 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 wa sallam? 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. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful, the Merciful. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon the honorable prophets and messengers of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Wa ala aalihi al-tayyibin al-taahireena l-ghurra al-mayameen wal-anatullah ala a'adaihim ajma'een min al-an ila qiyam yawm al-din. Peace be upon Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And peace be upon you and the blessings of Allah and the blessings of the Prophet. So with regards to our journey, the journey of our holy Prophet's life, sallallahu alaihi wa alihi wa sallam, we've reached to the point chronologically where Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi has left Mecca after 13 hard years with the Quraysh and all his efforts for them to at least give him the freedom to express his beliefs and pass the message. He travels to Medina and from here also we have the beginning of the Islamic calendar where we calculate the years from Hijrah and the holy Prophet also we discussed this incident with the cave. Now the holy Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi wa sallam are heading to Medina with Abu Bakr and Amirul-Mu'mineen is left behind in Mecca. Now there are certain jobs, assignments, tasks for Amirul-Mu'mineen. One of them is for him to protect Fatima al-Zahra alaihi sallam, his mother Fatima bint Asad, and I believe a third Fatima as well amongst the Fawat and the three Fatimas. I do not remember the third, inshallah if you could inform me about that. So the first task was to return the Amanat, the goods. What would it be a proper word Amanat in English? Trust. The trust. So the trustees that people left with the holy Prophet as known as Sardek al-Amin, people would trust him so much they'd leave things with him like a bank. So Amirul-Mu'mineen alaihi sallam had to return them before eventually leaving with the holy Fawat. Inshallah if we can begin with Amirul-Mu'mineen alaihi sallam and we can go through the events. Inshallah. Inshallah. I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. May Allah protect us all. Yes, when the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alayhi wa alayhi left Makkah for Medina of course he stayed in the cave for three days until dust settled so that they could continue their journey without Quraish being on their trail. Amirul-Mu'mineen alaihi sallam stayed behind. He stayed in the Prophet s bedroom on his bed as a decoy if you like so that the Prophet could escape. And after they discovered this of course there were some skirmishes between the warriors of Quraish, Imam alaihi sallam. So they came after Amirul-Mu'mineen. Yeah. Were they planning to assassinate Amirul-Mu'mineen since the holy Prophet escaped? Well, they wanted to punish Amirul-Mu'mineen at least in some instances. They did punish but what happened according to some narrations that the first one who came forward to hit the Prophet thinking that he was a prophet was Amirul-Mu'mineen alaihi sallam and Amirul-Mu'mineen stood up to him. The first one who came to him was Khalid al-Nuwalid and Amirul-Mu'mineen alaihi sallam grabbed him by his arm and twisted his arm and firmly holding or grasping his hand so that he could make him to let go of his sword and to say that he was screaming in pain because Amirul-Mu'mineen was twisting his arm. So he was known at that stage in his life Amirul-Mu'mineen was he known for his extraordinary power? He certainly became known. He became known in that instance. But was it from that night? It's just quite out of curiosity just to know regarding the recognition of the Qur'an amongst the Quraysh regarding his extraordinary powers because of course by the time we reach the khaybar which insha'Allah will cover that shows truly... Well, before khaybar it was in Badr and then in Ahud in the battles of Badr and Ahud which shows the bravery and heroism that Ma'ala alaihi sallam showed. So that, yeah, but at least this is the first instance when he confronted Khalid al-Nuwalid and Khalid al-Nuwalid was screaming in pain because Ma'ala alaihi was twisting his arm and he made him let go of his sword and he took his sword and he threatened him. So that really demoralized the warriors of Quraysh at that instance. And some narration say they wouldn't let him go. They sort of kept him there. Some narration say they said, okay, we'll let him go. We are after someone else. We're not after him. We're after Muhammad. Not to waste time and sort of try to see which direction he's gone. In fact, they said to him, where is Muhammad? He said, you didn't want him here so he's left. You didn't leave me to watch over Muhammad. Why are you asking me? So there was some... that kind of strong conversation between them if you like. And they were very anxious not to lose time and immediately Rush made a