 The mysteries of Islam fascinate us time and time again. This is no different from the life story of the Prophet. Who was Muhammad ﷺ? 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. So yes, Sayyidina, Dr. Al-Aziz, Inshallah, he will show us the true story of the Prophet. Wrote to Najash. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. The Prophet, along with Jafar Ibn Abi Talib, he sent a letter to the king and also later on with someone called Amr Ibn Umayyah Al-Dummari, he sent another letter and this is available in a book called Makatiber Rasool, it's a two volume book which is quite big. Makatiber Rasool includes all the correspondents that the Prophet, had with various people, kings and heads of saints and officials and what have you. So in that we have this letter which the Prophet, sent to the king of Abyssinia. If you like, if you like me, I can read it. So he sent this letter with Jafar. No, he sent this letter with Amr Ibn Umayyah. Who went before Jafar? He went after Jafar. As you can tell from the letter. It says, From Muhammad, the messenger of Allah to the nexus Al-Asham, the name of the king of Abyssinia called Al-Asham. The king of Abyssinia. Peace be upon you. I praise Allah the Holy. And I testify that Jesus, son of Mary, is the spirit of Allah. His word which he bestowed upon Mary the blessed. Mary conceived Jesus and Allah created Jesus from his spirit and breathed into him. Just as he created Adam and breathed into him. I call upon you to believe in Allah who has no partner or associate and to believe in me and follow me. By he who sent me, I am the messenger of Allah. I have sent you, my cousin, Jafar along with a group of Muslims. So when they come to you, agree and put aside arrogance. I call you and your soldiers to Allah. I have conveyed my message. So accept and peace be upon those who follow guidance. This was, if you like, a short letter which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam sent. And of course he sent similar letters to the other kings. Inviting them to Islam. King of Egypt, the Coptic and the Caesar of the Byzantine Empire. He sent them similar letters and of course there are a lot of details about those letters. In fact we have that even the emperor, the Caesar, he embraced Islam secretly. He wouldn't openly say that he has embraced Islam. And in the case of Najashi, this was a similar story. He embraced Islam to begin with and even his people around him didn't know. Gradually when it was appropriate they made it known. And of course this was, if you like, he was under the authority of the emperor or the Caesar of the Byzantine Empire. But because they were busy with the Persian, fighting battles with the Persian Empire they couldn't dedicate too much time and effort to what's happening in Abyssinia. And in fact what happened was towards the end of Israel there were opponents of Najashi who revolted against him with the help and support from the Byzantine Empire. But he managed to put them down. And Ume Salaman writes that they used to pray that he, Najashi or the Nagas he wins which of course he eventually won. And even the Muslim migrants, they offered to join his army to support him to find against his opponent but he didn't accept their offer. He said, no, I don't want you to get involved in this battle. So these 80 Muslims or at least some of them, they offered to help him in his battle against his opponent. But of course he won at the end of the day. So yes, this was the sort of letter that he sent. And we have reports that as I said in the previous episode that Ja'far al-Tayyar, alaihi salam, his role became to preach and to promote the message of Islam to the people. And it was highly successful. And of course in his debate and discussion with Najashi in private, he, Najashi or the Nagas, he embraced Islam. And he wrote a letter to the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, informing him of his belief in Islam, embracing Islam at the hands of Ja'far al-Tayyar, alaihi salam. If you like, I can read this. Yes, please. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. To Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah from the Nagas, Al-Asham Ibn Abjar. Al-Asham is his name and Abjar is his father's name. Peace be upon you, O Prophet of Allah and his mercy and blessings. Allah has favoured upon me to guide me to Islam. I received your letter, O Messenger of Allah, in which you mentioned the attributes of Jesus. I swear by Allah, I swear by the Lord of the heavens and earth that Jesus is exactly as you mentioned. We have given refuge to your cousin and his companions. I testify that you are Allah's Messenger, the truthful and the accredited by the Almighty. I give allegiance to you and I have given allegiance to your cousin. And I have embraced Islam at his hands. I have sent my son, Arha, to you, for I have none in my possession other