off, if you are able, you can give on top of that, as a gift, not part of the mahar, but you can give gifts to the bride. And by doing so, you've made sure you stuck to this mahar, you use this mahar of Fatima al-Zahra for your marriage. So inshallah people will sort of do that. But yes, the Prophet didn't ban anything higher than that. He didn't say it's a must to do this. It's a sunnah. And of course you see the barakah that happened in their marriage. And despite all the animosities, we see the end result of the barakah of that marriage today and inshallah we'll continue to say it until the day of Qiyamah. So it's important that the faithful try to do their best to abide by the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi. And one of the sunnah in marriage is this mahar sunnah. And one of the most important things is not to focus on the materialistic side because at the end of the day, look at the great example of Amir al-Mu'minin in Fatima al-Zahra. You had the wealthiest of people come approach the Holy Prophet and the Holy Prophet was not interested in their money. You mentioned about how the Holy Prophet, for example, turned some stones into precious gems just to prove a point that, you know what, we're not interested in this. If this what we wanted, we could have had the whole world. It belongs to us anyway. So it's beautiful how we can learn from these incidents and apply them in our life because we think that the spiritual value of life cannot be compared with the materialistic one. There's more important things than money. You can have money, but you can't have, for example, money can't give you knowledge, money. Well, you know what, unfortunately nowadays you can pay to be, what's the word, to get the door open for you in a university or whatever to study, but it can't necessarily give you knowledge, it can't give you wisdom, health, how many people lose their health, they have all the money in the world, they can't get it back, you know, it's upon Allah. And it's very beautiful for us to keep reminding ourselves that there's more to life than just striving to acquire materials where eventually we're just going to leave them behind because we're going to pass away one day. Ah, Santa. Of course, material is important. No, Bismillah. I just want to comment on that material is important but we shouldn't give, you know, we shouldn't be attached to it. It's important to when it's required and needed in life. Exactly. But it shouldn't be the purpose of life. That's right. Yeah. Ah, Santa. Yes. So the mahar was decided at 400 to 500 dirhams. Yeah. Yeah. And the Amir al-Mu'minin, alaihi salam, went and sold his armor. And then? He said that Amir got up and took his armor so that he could sell it and he took it to the market and he had the armor on his shoulder. And then he came across someone and he approached him, ma'ma alaihi salam, and he says, Ya Ali, this is very interesting. He knew his name. Ya Ali, will you, have you brought this armor for sale? He said yes. And he said, what are you asking for it? For the sale, ma'ma alaihi salam said 500 dirhams. And then he got a pouch of silver coins. He said, this is 500 dirhams. He took the armor. And ma'ma alaihi salam took the money, took the 500 coins and went to the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi, and he placed it on the thing and this is 500 dirhams. And he said, who did you sell it to? He asked the Prophet, he said to ma'ma alaihi salam, who did you sell the armor to? He said, O Rasulullah, someone stranger. He saw me and he was a buyer and I sold it to him. He said, do you know him? He said, no. He said, that was Jibrail, who has been sent by Allah, to go and buy the armor from you. And so the money that you have got from is from Allah, SubhanAllah. And God knows, maybe one day in Jannah we go, inshallah and we see the armor just somewhere. Okay, you jump too quickly. Then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi said, this is the armor. Jibrail brought it to me and take you back. So, yes, which of course this shows, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi says, this is an honor for my daughter, that Allah, SubhanAllah, paid for the dowry. He comes and buys. You said dowry, it's not dowry. That's the thing, doctor. It's just because we're accustomed to using that way. So the mahar. So Allah, SubhanAllah, paid the mahar. Yes. SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah. Can we continue or I've got another thing to say. InshaAllah we'll call it in and we'll continue next time. It is said that Jibrail, alayhi salam, went back to the heavens. And this time came back with a document in which it was written that Allah has set the mahar of Fatima al-Zahra to be the Shafa'ah of the sinners of the Shia of her father.