decision as to which way to go. And of course they got some guides, if you like, or those people who can track. Trackers, if you like. So they went after that. At least in that instance, in his confrontation with Khalid al-Nuwalid, he was one of the warriors of the kuffar, of the disbelievers of Quraish. He really... Imam Ali al-Salam gave him a good lesson to Khalid al-Nuwalid and he humiliated him in that instance. At least in that case he became known for his bravery. There is another instance when he was leaving Medina. He was confronted with someone else. He probably will come to it. And there was a confrontation as well. And again they saw the bravery of Imam Ali al-Salam in that instance. But as you mentioned, the following day he had three tasks to do. Imam Ali al-Salam, which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi had instructions to do. One is to return back all the goods that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi had been given for safekeeping and trust, to return them to their owners. And to settle any debts that the Prophet had, sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi, to go to the creditors and make sure everything is sorted. Another third thing is to get all the women and children, the Prophet s family, if you like. And as well as Imam Ali s mother, Fatima bin Asad, to take them with him and head for Medina. So it wasn't just Fawat, it was women and children left behind? Yeah, the wives of the Prophet, if you like, at that time he didn't have any wives, so the wives wouldn't be correct because Sayyid al-Khadeej al-Salam had passed away and he didn't marry in Mecca, if you like, after the death of Sayyid al-Khadeej al-Salam. He married in Medina. So yes, they wanted to get the women and children who they were with him, so he got them with him. And that was on road to Medina. So his task there was to settle the debts and to give any goods that they had given any items that were given to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi and he declared that he used to go around or study in Mecca and declare that whoever wants anything from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi he should come to me so that I can settle these with him. And he made that his job and of course, and he did declare that after I finished this I'm leaving Mecca for Medina. And of course this was unique in the sense that Imam alayhi al-Salam, all the Muslims who were persecuted in Mecca, they left Mecca secretly at night one by one so that they don't draw attention. They had to leave all their belongings there. That's why, I mean for future reference, all their belongings and property and wealth and so on of the Muslims who were persecuted in Mecca were confiscated by Quraish. We need to remember this inshallah when we talk about the beginning of the battle of Badr we see the causes, the reasons for some of the actions that were taken. So they had to leave in secret. They couldn't carry their property or their belonging with them. The Prophet did the same thing, sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi, he left at night secretly but Imam alayhi al-Salam, he left if you like in broad daylight and openly he declared He announced it as well. He said, and this was a challenge to Quraish. And this was a challenge to Quraish. That's why, of course, they pursued him and they tried to assassinate Imam alayhi al-Salam on route to Medina which is showed in that instance. Amir al-Mu'minin al-Salam was all by himself or he had any other companions? No, he didn't have any other companions. All by himself with the women and children? With the women and children. So one would think if he was all by himself it would be a very important reason to leave secretly as well. But by announcing it, does this show that Amir al-Mu'minin because of his exemplary bravery and also extraordinary power which was proven on the battlefield, he didn't know. Wary, he wasn't worrying the fact that all they're going to come after us. He knows he can control the situation and protect the children and the women. And would this show, is there anything more to this other than that? Well, there are various narrations. In one instance, Quraish, they came up with a plan to discredit Imam Ali and the Prophet, and the sense that they said to one of them that you go and make false claims that you'd given something to the Prophet and he went back. And so he did. So Imam Ali al-Salam, someone by the name... Could you remind me which book you're quoting us from? There are various books. I mean, this is Jawahir al-Tariqa. It's a compilation of various hadiths, if you like, and incidences and narrations and so on. It is said that Abu Sufyan and others, they instructed Umair ibn Wabi al-Sakfi that go and make false claims that you'd given the Prophet, 80 misqal of gold. Now that he's a floodmaker and you are his representative here, I want you to give that gold back to me. And I