In the Eyes of Allah

In the Eyes of Allah - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Du'a

O Allah, make us among those who believe and do righteous deeds and enjoin truth and enjoin patience. Amen, O Lord of the worlds. O Allah, keep us firm upon "There is no god but Allah" at the time of death. My Lord, expand my chest and ease my task and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech.

The Significance of Surah 'Abasa

The story I want to share with you today has such importance and significance that the first passage of a very profound surah of the Quran is dedicated to that incident to help us better understand it. This involves the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) trying to deliver the message of Islam to the leaders of Quraysh - something he was struggling to do for a very long time.

Divine Strategy: Approaching the Elite

It's important to note that Allah sent all of his messengers to different towns across the world and throughout history, but one of the goals they all had was to actually speak to the very top of the society. Like Musa (عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ - ʿalayhi as-salām) was told first and foremost to go speak to the Pharaoh, to Fir'aun, and then the rest of the nation. There is a reason for that - because the people of the highest influence, if they were to accept Islam, then that would have a ripple effect. A lot more people would be influenced by their decision and it would actually spread Islam much faster.

This is the same reason why Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) used to make du'a for either 'Umar ibn al- Khattab or Abu Jahl to accept Islam, because these are people of influence. This is even true today when you find out somebody, some celebrity wore a hijab or held a Quran, or people love the rumor that Barack Obama is Muslim now. When people hear these things they feel like now we've got a big deal, a big gun on our side, somebody who is going to help better the image of Islam.

If you just think in our contemporary life about the kind of impact that a personality like Muhammad Ali had in his Islam and how many people found confidence in their faith rallying behind such a personality this is in a sense natural.

The Elite's Rejection

But the thing is, with the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) most of his career the leaders of Quraysh were adamantly against anything he had to say. The Quran describes through the example of other prophets and other struggles that one of the reasons they didn't want to hear anything the Prophet had to say even though note that the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) himself is from an elite family, he's from the family of Hashim, so he actually is a member of the elite in that sense, even though he's an orphan and doesn't have the kind of wealth and background, but from a tribal point of view he does belong to a higher status family.

Even then, what the Quran describes is different reasons why the higher-ups in society - whether they're politically influential, financially influential, or socially influential - don't want to hear anything the Prophets have to say. One of them is they see that people around the Prophets are very poor. They've got slaves around them, they've got youth that don't have any serious influence around them, they've got the impoverished around them, and they say: "I don't want to come and talk to you in this poor neighborhood and hang around these people. If you want to speak to me, let me just come to my place or come to some elite setting where I don't have to see this scum of society," because they feel that this is beneath them.

The Golden Opportunity

The Prophets all of them spoke to all of society. They did not develop a class system. Even though the Prophets were to address the elite, that doesn't mean that they didn't care about everybody else. They gave the message equally to everyone.

So on one rare occasion, what happens is one of the leaders of Quraysh - and it's interesting to note we're not sure who it is. Different Sahaba have different opinions about who it is. It could have been 'Utbah, it could have been Abu Jahl, it could have been any number of them. So lots of opinions are found about who that might have been, or was it a number of them? Were they the nobles of Quraysh? Were there a number of the leaders that he was talking to?

Anyway, at one occasion, instead of making fun of the Prophet or debating with him or dismissing him, it's one of those rare cases where they're actually listening to him. So he's speaking with them outside and they're actually listening and they're engaged in this conversation.

The Interruption - Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum

While they're engaged in this conversation, one of the relatives of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) whose name is Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum - you can remember him for short as Abdullah, that'll be easy for you to remember - he's related to the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) by marriage, so he's cousins with Khadijah (رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهَا - radiAllahu anha). He's a very poor man and he's one of the earliest people to accept Islam. This is all happening in Mecca.

He happened to be passing by, and an important thing about Abdullah is that he's blind, so he can't see. He's passing by and of course when people are blind they have much higher sensitive hearing - their other senses are sharpened even more. So from kind of a distance he hears the voice of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam). There's no other way for him to know where the Prophet is except by his voice.

As I told you, the Prophet is at this time (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) engaged in a rare opportunity - he's talking to the leaders of Quraysh and they're actually listening for a change. So he's in the middle of this conversation and he comes rushing over to the messenger (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) who happens to be his cousin also.

Abdullah's Request

It's interesting - in one narration he says: "Ya Muhammad, arshidni" - "Muhammad, give me some guidance, tell me something good." And he didn't say "Ya Rasulullah," he said "Ya Muhammad," and that may be the case because they're family and it's still early on in the legacy of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and other instructions like you don't address him that way, you call him Rasulullah - those are later instructions.

So anyway, he comes to him in one narration and says "Arshidni" - just give me some guidance. In another narration he says: (عَلَّمْنِي مِمَّا عَلَّمَكَ اللهُ - ʿallimnī mimmā ʿallamaka Allāh) - "Teach me something that Allah taught you. Teach me out of the many things Allah has taught you, give me something good."

Now this is - analyze what he's saying. He's not saying that I have an emergency and I need help right away. He's not saying that I have a situation, I need your urgent advice. He just happened to hear the Prophet's voice, he got excited, he rushed over to the Prophet and said: "Can you tell me something good please? I just really want to hear something motivating, something spiritual." That's what he's saying.

The Prophet's Dilemma

But the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) is right now engaged in another conversation. He's already talking to somebody who he may never get a chance to talk to again, and even if he does, that opportunity may not be the same because for a change they're actually listening.

