 the first and foremost from the immigrants and the helpers and all of those who follow them in goodness. Allah is pleased with them and they are well pleased with him. And he has prepared for them gardens under which rivers flow, wherein they shall dwell forever and that is the supreme achievement. The first and foremost, the pioneers of this Ummah from the Muhajiri and the Ansar. These are people we honor. We honor them because without them there would be no us. It is because of their sacrifices of wealth, sacrifice of comfort, sacrifice of their lives that Islam still is with us and has been passed down to us today. Despite the fact that they fell into strife as we know in Muslim history, two civil wars and great strife and upheaval for many centuries. But, Alhamdulillah, Allah SWT has blessed us to preserve our religion, to preserve the book that He revealed to our messenger, alayhi salam, to preserve the prophetic tradition that He bequeathed to us. Alhamdulillah, still in its original state and for us to benefit from the many fruits and wisdoms of that great legacy. The student of Abdullah ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, is Mujabir ibn Jabir. He said, So, the first of those who proclaimed Islam openly were the messenger of Allah, may Allah be pleased with him, and Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him. It didn't continue. As well as, As for the messenger of Allah, may Allah's blessing and peace be upon him and his family, Allah protected him by his paternal uncle, Abu Talib. As for Abu Bakr, his people protected him. As for the remainder of them, they had no protection. So, they were taken and they were placed into plates of iron and left to bask in the sun and experience the immense heat from those plates. And as we know, many of them had boulders, or some of them had boulders placed on their chests in order to compel them to recant and to renounce Allah and His messenger, Aleyhi salatu wa s-salam. These are pioneers. And I want to spend today to reflect upon the lives of these people, or at least try to highlight some of the important characteristics of them. And I want to give you a chance to take a look at the fact that they are not just a group of people, but they are not just a group of people, their lives with these people, or at least how to highlight some of the important characteristics of them. Take for instance, Khabbab ibn Arad. After the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and Abu Bakr al-Siddique, raja Allahu an. Khabbab is said to be the very first person to openly proclaim Islam. Khabbab ibn Arad. Khabbab was from Ben-Ussad. He was a sort maker. He was captured and enslaved during a raid. He served under a very cruel mistress known as Um Anmar. And when Khabbab had been discovered from time to time speaking with the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, she would punish him, she would torture him, she would take pieces of iron and she would heat it, and she would have it placed on his head and on other parts of his body to burn him, to discourage him from listening to this strange, strange teaching that he's receiving from Muhammad, who they consider to be some sort of sorcerer or a port or some soothsayer or fortune teller. So, Khabbab, his punishment reached a point that on one particular occasion, they had created a fire and they took Khabbab and they placed him in that fire and they held him down on his back, on top of these coals. And it says in the narration that the only thing that put the fire out was the blood and the serum running from my back. And it said that Khabbab was tortured so much that his muscles in his back were atrophies. If you looked at his back, you only could see bones and burnt skin. And he even said that although everyone speaks of Bilal and how Bilal had it very bad, that Bilal didn't have it as bad as I did. Said at least Bilal, he had a family who were coming to his defense. They had a tribe coming to his defense. Not that he was his Abyssinian tribe, but the tribe that he had an allegiance to, that those people were defending Bilal, but Khabbab had no one. Khabbab was a slave himself. He lost contact with his own tribe. He said at least Bilal had someone to advocate for him. I had no one to advocate for me. And on one particular occasion, I'm talking about Khatab, of course in the later days when he had become Muslim and he was, and during his reign he had saw Khabbab and he was walking with him. It started to question him about the days of his torment. And Khabbab, he says, Umar, look at my back. And he removed his shirt and let Umar look see his back. And then Umar said, I haven't seen the back of a real man before today. The first time I've ever seen the back of a true man, a real man. In other words, these people had underwent great torment, great torture because of what they believed in. Because they believed that their way of life was better than other people's ways of life. That they believed that their way of life was a life that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the creator of the heavens and the earth, wanted them to lead. And ultimately the very life that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was for every human being to lead except without compulsion. Without compulsion. But Islam is the religion of the guy's religion. It is the religion that he wants for humanity to live by. And they believe this. And they wanted things to change from what they have been accustomed to. And one particular occasion, Khabbab becomes the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And he says, Ya Rasulullah, ala tas tansur lana. Won't you ask Allah to give us help? Why don't you pray to Allah that he come and give us his help? The prophet became upset when he heard this. And remember what I just said about Khabbab and what he's gone through? All this torture. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when Khabbab actually came and asked him this question, was in the Ka'abah and he was resting his head on one of his cloaks before the Ka'abah. So Khabbab, you can imagine Khabbab saying, I'm going through all of this punishment and you look at you that you're comfortable in the protection of the Ka'abah. Ya Rasulullah, are you not going to seek and petition Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to grant his victory, to grant his help? The prophet became angry. And he says to him, the people before you, ditches were dug for them and their bodies were placed into their ditches. The saw would be produced and they would be sawed and halved at their skulls. And others would have the meat raked from their bones. And none of that would deter them. None of that would turn them away from Islam. None of that would turn them away from Islam, from Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Well, I can not come to Sa'ajilun, but you are hasty. You people are impatient. Again, khabab, this is khabab, impatient. But Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is basically saying, no, people had it worse than you'd had it. Even you, khabab. Another of course is Bilal ibn Rabah, a raja'allahu anhu was among those who was mentioned in this hadith or this statement by Mujahid ibn Jabir. And there's a version by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, a raja'allahu anhu as well. In Bilal ibn Rabah, we know so much about him. He was the son of slaves for Abyssinia. Bilal, of course, he refused to disavow Islam. He refused to disavow Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in his messenger. Bilal was a son of Arabia. Not meaning that he was an Arab, but he was born and raised in Arabia. And I think this is an important point to highlight a misunderstanding that many people have because there's actually a supposed hadith that says that Bilal, when he called the adhan because of his dialect, his accent, he couldn't say ashhadu. That he would say ashhadu, ashhallahu alaihi wa sallam. And supposedly the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said Bilal is seen to Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that this is a fabricated hadith. Bilal, this is ibn Kathir. He makes it clear that this is a fabricated hadith. That Bilal was eloquent. Bilal, he has poetry. Bilal himself, he was by all intents and purposes, culturally in Arab in that sense, that his language was Arabic. But Bilal, as we know, we know him as the first one of them. But that's not all what Bilal was. He wasn't just someone with a nice voice. That's not all what Bilal was. He was an important figure in Islamic history. That he was also responsible for the baits and mouths, the treasury, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam gave him that task. Bilal, he would serve the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. That he would go out day by day, trying to find sustenance, things for the prophet to eat, as did Abdullah al-Mas'ud and Anas ibn Malik, so many others. They would, of course, carry, they would bring him his sandals, they would give him his toothbrush, all these things that they would do for the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Bilal, on the day of Eid, Bilal would be the one who actually would lead the prophet's sacrificial lamb out to the prayer grounds, to have it slaughtered. That was Bilal al-Rabah. He had a very, very special position that he had. And we know the story of him being freed by Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Raja Allahu An. Even though there's some disagreement about his athlete, how his freedom was achieved, but the famous story is that it was Abu Bakr who did so. We know stories about Bilal being berated. We won't have time to get involved with that, but that's not really what we're here for. But the idea is that they understand, remember that these are people who sacrificed for us because they believed in something greater than themselves. They sacrificed for us, of course, for themselves too, because they wanted to be close to Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. But ultimately, we can say that the far-reaching effects of their decisions have reached us today. Sumea bin Khoyaj, Raja Allahu An, she was the very first martyr in Islamic history. Sumea was the mother of Ammar ibn Yasab, Raja Allahu An, who many of us know who he is. Sumea was Abyssinian as well. Ammar's father was from Yemen. Yasab ibn Amr, Al-Absi was from Yemen. And Sumea, similar to Bilal, refused to give the Mushriqin what they wanted. They wanted her to renounce Allah and to renounce His messenger, alaihi sallatu wa sallam. So it wasn't only Bilal who refused to say that Allah is more than one, or that there's more than one God. It was also Sumea. It was also khabbat. There were others as well. And Sumea ended up being the very first of those killed in Islam with a very gruesome fashion, which I don't think we have the stomach to even mention from the minbar. But she had a very gruesome way that she was killed, unfortunately. But one of the great martyrs, the very first martyrs in Islam, Sumea bin Khoyaj, Yasab ibn Amr, her son, as we stated, he was the son of Yasab ibn Amr, who himself was from Yemen, who actually ended up in Mecca only because he and two of his brothers were searching for one of their other brothers who had been lost, apparently captured, or