have witnesses for that. And of course, Imam Ali al-Salam checked and his name didn't appear. And he said that my witnesses were Abu Jahl, Akrima, Abu Sufyan and Hanzala. So if you like well-known people, Abu Jahl is on Akrima, Abu Sufyan, Hanzala and so on. Leading people of Quraysh. And these are my witnesses. I've given this gold to the Prophet. Now that you're saying that you want to return back all the items that had been given to the Prophet for safekeeping, I want you to give me back that 80 misqal of gold. Imam Ali al-Salam knew that this was a trick. And they want to discredit him and the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi. And he said, okay, let's go buy the Ka'bah and bring your witnesses so that I can ask them. So Omeir came and the witnesses came and he asked Abu Sufyan. He said, did you see that Omeir gave him 80 misqal of gold? He said, yes. He said, what time was that? And Abu Sufyan said this was about sunset. By the way, before Imam Ali asked Omeir as to what time it was. That he gave them the gold too. And they were all giving different answers because obviously it was a lie. That's right. So he said by sunset. He asked Hanzala and he said at midday. And he asked Al-Qubay and he said it wasn't the afternoon. He asked Akram and he said it was about sunrise. So everyone was giving a different answer about the time that Omeir gave the money to the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi. And of course in this way, and Omeir was standing and he got these witnesses one by one to come and tell Imam Ali as to when was this done at what time. And Omeir could see that they were giving different timings. And Imam Ali turned to him and he said, why have you gone pale? And of course he said that to be honest, they instructed me to do this. In fact, they gave me money to say this. And he apologized for this. And it is said that he declared the two Shahada. Omeir bin Wa'il. And he said that I can see your honesty and of course the honesty of the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi. We know that he was the Sadiq al-Ameen, the trustworthy. But that's the thing, that's what's staggering about that his enemies were aware of his attributes. They were aware of what kind of human being he is, but still they denied him. Unfortunately, yes, they knew that they hadn't seen anything wrong, absolutely anything wrong from him. It's just that basically they were seeing that he's coming with a different religion. They were looking at their interests, they put their interests over anything else. If it was a religion that would not have an effect on the economical side of things, they might have even accepted it or left it at least to be as it is. Unfortunately, it's not only that. Of course it came again because Islam was against a lot of the culture and traditional practices. The Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi, told them that say la ilaha illa Allah Muhammadur Rasulullah and you will become leaders and your religion, that is Islam, will become the leading religion. So even materially you don't have anything to lose. Unfortunately, they didn't think straight. It was a win-win, there was nothing to lose. They would lose the idols that they had in the Kaaba, Lat and Minaad and so on. Other than that, they would have gained everything. But unfortunately, eventually they did. But after the battles of Badr and Ahud and so on, and after the conquest of Mecca, they saw the behavior of the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi, they thought that he would cause a slaughter in Mecca given the fact that he has the upper hand in Mecca, but the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi, didn't do anything and they saw still his good behavior, his honorable behavior and his conduct towards them and he forgave them despite all the wrong things that they had done to him, all the killings that they had caused. They killed Hamza, they persecuted the Muslims throughout and confiscated their properties. But despite that, he forgave them. So eventually they embraced Islam, if you like, but some of them still had this arrogance. Of course. Which can be seen even today. Yes. Okay, so after this, a middlemenin should be preparing to leave. Once everything was sorted, taking care of all the responsibilities, anything, hanging, now a middlemenin is getting ready to leave to go to Medina. What happens? Well, obviously they left, if you like, Mecca. They didn't block his path, they let him go. They left in the middle of the day, you said? Yes. Given the station of Amir Mumni, alaihi salam, and the fact that they have already lost once in the sense that they lost, they didn't manage to kill the Prophet, alaihi salam, so they demoralized there. They didn't manage to find him. So they didn't want to openly fight Imam alaihi salam. When he left Mecca, there was an assassination attempt against Imam alaihi salam by a group leading by one