So now the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) is stuck. He doesn't want to break Abdullah's heart and say "Could you hold on a second, let me finish this conversation," and he doesn't want to lose the chance of speaking to this leader also.

The Prophet's Diplomatic Response

What the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) does is something completely ingenious. As he's in this tension, he turns slightly to the leader that he was speaking to and he says to him: (هَلْ تَرَى بِمَا أَقُولُ بَأْسَاً؟ - hal tarā bimā aqūlu baʾsan?) - "Do you see any problem in what I've been sharing with you?"

So he didn't really respond to Abdullah yet. He talked to the leader of Quraish and said: "Hey, so I've been talking to you for a while. Anything I've said so far, do you have any problem with it?" basically.

Now why did he do that? One, it solves the problem for Abdullah. Abdullah now realizes: "Wait, I'm interrupting a conversation. I didn't realize I was interrupting a conversation." And at that point Abdullah's reaction is supposed to be: "Rasulullah, I didn't realize you're talking to somebody else. I just got excited. Why don't you just finish your conversation? I'll ask you later. My thing is not urgent, it can wait."

So the Prophet wouldn't have to tell him "You need to wait, just give me a couple of seconds," because that might be hurtful to him. But he tried to tell him in a very indirect and polite way. At the same time, he's trying to get to the leader of Quraish and saying: "Listen, I'm not dismissing you, so don't go anywhere." So he's kind of trying to mitigate both of these situations, the messenger of Allah (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam)

Abdullah's Social Mistake

Now the other thing I want to share with you - scholars like Al-Qurtubi, Imam Razi, others, when they talk about this incident, they at length describe what Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum did wrong. Like I said, if he's blind, certainly it's an indication in the story that he's got very sharp hearing. And if he's got sharp hearing, not only did he hear the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam), he also heard the other that was speaking. And the other that was speaking, whoever it was, definitely was a famous person in Makkah - it's a leader, it's a millionaire, it's somebody's big deal - which means Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum, high chances are, also recognized who that was. But he still didn't regard that because to him the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) is not only the messenger, it's also his relative, and he just got excited and interrupted the conversation.

So the first wrong that was done was actually done by Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum. Like if two of you are talking and I interrupt the conversation and say salam to one of you and pretend the other one doesn't even exist and just start talking, that's rude. I've done something rude. I should at the very least apologize: "I'm sorry for the interruption. Can I just borrow you for one second?" Say acknowledge both, at the very least acknowledge both.

Also, when the elite sees that he hasn't been acknowledged - the Prophet got acknowledged but the other guy in the conversation was not acknowledged - he's gonna be offended. Like he's used to being acknowledged, he's a big deal, and that diminishes the chances of him now listening more attentively, or that golden opportunity to give him something good is now slipping away.

Abdullah's Sincere Motivation

But on the other hand, also understand something else. Understand that people like Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum are very excited and truly, truly motivated to learn something beneficial. You may not see it as a state of emergency, but for them, learning anything of benefit, they're so eager to learn it and they're so excited about it. When he hears the Prophet's voice (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) he's so excited that he forgets everything else. He forgets what other sounds he hears, he forgets everything else that's going on. He just really wants to learn something of benefit, and this is an incredible, incredible sentiment that Allah put inside the heart of a believer - that they're so excited and eager to learn something of benefit.

So yes, it was socially awkward. Yes, it was something that's not quite polite. But actually from another point of view, you have to understand the emotion and the excitement from which he is speaking. This is the example of Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and he has the highest example.

Modern Parallels

But I do want to share with you so you can appreciate, you know, to some extent how this stuff even happens today. Sometimes I'm traveling to a conference somewhere and I'm walking through the bazaar trying to find something to buy for my kids or something, and somebody recognizes me and they start talking to me. Now we're having a conversation and they say: "I have this serious problem I wanted to talk to you about. I wonder if you can give me some advice," and we're having a conversation. And in the middle of the conversation I get grabbed and hugged: "Salamu alaykum! I've seen so many of your videos!" and now they're talking to me.

And what's happened is the first person I was speaking to feels like I completely dismissed them, like they don't exist anymore. And this person didn't say salam to both, he just said salam to me. Now on the one hand you could think they're being rude, but let me tell you, they're just excited. They may have heard a thousand hours of me talking to them that they feel like they know me. Like I play in their head before they go to sleep for a lot of people, so they feel like they have a personal connection with me. I may not know them, but I have to at least be sensitive to their excitement.

But that still doesn't mean that the other person who feels dismissed - it's okay for them to feel that way. It's a difficult situation to be in. Either way I'm in trouble. Either way, if I told this one person "Could you just wait one second, I'm gonna finish this conversation, then I'll come right back to you," if I said that much, this guy will say: "I listened to him for a thousand hours. I gave so many sleepy nights to him, and the first thing he ever says to me is 'wait a second'? I'm never listening to him again. What a rude person." This is a sensitive situation, it's a delicate situation.

The Divine Revelation Begins

So the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam) in this tense moment, here's what he did. He tried to figure out what's going on. The verb for it is (عَبَسَ عَبَسَ - ʿabasa ʿabasa) means (قَطَبَ بَيْنَ عَيْنَيْهِ - qaṭaba bayna ʿaynayhi) - to show a bulge between both eyes, like this much, like just this bulge between the eyes. If it goes a little further, if you start showing