Lives of the Khulafaa (22): Uthman ibn 'Affan - Blessings and Early Caliphate (Part 3)

Alhamd we are now continuing uh the story ofan and we're now on number three inshallah tala and as I had discussed last time we will Begin by talking about uh theth pertaining toban uh and then move on to specific incidents that occurred in the lifetime ofak and also if we're able to inshallah we'll talk about the uh the choosing ofman from the so let us begin because We had mentioned in our last lesson what did in the lifetime of the Prophet s wasallam so a perfect way to conclude that is to mention the genre that

is called or the blessings of and every sahabi or every famous sahabi has a number of aith about him and these are Under the title and every famous book ofl mus IM Ahmed they all have these traditions and in fact most of them have them under the chapter heading so if you Open upari and you go to a book which is called the book of the blessings of the sah it will literally begin one by one the blessings of abakar the blessings ofar the blessings of and we will find many of thesei and of course

there are other outside of alari so let us began about some of the that mentioned of those is thei of that he says that I was once sitting with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasam in one of the wells of Medina and a man came And knocked on the door of the garden so the prophet sallam said go and open the door for him and give him Glad Tidings of jenah I went and opened the door and it was Abu Bakr and I gave him Glad Tidings of Jenna and he said alhamdulillah and he came and

sat with us then after a while another knock came so the prophet said go and open the door and tell him that he is giving Glad Tidings of Jenna the same story with and he comes and sits down then the third Knock this Hadith is in bukari and Muslim the third knock and the prophet says go and tell him that he shall enter Jenna after a Calamity befalls him he'll enter Jenna but there's going to be a major Calamity in his lifetime so I went and it wasan and I told him what the prophet sallam

said so he said alhamdulillah all praise be to Allah and Allah will help me in my time of Calamity so this is the famous Hadith which has been Narrated by multiple s it is the most one of the most authentic about and that is that the prophet predicted Abu Bakr andar shall enter Jenna and he then predicted shall enter Jenna but there's going to be a crisis there's going to be a a Calamity there's going to be some problems that will happen to him now it doesn't say these problems are because he's a bad person

at all it simply is a prediction you're going to face trials That uh the other two are not going to faced uh there are also aith also Inari that the prophet made a statement about Abu Bakr and and there are a Hadith that this statement was made on the jab in mecah and the same incident has also been narrated in Medina in jab so either this happened twice which seems to be the case or perhaps one of the later narrators basically got confused and it was only one incident But there are two narrations both in

Muslim one of which mentions this happening on jab and the other one happening on and it's the same concept that the Prest was walking with Abu Bakr andar and and the mountain began to shake as I said in one version it says the mountain of and the other version it says the mountain upon which is which is called jab and if it's jab that's mecah and if it's it's Medina and the mountain began To shake and the prophet sallallah alai wasallam tapped the mountain and said okay calm down oh okay for you have only one

one sik and two Shahs on you right now he is the abak isik and there are two Shahs after so and and a similar narration is also mentioned as we said about an incident in meca and so these narrations also signify that the prophet predicted thatman would die a Shahid another famous narration Involving that all of you have heard and it is also bukari and Muslim is that oncea narrates that the prophet was lying down in his own house and he was wearing the lower garment and uh the the uh the lower Garment of course

had cleaved open to indicate or to show part of his leg okay so he's lying down he's wearing that lower garment that is the that is thear that is very common in many Muslim cultures and is its own house and there's nothing anyway exposed It's just uh in one version his uh his shin below the knee in another version the upper part of or the lower part of his thigh okay in either case it's his house and there's no problem in this in in your own house and Abu Bakr asks permission to come and he

allows him to come and conversation ensues and the process is as he is and then after a while Omar asked permission and the same takes place and then after a while asks permission so he says TOA wait and he Sits up and he covers up himself and he then calls rman in then when he leaves says that oh messenger of Allah I didn't see you prepare yourself for abak andar why did you do it for like why this difference for and so he said is a very shy man and I was worried that if I