of the, if you like, worries of Quraish, but Imam Ali could repel that attack and continue his way to Medina. But, of course, this took place after the Prophet, alaihi salam, had arrived at the outskirts of Medina, if you like, had arrived at a village called Quba, and they stayed in the tent of a woman called Umm Ma'bet. And they waited, the Prophet, alaihi salam, and Abu Bakr together, and the Prophet decided to wait until Imam Ali arrives. Abu Bakr said to him, he might not come for another month. So the people of Medina are very happy, the news has reached that you've arrived, and so let's go. The Prophet, alaihi salam, said, I will not enter Medina without my brother Ali. Why would he say that? Why would he say that? Why would who? Yeah, why wouldn't the Holy Prophet enter Medina without Amir al-Mu'minin, alaihi salam? What was so important that he had to enter with Imam Ali? A number of reasons, one of them, at least in the Prophet, alaihi salam, is that he is the one who protected me and shielded me, and he sacrificed himself for my sake. He put himself in grave danger, in imminent danger, and he knew that 40 warriors, the best warriors that Quraish had to offer, 40 of them were coming that night with their swords, and they're going to attack him. And yet he stayed in my place, allowing me to leave with such a huge sacrifice and imminent danger of being killed. At least I could return courtesy by waiting for him until he arrives so that we both arrive in Medina in Yathrib. Is that the only reason why he would wait before entering the city? Or is there another reason as well to emphasize something very important with regards to Islam itself? Yes. This is the reason he gave, the Prophet, alaihi salam, gave to Abu Bakr. And of course, I want to say that Abu Bakr said that he didn't like all this weight that the Prophet, alaihi salam, is giving to Imam, alaihi salam. And he insisted that they should leave. So you can imagine that he is telling the Prophet what to do and he should be there taking instructions from the Prophet, alaihi salam, because he knows that the Prophet, alaihi salam, he should know that the Prophet, alaihi salam, doesn't do anything except according to instructions from Allah, alaihi salam. So even staying at Quba or leaving from Medina is according to what Allah has instructed him. Whatever, which is the sunnah of the Prophet, whatever the Prophet does is in line with the instructions of Allah, alaihi salam. So, yeah, Abu Bakr was not happy with this. He kept insisting and the Prophet, alaihi salam, said to him that he is not leaving. He is staying until Imam Ali arrives and so this angered Abu Bakr and Abu Bakr left the Prophet there in Quba and he headed for Medina. Okay, I feel with regards to this, I just wanted us to touch a couple of issues here. So we see the stressfulness of Abu Bakr. Now, we discussing the biography of the Holy Prophet, his lifetime and his mission, we see that the Holy Prophet throughout his time always tries to emphasize and show to the people that after me, my successor is Amir al-Mu'mineen. And how I see it is that it was so important for him to enter Medina with Amir al-Mu'mineen as a statement to the people. And Abu Bakr wanted that. So that shows, now if there is a conspiracy against the Holy Prophet, alaihi salam where did it start? Because you can see the signs that the plotting did not start at the last era, at the last years of the Holy Prophet. It could have been from the very beginning and it's quite disturbing. Now, whatever we can expose, insha'Allah, I would like to expose it because at the end of the day, we want to expose the truth and be objective where we have to be objective. And obviously, we have to give credit when it's due to give credit. Not being biased or anything. So, Abu Bakr leaves, he goes to Medina. That doesn't happen, he won't enter. And we'll discuss about Medina, insha'Allah, we'll go into that because that's quite exciting as well. Now, Amir al-Mu'mineen left Mecca and he's on his way. As you mentioned that the Quraysh, they try, they send people to stop him. He brought them back, he continues. The Holy Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, is in Quba and he's waiting. And insha'Allah, we're going to discuss about Amir al-Mu'mineen arriving to Masjid al-Quba and entering Medina, insha'Allah, and we'll go through that. Alhamdulillah, our Lord is upon us. The Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, threw out from the moment that the first revelation took place, he used every opportunity to show that Imam Ali is along with me, he is supporting me, and he is the one who is going to lead the ummah as my successor. He is going to lead the ummah after me. So the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, used every opportunity to show, to express this and show that message to the people. Even by just arriving at the city of Medina along with Imam Ali, rather than anyone else.