perhaps just simply fled away from their lands. So the brothers, his two brothers returned to Yemen, but he remained there in Mecca. And naturally, when you remain in Mecca, you have to form an alliance with someone, because you need the protection of the local tribes. So eventually he and his wife and his son become Muslims. And that decision is looked at as a type of treachery. And so they lose the protection of the tribe that had been given protection during this time. And all three of them, as we know, they were persecuted. And one particular day, it's the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he walked by them as they were being tormented. He called out to them, sabran ala Yasab, be patient. Patience, oh family of Yasab. Innamo idikumul jannah, because your appointment is with Allah in jannah, insha'Allah, that Allah will reward you with jannah. Be patient, patience, oh family of Yasab. Soheb ibn Sinan, also known as Soheb al-Rumi, Soheb the Roman. Now, a misunderstanding that many people have about Soheb is that he wasn't Arab. The truth is that Soheb ibn Sinan was actually an Arab, he's ethnic Arab. But the reason he's called a Rumi was because when he was a little boy, he was kidnapped by the Byzantines at the border between Persia, the territories ruled by Persia, and the Byzantines, and he was taken to Rome. And in Rome he grew up and he lost his accent, his original, his fluency in Arabic as a result of that. He still knew Arabic, but he developed a very strong accent when he spoke. His father and his uncle, they worked as feudal lords for the Persians, you know, when the Byzantines had invaded. And so he was again kidnapped and transformed into a slave, and then eventually he had found his way back to Arabia. On one particular occasion, Umrah al-Khattabah asked him that why is it that you claim affiliation or lineage to the Arabs? And so he explained to him what his lineage was. He said, no, he told him this story. He told him that, no, I'm actually an Arab, I'm not one of you. On one occasion Umrah al-Khattabah was visiting Soheb on his estate with one of his free slaves, Abu Aslam. Aslam. And so Soheb came out and he saw them, he became excited, and he said, Yanash, Yanash! Oh people, oh people! At least that's what Umrah al-Khattabah understood him to say. So Umrah was like, that was a very strange way to greet someone, to say, oh people, oh people. So he says, why is he saying oh people, oh people? Why is he saying Yanash, Yanash? But Aslam said, no, no, no, he's not saying, oh Nas, he's not saying Yanash, he's saying Yohannas, Yohannas. He's calling his servant. He's calling the name of his servant. He found it difficult to say Yohannas because he had lost his fluency in the Arabic language. But Soheb al-Romey was among those who were tortured as well for Allah's sake. And one of the early pioneers of Islam and one of the reasons that we all have Islam today, Meqdad al-Amr is another of these people. Meqdad al-Amr, he was from the tribe of Kindah. And he fled to Mecca because of a murder. He had murdered someone and he had fled to Mecca because he was afraid they was going to be dealt with among his people. And once he arrived, he was incorporated into the tribe or he was adopted by, rather, Aswad ibn Abdul Yeruz. And for that reason, he was referred to as Meqdad, ibn Aswad from that moment until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made it impermissible to refer to someone who is not your son as your son. Meqdad, he had been on the second hijrah to Abyssinia. But he missed the opportunity to flee to Medina for some particular reason, apparently because the Mishrikine prevented him to do so. But in one particular encounter, a story between the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the Sahaba and the Mishrikine, a peaceful encounter, he himself and two other Sahaba, they had defected and they joined the Muslims and they went back with them to Medina. He was known for his famous speech at Badr, Meqdad al-Amr. This is when the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he was trying to ascertain whether or not the Muhajirin and the Ansar were willing to fight because originally they came out to retrieve their goods. But now they're here. Now the army, the Meccan army is approaching and now they have to fight. So the Prophet wanted to be sure that you're giving me Ba'a, but are you truly willing to fight? And then Meqdad stood up and among the things he said was, we won't say to you what Banu Sallayhi said to Moses which was that you and your Lord go and fight. We want to remain here. No, we say that you and we all will go. We will fight with you. We will fight with you. We're not going to say the same thing that they have said. Then you have people like these women, these great women who also sacrificed, Labinah, who was a maid servant of Ben-Utameen. Before Ibn Abkhattab became Muslim, he would torment many people. Among them were women. Omar Abkhattab used to torture Labinah. She actually used to sometimes choke her until she passed out. This is how severe that her punishment would be, but she herself remained firm. She used to even threaten Omar Abkhattab with divine punishment if he did not accept Islam. She would still remind him, even if he wasn't afraid that, yeah, you can do with me whatever you want. But if you don't accept Islam, if you don't enter Islam, Allah knows how that he's going to punish you. This is Labinah. Brave women. Brave women. Another woman was Zanira Ar-Rumiya. This was a Byzantine woman who was a slave as well who was also mistreated by Omar Abkhattab. Raja Allahu An. When Zanira, she became Muslim, she lost her sight. And