Abu Rafi al-Qibti (ra): The Man Inside the Prophet’s ﷺ Home | The Firsts | Dr. Omar Suleiman

Abu Rafi' al-Qibti (ra): The Man Inside the Prophet's Home

So we're going to continue insha'Allah ta'ala in the theme of the Mawali of the Prophet ﷺ, the freed slaves of the Prophet ﷺ. And the next two people that we will cover, they set the stage for someone far more prominent in terms of the memory of the Muslims, but actually not much narrated about her, which is Mariyah Al-Qibthiyah radiallahu ta'ala anha. Mariyah the Copt, right? And being Al-Qibthiyah means that she is from Misr, she's from Egypt. And most of what we're going to have about Mariyah radiallahu ta'ala anha is narrated about her, but not necessarily narrated from her, because she comes in very late in the life of the Prophet ﷺ and lives a very private life radiallahu ta'ala anha.

But the two people that we're going to talk about bi-idhn Allah ta'ala, they really set the stage for the coming of Mariyah. And when you understand their lives a bit better insha'Allah ta'ala, you'll understand the context of the life of Mariyah as well. And what started off as sort of a side pursuit of a biography, led to a full-fledged biography of one of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ that we'll talk about tonight, Abu Rafi' Al-Qibti.

So we have Mariyah Al-Qibthiyah, Mariyah the Copt, the Coptic woman. And Abu Rafi' Al-Qibti, Abu Rafi' radiallahu ta'ala anhu, the Coptic man. Now I'll preface this by saying that if I was to look at the family that we're going to talk about insha'Allah ta'ala over these few sessions, if I could call them one thing, I'd call them the family of the family of the Prophet ﷺ. I want you to think about this idea, this concept, that if you were looking at the life of the Prophet ﷺ, and Banu Hashim, and specifically his immediate family ﷺ, and then those that came after him from Ahlul Bayt to Nabi ﷺ. From Ali radiallahu ta'ala anhu and Fatima radiallahu anha, to Al-Hassan and Al-Husayn, may Allah be pleased with them all.

Imagine if there was a family of freed slaves that was attached to this family of the Prophet ﷺ. And that is the best way that I could describe the people that we're going to speak about insha'Allah ta'ala in these few sessions bi-idhnillah.

Background and Origins

And so the first one is Abu Rafi' Mawla Rasulullah ﷺ كان من قبط مصر So he technically is from Egypt. However, we can't trace at what point he came from Egypt to the area of the Hijaz.

We don't know what battle it was. We don't know if he's a slave that was sold in the markets at some point. There's absolutely no information about when he came into the life of the Prophet ﷺ or how he came into the household of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. But just that he is originally Qibti.

He is originally Egyptian and from the Copts of Egypt. Now it's said that his name was Ibrahim or Aslam or Yasar. And most of the scholars call him, they say that his name was actually Aslam ﷺ. But he goes in Hadith literature as Abu Rafi' and he was known by his kunya by his nickname of Abu Rafi' ﷺ. And he is one of those names like Thuban ﷺ that you see throughout the collection of Ahadith.

Throughout the collection of Ahadith on the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And he was particularly a slave and I'm going to be very deliberate about when I use the term freed versus enslaved. So he was particularly enslaved by Al-Abbas ﷺ. So he's originally in the household of Al-Abbas ﷺ and he witnesses everything that's happening in the house of Al-Abbas ﷺ prior to Islam.

His Early Conversion to Islam

And as he sees what is unfolding in Mecca, he basically describes his role as someone that would carry messages between Al-Abbas ﷺ and his brothers and his nephew, the Prophet ﷺ and others within the family.

And he says that Quraysh sent him at some point to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. So this refers to some type of a negotiation phase between the Prophet ﷺ and Quraysh. And he says that when they sent me to the Prophet ﷺ, قَالَ رَأَيْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ And at that moment as I saw the Prophet ﷺ, أُلْقِيَ فِي قَلْبِيَ الْإِسْلَامِ I looked at the Prophet ﷺ at that point and I already knew that he was a Messenger of Allah. Islam was put in my heart immediately.