let him come in and I'm lying down like this that he would not speak to me and tell me his need of coming here so there are People they are so modest so shyman would have been so flustered and embarrassed that he would not have been able to speak and the prophet out of Mercy to him out of compassion for him decided to cover up the uh leg and then sit up because even In some cultures now this is not in the western culture but in some cultures when you are lying down right the elder

or somebody who is of respect you will sit up because this is not considered Considered to be appropriate now in Western culture this is gone completely but the Arabs and pakistanis Indies know what I'm talking about that when you're lying down for example and a senior person comes you don't remain lying down you actually get up now of course Abu Bakr andar not senior but the point is that the prophet feels a camaraderie a Brotherhood with the two of them and he knows they don't mind him lying down whereas withman of course he feels the

Brothery and camaraderie but he knows man is of a such gentle and and shy nature his modesty is so much thatman would feel very awkward if the proess is lying down he would feel very awkward and he wouldn't be able to speak and this really shows the prophet was such a amazing judge of character he knows and he assesses and he understands the values of friendship and how to treat everybody he knows abakar are are casual with him as we say in English Casual or the expression in in Indian English it's not American English by

the way he's free withman this is by the way not American English or pakistanis don't use it in the American context right it doesn't mean what it means in in the Indian context okay but he's free with him and he's open with him no problem he understands sallallahu alaihi wasallam that AB Bakr and Omar are compatible with this type of of of interaction butman is not and he would be too Embarrassed and shy so he sits up and covers himself uh up and it is once narrated a similar incident is narrated where comes and leaves

and then it is Abu bak and who get a bit flustered like why did he get the special treatment not us so in one version it'sa asking in another version it is abak and Omar doing the asking and once again Perhaps it is the same Perhaps it is two separate incidents and Allah subhana wa tala Knows Best in another version of a Similar Hadith the prophet responded and this version is also in Muslim this one is in Muslim he says to shouldn't I have some with regards to a man whom even the angels have ha

of now the angels are the Pinnacle of ha the angels have reached the height of ha and the angels have of that they have a sense of shine and a sense of modesty around so how then can I not also have that Around and there are uh basically many traditions in this regard about of another group of traditions predicts that the prophet mentioned toan that he would be basically killed or that things would happen and he's telling him to remain firm so these are predictions that that no matter what happens remain firm in your position

in one Hadith reported ined that the prophet wasam said that There are going to be three trials after me whoever is saved of these three trials then all the rest are trivial he can be saved the three big trials if you can fortify yourself and have IM during those three then that's good number one is MTI my death because at the death of the Prophet the bulk of the new Muslims what happened to them the new Muslims right not not the ones we know of the ones in far away regions of bahin and Yemen and

what happened to them right it was too much of a shock that's number one number two is the other big FNA if you can be a m in the time of alhamdulillah and number three that a Khalifa will be killed who is extra patient and clinging to the truth and he will be assassinated and killed if you can remain steadfast and firm in that time then you have then you have saved yourself and there is no Other that was killed clinging steadfastly to the truth because was assassinated suddenly Omar was assassinated suddenly the one who

has was under a Siege and we'll come to this inshallah maybe in 2 weeks we're going to come to this right the one who was killed clinging steadfastly to the truth making sure that he's not going to budge from the truth that wasman because the other two it was assassinations individuals we already Talked about Andi will come to inah as well this wasn't it was just a complete like random comes into the Masid and kills him right so the scholars therefore interpreted this Hadith to mean the death ofman the death of in another book uh

which is a famous book by IM Ahmed and his son abdah Ahmed one of the classical books of Hadith and the Book of Hadith is called so IM Ahmed and his son abdah Ahmed they have a book it is Called so this goes back to the first two centuries of Islam and it is a famous it's a one volume book and it goes over every that they have and in it is a chapter of aan in this book IM Ahmed and so his son compiled it but most of the Hadith go through his father okay

so it's actually abdah immed wrote the book but almost all the Hadith go through his father okay so he compil the book so in this book it is mentioned through to that uh The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to ibar uh that a man passed by the both of them and the prophet and he said that on one day this man will be killed and he shall be the one who has been wronged by others andar said I looked up and I saw it wasan he is the mum one day he will be killed and