than myself. I'll explain what this means later. And if you wish, I would come to you as well. I testify that whatever you say is the truth. Peace be upon you, O Messenger of Allah. Masha'Allah. That's very interesting. Yes, he embraces Islam. At the hands, as he says, at the hands of Jafar Al-Tayyar, Jafar Ibn Abi Talib, he obviously is his discussion and the debates that he entered and convinced the king to embrace Islam, which he did. And he sent his son, Arha, to the Prophet, peace be upon him. He was with the Prophet. And of course, when the Prophet passed away, Arha went to become a loyal and devout follower of Imam Ali, peace be upon him. Because he was in that sort of circle. So Arha, he stayed in Mecca? He stayed in Mecca and Medina. And he says, after the death of his father, when his father Danyasi died, the people of Abyssinia sent for him, there was a lot of turmoil between them. They couldn't agree who is the king. They said the best thing is to get, if you like, the crown prince to succeed him. They said to him, come back and we will make you a king. And of course, the condition was that he should remain a Christian. Abandon Islam. He said, if you give me the whole world, I wouldn't abandon Islam. So he refused because the condition was unacceptable to him, for him to abandon Islam. And he stayed in Medina with Imam Ali, peace be upon him. So this was the letter of An-Najashi. And of course, there were more correspondence between them. And An-Najashi used to himself when he became more reassured of his surrounding and he declared Islam to them. He started sending delegations of priests and bishops to Mecca and also to Medina. And they used to embrace Islam and go back. So he became more confident in that respect. And this was all the efforts of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him. He was there. And as I mentioned in the previous episode that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said that he is doing jihad and that jihad by that jihad means all his endeavours to try to convey the teachings of Islam, the teaching and the message of Islam to the people. He did that until of course the Prophet, peace be upon him, in year seven. After Hijra. After Hijra, he called upon him to return, which he did with a group of the remaining Muslims. Some of the Muslims had migrated back to, had gone back to Medina. Medina, after they had, the Prophet had migrated from Mecca to Medina because they learned that in Medina they are safe and there is no persecution from Quraish and so on. And some of those who had come back to Medina, they took part in the battle of Badr or Uhud and they were killed in those battles. Obviously in defense, remember that Quraish used to come from Mecca which is about 400-450 kilometers away south of Medina. They used to come to Medina and fight with the Muslims. But anyway, so in year seven, the Prophet, peace be upon him, instructed the Jaffer of Nabi Talib, peace be upon him, to come back, which he did with the remaining Muslims. Mashallah. So, now the situation in Mecca, Jaffer of Tayyar went to Ethiopia. What measures did the Quraish take towards the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, while still in Mecca before the migration to Yathrib Medina? With regards to, as you mentioned, the embargo, the Quraish set upon the Holy Prophet and the Muslims in Mecca. Seeing the success of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in that more and more people, be it, if you like, still handful, they were in their tens rather than in their thousands while in Mecca. But given the fact that more and more people were embracing Islam and accepting the message of Islam, the message of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in Mecca, and given the fact that more and more people from Abyssinia were coming to learn more from the Prophet, peace be upon him, and become Muslim, and therefore spreading the message of Islam beyond the seas. This was too much for them. They decided that they have to do more. It was a decision that they have to kill the Prophet, peace be upon him, but he was obviously being guarded and protected by Abu Talib, peace be upon him, and of course by Bani Hashim, and the instructions of Abu Talib, peace be upon him. They became more aggressive, and they said they have to do something about this, and they said, now we not only target the Prophet, we target, if you like, all of Bani Hashim who are protecting him. And of course Bani Hashim, they feared for their safety, and it was decided that they, Abu Talib said that they should come to his valley, or the plot of land that Abu Talib had where he had his house, and that land on some side was surrounded by hills. Anyway, he asked all of Bani Hashim for their safety, because they feared for safety. They abandoned their homes, and they all went to the Sha'ab of Abu Talib, or the land of Abu