So he says, فَقُلْتُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنِّي وَاللَّهِ لَا أَرْجِعُ إِلَيْهِمْ أَبَدًا He said, Oh Messenger of Allah, I swear that I will never return to them. I don't want to return to Quraysh. Now the hadith that he's narrating, it doesn't specify at what time period this is.

It seems to suggest that this is closer to when the Prophet ﷺ had made hijrah to Medina or possibly even being in Medina and Quraysh dispatches him to the Prophet ﷺ to give a message. So he says, I can't go back to them because I know you are the Messenger of Allah. So the Prophet ﷺ responded to me and he said, إِنِّي لَا أَخِيصُ بِالْعَهَدِ وَلَا أَحْبِسُ الْبُرُدُ He said that I do not betray a covenant.

I'm not going to break a covenant nor do I imprison messengers. So I can't hold you, I can't imprison you, and I can't break a covenant. Quraysh sent you at the end of the day to deliver a message.

And if you stay here, then it's going to be interpreted in one of those two ways. So the Prophet ﷺ said to him, فَإِنْ كَانَ فِي نَفْسِكَ الَّذِي فِي نَفْسِكَ الْآنِ فَارْجِعْ He said, listen, if what you are saying is in you right now, go back and basically keep your Islam to yourself. قَالَ فَذَهَبْتُ He said that I went back to my people until the time was ready where I could come back to the Prophet ﷺ and fully lean into my Islam.

Witnessing the Battle of Badr's Aftermath

So he is the one who narrates that in the household of Al-Abbas ﷺ, he is now witnessing what is unfolding in the house of Al-Abbas ﷺ that he and Umm al-Fadl, Lubaba, the wife of Al-Abbas and Abdullah ibn Abbas and the children were secretly practicing Islam. They were secretly practicing Islam in Mecca. So I want you to imagine being in his place, practicing Islam in Mecca, and he is so vulnerable now because the Prophet ﷺ has left Medina.

There is zero protection for someone like him if it comes out that he is Muslim. So he is in Mecca and he says that we stayed back until the battle of Badr happened. And if you remember the story of Al-Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ, Al-Abbas ﷺ went out to the battle of Badr with his people, with the people of Mecca, technically fighting against the Prophet ﷺ, but he didn't fight.

Put his hands down and he basically waited to be captured by the Prophet ﷺ and sent back to Mecca. And Abu Rafi' says that I was with Umm al-Fadl, Lubaba, the wife of Al-Abbas. And we were sitting and Abu Lahab had come to the house.

And Abu Lahab was waiting for the news from Badr to come back because Abu Lahab did not go out to fight on the day of Badr. He sent someone in his place. So he said that I was sitting with Umm Lubaba, with the wife of Al-Abbas.

And Abu Lahab was pacing back and forth. And he said that he would sit down, Abu Lahab was a big man, he would sit down and then he would put his back on my back, like to rest on me. Right? And Abu Rafi' is basically narrating the emotions that himself and Umm al-Fadl, right, they're secretly Muslims, they're waiting to hear the news of victory of the Prophet ﷺ, but they can't show their excitement.

Abu Lahab is waiting to hear the news of the defeat of the Prophet ﷺ, and he's extremely nervous. So imagine having Abu Lahab's back to your back and you're secretly a Muslim, and Abu Lahab is taking a break on you, right? And pacing around you. And the state of his heart and the heart of Abu Lahab.

So he says that he gets back up and he paces. And then Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith starts to approach. So Abu Lahab immediately goes out and he says, come here, come, come, come.

Tell me what happened. What happened with the people? So he says that wallahi, we found a people that were small in number, but not encouraged. And he said, they killed us however they wish to kill us, they captured us in any way that they wish to capture us.

And he said, and there were creatures that look like bright men on these huge horses. And they were huge, so huge that they filled up the entire skies. And they were striking us, but we couldn't strike them.