he is the mum so ibar was told this as a young boyar was a young man in his 20s when the prophet passed away soar is told that a time will come When this man will be killed and he is the so will kill this uh person and in another version of a similar Hadith the prophet said that when uh that uh he's predicting the future and he's saying and on that day whenever something happens this man will be upon true guidance and pointed to he pointed toan and therefore there are a number of traditions

that mention that will be the m will be upon the rightly guided uh if You like um methodology uh and yet another Hadith and this is one of the most explicit in this regard and it is also narrated in immed and also in his son's book The Prophet sallallah alai wasam spoke to one day and he patted him on the chest and this was a way the Arabs would uh basically like in our times we might hold somebody on the side like would we do this in our culture maybe hold him by the side so

in those Days to hit on the chest was a brotherly love that you're just padding him and he said and this is uh one of the most important traditions and I want you to memorize it and it is reported in multiple books inani in multiple books it's a very very profound Hadith and it is reported in multiple chains and multiple wordings but the main wording is the one I will uh give you Allah might give you a shirt if the Hypocrites try to take the Shirt off of you do not allow them to do so

until you meet me don't allow them to take the shirt off of you until you meet me and uh in another Hadith he said that Allah will put a onto you and if people try to snatch that away from you do not give them that until you meet me now he's speaking obviously in cryptic language now but this explains why the gentle soft shyman refused to budge when they kept on demanding to give over theaa to Somebody else at the end end of his life because if he had done this we're jumping the gun here

then those Bandits would have been the victors and they would have caused much more damage than even what occurred the fact that they weren't successful Andi became Theif actually destroyed their plans and if had given up because it was in his nature to not be so harsh and this explains why he suffered for so many Days and he refused to give into their demands because they were ludicrous demands and it would have caused more FNA we're coming to those demands we'll talk about it briefly not as much in detail we will talk about it so

the Hadith is explicit and authentic and narrated in multiple versions Allah will place on you a shirt understood this to mean the shirt of this is an honor this is a a cloak a clothing that Allah has given to when the prophet said this he Doesn't know what he's talking about now that is Theif then the people are fighting when the Hypocrites come and they try to snatch your shirt off they try to take your shirt away do not give them your shirt until you meet me meaning until you die and that is explains the

main reason whyman despite his gentle nature never ever wavered in remaining firm to this regard he was a very soft person and he was not the harshness of Omar or even the Strength of Omar and he attempted to plead with the people who killed him he negotiated from his house but he never gave up his right to and Allah knows best if thesei had not been set to him his nature would have been okay whatever just take because that was his nature but the process explicitly commanded him not to do that so these are the

main about and in we will now summarize what are the things narrated in the time ofak and Omar and then also his appointing at The end of Omar's time inshallah and then next uh week inshallah we will do his the first six years because we all know uh some of you who don't I'll tell you hisa was 12 years the first six were glorious the first six were amazing years and then the last six were when the trials began so in the time of abak he was one of the primary Consultants a part of what

we call the Inner Circle the inner cabinet now realize that the sahaba did not have Official postings of oh these are the ministers and this is the the sh there's no official it's just understood there's an inner cabinet of people that are consulted and Omar and were both a part of this inner cabinet to and we have a number of incidents in the book of History which I decided not to go over because frankly it's a little bit too advanced and somewhat meticulous and boring this fiscal issue this Governor this administrator this I mean It's

not that relevant to us right now but the point is that throughout Abu bakr's careerman is giving him advice directly about matters of the state and perhaps one of the most significant incidents that takes place in the of Bakr is one that many of us have heard but this is now the actual version straight from the books of History the more detailed version that in the time of ab Bak there was a severe drought and because he was a merchant so before Uh the drought had begun he had ordered a supply of grain and Caravan

from Syria not knowing there would be a drought cuz you know you order these things and then 4 months go by before that the merchandise arise arrives so he was buying and selling and we already mentioned was a very successful Merchant in the days of jahia and in the days of Islam and he had ordered grain and other merchandise food primarily from Syria and it arrived at the time of the Drought when people were dying and when the Grain and the food comes in so the the the city sellers the house the the uh shop