Talib, the valley of Abu Talib, peace be upon him. And if you like, this was because of this second stage aggressive policy that the Quraish decided. They said, we can't tolerate this, we have to put a stop, we've been too lenient with Muhammad so far, peace be upon him, and we can't continue like this. So they agreed on, if you like, a boycott treaty. They decided that they should all become one hand against Bani Hashim, because they are protecting him. And they have to force Bani Hashim to surrender the Prophet, so that they kill him. Who took the decision to lead the Quraish? In this boycott? All the chiefs, Quraish is a collection of different clans. Okay, so they all agreed. And it is said, some reports say there were 40 signatories, 40 chiefs signed this boycott agreement, and some reports say there were 80 chiefs signing that boycott agreement. They wrote that agreement, the boycott agreement, and they signed it, and they placed it in the sanctuary inside the Ka'ba. They placed it inside the Ka'ba, hidden, and all are obliged to honor this treaty that they have signed. So basically there were really any, you could say the overwhelming majority of Quraish, which is the collection of all these different clans, and the overwhelming majority of the chiefs of these clans, they signed this agreement in support of the boycott against Bani Hashim. And this included that they should be social and economical. Basically they shouldn't buy and sell anything from Bani Hashim, and no marriage between them until Bani Hashim is pressured to abandon the Holy Prophet to surrender the Prophet, to them so that they kill him. When they do that, then they will be safe. So both economical and social boycotting towards the Holy Prophet. And how, just if you could help me get the image of those difficult times, how was the lifestyle of the Muslims during that era in Mecca? It was hard, and it became harder and harder by the day. So they couldn't even go to the local market, for example? It is reported that they used to go during the pilgrim, the Hajj season, during the time of Jahiliyyah, they used to go to Hajj in the month of Rajab and in the month of the Hajjab. Rajab was for Umrah, and the Hajjah was for Hajj. So to begin with, they also could go during these seasons. A lot of people used to come, other because of the sheer number of the pilgrims or because of the reputation of, they didn't want to show that the entire Quraysh is against one clan, the clan of Bani Hashim. They could go and buy some food and bring it to the shan. This went on, of course, they couldn't do it, they became more and more forceful. To begin with, for example, when they used to go outside Mecca, in the roads leading to Mecca, and used to stop the caravans who are coming for whether Hajj or trade, and warned them not to deal with, they should not engage in any kind of transaction with Bani Hashim. And they warned them that if they do, they will confiscate their property. So this was their policy, and it is said that obviously there were loopholes, they could go and sort of, they couldn't, they didn't have a good firm sanction against them, but they could do, they could buy sometimes. But they got to the point where, this went on for three years, they got to the point, it said that they used to eat leaves of trees. This is all that they had. To what extent they got to the... This was the extent of the suffering that they had. And not only that, they, at the beginning, they said that if they come and buy from you, then ask for extortionate prices. So they used to put up the prices really high, so that despite that, they used to buy because they had to feed their people. So Abu Talib spent his money buying prices several times the normal prices, buying foodstuff several times the normal prices. Sayyid al-Khadeegah, alaihi salam, and the Prophet Muhammad, who had the money of Sayyid al-Khadeegah at his disposal. He used to spend that money to buy food for Bani Hashim at very high prices. And unfortunately, we don't have, for example, others, we don't have any reports that others, so-called, if you like, Muslims who came and supported the Prophet, alaihi salam, and Bani Hashim. There was no such thing, but anyway. Okay, subhanAllah, so it shows basically how important the role of Abu Talib and the wife of the Holy Prophet, alaihi salam, were with regards to keeping them alive during those difficult times. Yet, if you go back and read some Islamic, within brackets, history books, it's so sad how a personality like Abu Talib, they'll say that, or he passed away as a kafir, and personalities such as Abu Sufyan died the mu'min. And that's so sad. Five of the companions, they swore an oath and recorded that in a document that if, when the Prophet dies or he is killed, then we will ensure that we take over the succession, take over the reign, and not allow his Ahlulbayt to succeed.