So he's saying there was something other than human beings that were striking at us and killing us in the Battle of Badr, but we could not kill them. So Abu Rafi', he says that I couldn't contain my joy. I'm watching this conversation happen.

He's the secret Muslim slave at that time in the house of al-Abbas, and he's around the one man named in the Quran for his oppression of the Prophet ﷺ. So he says when Abu Sufyan was telling Abu Lahab this news, he said, رَفَعْتُ صَوْتِ وَيَدِي He said, I got up and I raised my hand and I raised my voice and I said, تِلْكَ وَاللَّهِ يَا الْمَلَائِكَةِ تِلْكَ وَاللَّهِ يَا الْمَلَائِكَةِ I swear by Allah, it's the angels. I swear by Allah, it's the angels.

And he said that when I did that and it was a misstep on his part, he said that's when Abu Lahab punched me and Abu Lahab basically sat on my chest and he started to pummel me fist after fist after fist after fist, almost to the point that he cracked my skull and that I almost bled out.

And that is when Umm Al-Fadl Lubaba, the wife of Al-Abbas took a tent pole and she hit Abu Lahab across the head, right? And she said, أَقَوِيتَ عَلَيْهِ يَا أَبَلَهَبِ استَغْوَيْتَ عَلَيْهِ أَنْ غَابَ عَنْهُ سَيِّدُ Are you doing this because you think his master is not here, you can take advantage of him? How dare you jump on him and beat him in this way? Are you doing this because his Sayyid is not present?

And of course when Umm Al-Fadl cracked Abu Lahab across the skull, Abu Rafi' is the one that narrates that Abu Lahab basically would die from that wound and he would rot to the extent that this man subhanAllah who opposed the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Rafi' says by Allah, his own people would not wash him because of how stinky he was, how much he rotted from the blow, how nasty his corpse smelled, his own sons.

And Abu Rafi' he narrates this narration, he says that it was so bad that they threw water at the body of Abu Lahab from a distance to wash him. And then they threw stones from an upper part, so he said like imagine that basically where the body of Abu Lahab was that there was a cliff of sorts, there was an elevated part of the mountainous area that was above where his body was, that his people went on top of there and they dumped stones on him that way to bury him that way because no one wanted to come close to his body.

This was the end of Abu Lahab.

Migration to Medina and Freedom

So he said when that happened, he said I went to the Prophet ﷺ muhajiran, so he actually made hijrah, so he's considered a muhajir. I migrated to the Prophet ﷺ and Al-Abbas ﷺ had basically gifted him to the Prophet ﷺ, so he technically belongs to the Prophet ﷺ. And when he came to the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ freed him and the Prophet ﷺ married him to another freed woman named Salma.

Salma, and we're going to talk about Salma رضي الله تعالى عنها as well. So Abu Rafi' made his way to Medina, freed by the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ just as he would marry the most privileged of his community, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would marry the enslaved amongst each other, he would marry the freed slaves, he would marry people of different classes to each other, so he married him to Salma رضي الله تعالى عنها and he took care of both of them Abu Rafi' and Salma.

Service in the Household of the Prophet

Now what follows, Abu Rafi' was amongst those that witnessed Uhud and Al-Khandaq, and all of the battles with the Prophet ﷺ, other than the battle of Badr because of everything that happened there, and he and Salma accompanied the Prophet ﷺ at Khaibar, and he is the one who actually narrates the narration of Ali رضي الله تعالى عنه holding up a door by himself and basically being able to fight off the multiple enemies on the day of Khaibar رضي الله تعالى عنه.

He then narrates the closeness that he came to the Prophet ﷺ with, and amongst that closeness is that the Prophet ﷺ started to entrust him with some of the most specific tasks to his family. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw that he was a trustworthy person. Abu Rafi' said that I was a carpenter in Mecca, so he said I built the furniture in the house of the Prophet ﷺ. What is the furniture of the Prophet's ﷺ house, right? The little mattress of the Prophet ﷺ that could be converted into a couch that they would sit on during the day or whatever small items.