once she lost her sight, the mushrikeen they started to say, oh, Latin Uzzah placed a curse on you because you accepted this foreign religion. And so she said, no, it has nothing to do with that. This has to come from the creator of the heavens, that he has done this to me. And then after some time, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala restored her sight. And what did they say at this time? This had to do with the witchcraft of Muhammad. Muhammad had his sorcery did this to her. That's the only way, the only reason why she could have her sight returned because of his sorcery. Not because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had chosen her for the truth. And then lastly, because there's no time, there's so many people I can speak about. It's Ahmed Ibn Fuhairah. Raja Allahu An. He was an Arab slave, similar to other Arab slaves. He was also the uterine or the maternal brother of Umm al-Mu'mineen Aisha Rajalanha and her brother Abdul Rahman. He was freed by Abu Bakr Siddique, Raja Allahu An. He was among those people who, the few people who knew the prophet's location and Jabal Thor, when he was on his, his, his path to Medina with Abu Bakr Siddique. Ahmed Ibn Fuhairah used to bring the prophet and Abu Bakr food at certain times every single night as they waited to decide when they're going to leave and depart from Medina. They would bring with them goats, which were lactating and then they would give them the milk to drink from it. And, and, and so sometimes he would come with Abu Bakr's son and so that way, they would have someone who could cover their tracks so that the Mushrikiin would not find a way to, to the location of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But a miraculous event happened in one particular battle where in Ahmed Ibn Fuhairah he had fell to the ground and the man who had been fighting him he had a spear and he took his spear and he stabbed Ahmed Ibn Fuhairah. This same man later on became Muslim because of this incident so he stabs Ahmed Ibn Fuhairah and he says, as I stabbed him, it's as if his body disappeared. It was either swallowed up by the earth or a lost, I don't know, thought it took it up the heavens. It was because of that incident that this particular man had accepted Islam. But these are our pioneers. These are the people who sacrificed so much for us. These are the people who believed that Islam is the source of strength, is the source of salvation. The real question is, do we still believe that? We ask Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, that he restore our faith and our religion and increase our knowledge and proper understanding and to give us the courage and strength to defend it when faced with a challenge. I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, anything other than to complete his light, even if those reject faith, they dislike it. It is he who sent his messenger with the religion of truth, with guidance and a religion of truth in order to proclaim it over our religion, even if the idolaters, they are displeased with it. This is Quran. The Muslims throughout most of our history understood that they not only had an obligation to fulfill the complements of Allah SWT and to avoid the prohibitions, but also that there's a great burden on our shoulders, which is to bring the life of God to the rest of the world. This is clearly demonstrated in our history. They had a sense of mission. And while not every Muslim has an obligation to go out publicly and do dawah, that every Muslim has the obligation to enjoin what is good and forbid what is wrong. Even if that means keeping it inside, there should not be a Muslim who is enjoining wrong and forbidding the good, as we see today, unfortunately, quite often, and distorting the clear and pristine religion of Islam, the image of the Messenger of Allah, his legacy. So we are called to return to our religion. We are called to repent to Allah SWT, to reform ourselves, to remind ourselves of the great gifts we have been given. It is a source of our salvation. It is a source of our happiness. Without it, we would be nothing. We are nothing. And especially when we consider the fact that none of us shall tarry here forever on this earth, that there is a great reckoning, inshallah, after may Allah SWT protect me and protect you from that reckoning for failing him and our responsibility to ourselves, to our families, and to his creation. May Allah and His angels pray upon the Prophet. O you who believe, pray upon him and send him peace. Allahumma izzal islamu muslimin, Allahumma izzal islamu muslimin, Allahumma izzal islamu muslimin, Allahumma raddana ila dinika raddan jameena, Allahumma raddana ila dinika raddan jameena, Allahumma habbib ilayna iliman, wa zaynihu feeqlubina, wa karrih ilayna al-kufra, wa al-fusuq, wa al-hussian, wa ja'anna min al-rashireen, rabbana teqabal minna inna ka antasamee' al-alim, wa tuba'a ilayna inna ka antatawabu al-raheen, Allahumma kfirl al-muslimin, ma muslimat, wa al-moo'mineen, ma mu'minaat, al-ahgai minhum wa al-amwad, wa shulana Allahumma ma'ahum, bi-fardik wa ihsanik, ya ar-Rahman al-raheemin, rabbana aatin an-fusana taqwaha, wa zakkiha an-takhayru man zakkaha, an-tawaliyuha wa maulaha, rabbana aatina minna adunka rahmah, wa hii'inina minna amrina rashala, rabbana aatina fid dunya hasinatahu, wa fi al-akirin fi hasinatahu, wa kina aadab al-naar, wa kina aadab al-naar, wa salli Allahumma wa sallim, wa barakah ala Sayyidina Muhammadin, wa ala alihi wa ashabihin al-akhiar, wa sallim tasliman kathira, wa subhanah rabbika rabbil azat ya'amma yasifun, wa salaman ala al-mursaleen, wa alhamdulillahi rabbil al-alameen, wa aqin as-salat.