He said I was the one that did the carpentry of the house of the Prophet ﷺ, and he said and the Prophet ﷺ brought me near to him, and then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed a man from Banu Makhzum to collect the zakah. So the man said to me, he said go out with me, he said فَإِنَّكَ تُصِيبُ مِنْهَا If you go out with me, then you will have a share of the portion of the zakah, of the charity. And Abu Rafi' said not until حَتَّى آتِيَ النَّبِي ﷺ فَأَسْأَلَهُمْ I need to go ask the Prophet ﷺ first if this is permissible for me.

(Hadith reported by Abu Dawud)

So he says that the Prophet ﷺ said to me, It's a very powerful hadith. The freed slave of a people, of a family is like that family. And we, the family of the Prophet ﷺ, it is not halal for us to have charity.

Abu Rafi' loved this hadith. Because basically the Prophet ﷺ is saying no, no, you're being elevated now. You're from our family now.

Just like Fatima ﷺ cannot have a share of the sadaqah. Al-Hassan and Al-Hussain cannot have a share of the sadaqah. You can't have a share of the sadaqah because you are one of us now, ya Abu Rafi' So this is one badge of honor for Abu Rafi' ﷺ.

Witnessing the Miracles of the Prophet

He then mentions that I went out with the Prophet ﷺ on the day of Al-Khandaq. And this is one of, you know, we're talking about the miracles of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the class on the signs, the ayat of the Prophet ﷺ. This is one of those dala'il al-nubuwwah, one of those famous miracles of the Prophet ﷺ, which was to take something that was little and to convert it into a lot.

So he says that I went out with the Prophet ﷺ on the day of Al-Khandaq. And he said that there was a shaat, there was a sheep, uhdiyat lahu, that was given to the Prophet ﷺ as a gift during hisar al-mushrikeen, during the siege of the disbelievers, of the Muslims during Al-Khandaq.

So he says that I placed that sheep in a pot to cook. And the Prophet ﷺ entered upon me. And the Prophet ﷺ said, What is it that you're cooking, O Abu Rafi'? Because the Prophet ﷺ was starving during Al-Khandaq.

And we'll see the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ for other people. So he said, ma hadha ya Abu Rafi'? What is this, O Abu Rafi'? So he said, shaatun uhdiyat lana ya Rasulullah. He said that it is a sheep that was gifted to us, O Messenger of Allah.

fatabakhtuha fil qidr. So I decided to cook it in the pot. So the Prophet ﷺ said, nawinni dhira'a, ya Abu Rafi'.

Give me from its foreleg, O Abu Rafi'. Bring me its foreleg when you finish cooking it. So he brought it to the Prophet ﷺ. And then after the Prophet ﷺ ate from it, the Prophet ﷺ said, bring me another foreleg, ya Abu Rafi'.

So he brought another foreleg. And the Prophet ﷺ said, bring me another foreleg, ya Abu Rafi'. Now whether the Prophet ﷺ was eating or serving the companions, it's actually not clear from this particular narration.

But the point is, is that you can imagine when you read some of the miracles that happened, where the Prophet ﷺ would take a pot during the khandaq, during the siege, and what could feed one person would feed a hundred. In this situation, the Prophet ﷺ is asking for the same part of the animal over and over and over again. So Abu Rafi', he says to the Prophet ﷺ, he says, ya Rasulullah, wa kam nishati min dhira'.

How many forelegs does a single sheep have? So the Prophet ﷺ said, وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ لَوْ لَمْ تَسْأَلْ لَجَاءَتْكَ الذِّرَاعَانِ مَا دَعَوْتُ بِهِمَا

He said, by him in whose hand is my soul. If you would not have asked, then the forelegs would have kept on coming in accordance with how many times I asked for them to come. Right, so this is one of the miracles of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to take something that is little and to turn it into a lot, whether it is water or food.

And Abu Rafi' particularly witnessed that, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, with the Prophet ﷺ.

Excellence in Character and Financial Dealings

He also says that the Prophet ﷺ used to discharge him to basically handle debts. And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he used to take loans and lend from different people in the community as a means of building with them. So like you would ask, why would the Prophet ﷺ, for example with the Jewish community in Medina, why would the Prophet ﷺ lend to them and then take loans from them? Because he wanted to create societal harmony.

And there is actually something to be said about that, that social cohesion that comes from that, whether it's a neighbor or someone else, whether it's a shield or something small, or a camel or something of that sort. The Prophet ﷺ was trying to establish a certain harmony in his society, alayhis salatu was salam. And Abu Rafi' witnessed the excellent character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in that regard.

He said that the Prophet ﷺ took from a man a loan of a young camel, bikr, a very young camel. And then the camels of Sadaqah were brought to him. So the Prophet ﷺ ordered me to go and to take to that man a camel in its place, to basically repay the man with a camel.

So Abu Rafi' came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, I did not find a camel that was suitable to the loan. Meaning what? Like imagine he gave us a very small camel and now I have these big, well-fed camels, and it's not equivalent to what was given to you. So the Prophet ﷺ said to me, أَعْطِهِ إِيَّاهُ إِنَّ خِيَارَ النَّاسِ أَحْسَنُهُمْ قَضَاءً

He said, give him one of those camels. The best of people are those who pay off their debts in the best of ways. Meaning what? Usually when you think about giving someone back something, we're not talking about riba here.

We're talking about the timeline and the ihsan, the excellence in repaying someone. Like we don't think in terms of apples to apples. We don't think in terms of only to this extent because Allah Azzawajal is the one who fulfills all of those things that are in between.

So he said, I learned from the Prophet ﷺ, basically he's showing, implying that he learned from the Prophet ﷺ that excellence in how to repay the debts and not to be stingy and not to be precise to the point that you could be shortchanging the one who gave you a loan in the first place.

Personal Services to the Prophet's Family

He then says radiAllahu ta'ala anhu that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wanted to marry Maimuna bint al-Harith radiAllahu ta'ala anha. If you remember Maimuna, the Prophet ﷺ married her during the qada'a Umrah after Hudaybiyyah.

Right, during that time. So she represents the blessing of the Prophet ﷺ coming back to Mecca after all of those years. And she was suggested to the Prophet ﷺ by al-Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, who was her brother-in-law.

So Maimuna was the sister of Lubaba bint al-Harith, the wife of al-Abbas. So he says that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, when he married Maimuna radiAllahu ta'ala anha, he says that I was the messenger. Kuntu ana rasulu feema baynahuma.

I was the one that he chose as a messenger between her and him ﷺ. So this was another point of pride that he mentioned that I was the one that was carrying the messages between him and his wife radiAllahu ta'ala anha wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

He also mentions that when he went out with the Prophet ﷺ during the hajj, that he was the one that would pitch the tent of the Prophet ﷺ. So he had that closeness to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in hajjatul wada' as well.

His Knowledge of Intimate Matters

He narrates hadiths about how the Prophet ﷺ dealt with insects and scorpions. He narrates hadiths about how the Prophet ﷺ ate. He narrates hadiths about how the Prophet ﷺ used to pray and some of the things the Prophet ﷺ would recite in his silent salawats. And he narrates some of the messages that were sent from the Prophet ﷺ to other people since he was often that person that was dispatched.

The Testimony of the Companions

And one of the most beautiful testimonies to his character radiAllahu ta'ala anhu is a famous hadith. And this hadith is when the sahabah were around the Prophet ﷺ one day and they asked the Prophet ﷺ, who is the best of people? Who are considered amongst the best of people? And the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in this particular narration that, another narration, a more famous one, has the same meaning. Someone who has a pure heart and a truthful tongue.

They said to the Prophet ﷺ, We know who a truthful tongue is. But who is a person who is who has a pure heart? The Prophet ﷺ said, A pure heart, you pay attention to this because you'll hear people make the claims, I have a pure heart, I have a good heart, I have a good heart. What does that exactly mean? Usually by the way, when someone says he has a really good heart or she has a good heart, what they're really saying is, excuse their bad character.

Usually it's an insult, it's not a good thing. It's a good heart, she has a good heart. That means that, overlook some of the bad things that you see there.

And you might be right. By the way, it's from Husn al-Dhann. I'm saying it obviously jokingly, but it might be from the good assumptions that you say, look, there's something good about that person.

But we know when we use that in our common language, we're often excusing, we're saying, look past the behavior, there's a good heart there. So the Prophet ﷺ says, pure heart, the sahabah said, what is a pure heart? So the Prophet ﷺ said, attaqee, attaqee is a heart that is God conscious. So it doesn't sin, doesn't carry sinfulness, taqwa.

An-naqee, naqee is purified in regards to other people. So taqee is pure in regards to the sins that relate between it and Allah Azawajal. Naqee is pure in regards to the people.

You meet people with a clean heart. And the Prophet ﷺ explained, a heart, it has no sin, no transgression, no malice and no envy. So that's a heart that's pure with Allah and a heart that's pure with the people.

And the Prophet ﷺ was then asked, Ya Rasulullah, then who comes next? Like who is this? How do we lean into this? And the Prophet ﷺ said that a person, yasna al-dunya wa yuhibbu al-akhira, a person who is repulsed by the life of this world, by this dunya, and who loves the hereafter.

And look at what the Sahaba said. This is so beautiful. He said, Ya Rasulullah, ma na'rifu hadha feena illa abu rafi' Ya Rasulullah, we don't know anyone amongst us who's like this person you're describing, whose heart is so pure, carries no malice, no hatred, just pure, except for Abu Rafi' Mawla Rasulullah ﷺ.

So you can imagine how amazing it is to have that testimony from the companions. Like this man seems so simple, but if you go back to the Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ where it says, a man is going to enter amongst you from the people of Jannah, and then Abdullah ibn Amr follows that man home, and basically his only thing is that he sleeps with a pure heart.

They're like, Abu Rafi' has a pure heart. He doesn't fight with anybody. He's never mad at anybody. Every time you look at him, he's smiling.

He's always, you know, in some form of khidmah to the Prophet ﷺ. But he's never someone that carries any type of rancor. And for the Sahaba to say that about him is an incredible testimony to his life, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu.

After the Prophet's Death

And subhanAllah, his fadl, his virtue, carried on throughout, even after the time of the Prophet ﷺ. And so after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, well, one more thing, by the way.

He's the one who narrates the Adhan of the Prophet ﷺ in the era of Al-Hassan when Al-Hassan was born, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. So he was there for the birth of Al-Hassan, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. And he was there for some of these pivotal moments in the life of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

After the Prophet ﷺ passed away, Abu Rafi' radiyallahu ta'ala anhu took place in multiple battles, including the opening of Palestine, particularly Al-Quds.

May Allah ﷻ allow us to be amongst its liberators. Allahumma ameen. So Abu Rafi' actually was a mujahid as well.

And he was someone that took part in multiple futuhat, multiple battles, under Abu Bakr, under Umar, under Uthman, until the life of Ali. May Allah ﷻ be pleased with them all.

The amazing thing, subhanAllah, about his life, and this is what I want you to pay attention to again. The family of the family of the Prophet ﷺ is that he remained still part of Ahlul Bayt. He still remained part of Ahlul Bayt. And so you'll see the closeness that he enjoyed to Sayyidina Ali radiyallahu ta'ala anhu.

And even correcting, there's a narration of him correcting Al-Hasan radiyallahu ta'ala anhu in salah. And you're thinking like, imagine this scene, right? This man who continues to attach himself to the family of the Prophet ﷺ, and he remains in their home.

And he has, if you open in Musnad Imam Ahmed, remember the Musnad of Imam Ahmed, rahimAllah, it categorizes, as a Musnad does, the ahadith by narrator, by narrator. So Abu Bakr's Musnad, Umar's Musnad, and so on and so forth. So the Musnad of Abu Rafi' is about 40 ahadith from the Prophet ﷺ that he narrates in closeness to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Again, about the very intimate matters of the household, of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.