owners come to the house ofman when the merchants arrive from when the Caravan arrives from Syria so they all come to the house ofman because they want to purchase this and sell it to the people soan welcomes them in they see the grains in his house and they offer collectively so they've agreed to basically purchase it all at a very high Rate so that they can get profit from the people so they said we will purchase it for you basically at 20% higher rate andman said somebody has offered me more than the 20% going rate

whatever is the going rate 20% more so 1.2 like cuz the way they did this by the way they didn't say 20% they would say for every 10 we'll give you 12 okay that's the way they would phrase it back then okay so said but somebody has given me more than this so they went up okay 30% 40% we'll Pay you 50% above the price whatever is it typically worth we'll pay you 1.5 times that andman said but I have somebody who's could promise me more so they looked to each other because they had made

an agreement that they're going to purchase and then equally share the profit and they said oh we are the merchants of the city who is there that has given you who is this guy tell us we're going to basically deal with him because they had agreed so he then said Allah has promised me 10 times the price I.E 1,000% right you're telling me 20% 30% 40 5050 Allah has promised promised me 1,000% for every Dirham 10 I'm going to get okay and that's 1,00% can you compete with that they said no we cannot give you

we cannot give you 1,000% so he said so I call all of you to testify that all of this food is for the fuk of Medina for free no Money this was a fortune and he simply not for the first time in his life and again this is the Sunnah of Allah that people lik when they give Allah gives them more when they give such such generosity it's not the first time he's given so all of this he simply distributes it to the fuk of Medina and one of the famous Scholars of the past who

died 600 something hij he has a book called and it's a book of heart Softening stories and he mentions in this book with his is to that I Abbas saw the prophet in a dream and the prophet was dressed up in a beautiful garment and a robe and he was he was very uh busy he wanted to leave the prop wanted to leave and IB Abbas his cousin said y Allah we have missed you and I want to talk to you why are you in a hurry to leave me why are you leaving when I

want to talk to you so the prophet Sall wasallam said that in This dream that iban has given Sak and Allah has accepted his sodak and given him a bride from Jenna in return and we have all been called to the WIA of that Feast so I'm in a haste to go there now this is not a Hadith this is a dream narrated and we have a methodology when it comes to dream that these types of Dreams there's no harm in narrating them but we don't base our sh or theology on them right we know

thatan is a person of Jenna and this is one of the classical books of our heritage and it has the story in it about afan and there's no haraj narrating it and Allah knows best and we don't base any or theology but uh we do know thatman is a person of Jenna and that Allah has accepted his charity so this is the main incidents in the time of abak sik when Abu Bakr is on his deathbed as you all know he calls and he asks who should I appoint andman says appoint AB Omar appoint Omar

To be the Khalifa So Abu Bakr asks who should I appoint to be the khif says appoint Abu Bakr for he is the best and there is no one but Omar for he is the best and no one is better than him Abu Bakr said his famous phrase you have spoken the truth and if I were to pass over him to anyone else it would have been you so abakar and I mentioned this when we talked about Bakr on his deathbed he as well not predicted but he said you are the Most worthy of the

after Omar and that is exactly what happened that is exactly what um happened during the time of Omar now we get to the time of Omar as Wellman remained a trusted advis and once again the books of History mention now this is 10 years so has a lot more specific narrations and again I decided to skip over many of them some of them we gone over indirectly for example umman was one of the main ones to suggest the dates of the Hijra when Should the Hijra begin the calendar so Omar was the one who asked

the question when should we begin the hij calendar andman was the one who suggested beginning with mam for example so has a role to play even in the calendar that we have as Wellman was one of the first to uh Institute Registries dians called in Arabic da Registries that in the early days of Bakr the sahab were so few there were no registries you didn't have to sign your name when you took Something from the treasury it was a open Society people knew people was the one who suggested to Omar to have a registry of

people to have them in categories to basically like a census if you like and to keep track of who's getting what so these are all ideas coming from the mind of and implemented them also it is said by some of the scholars a very interesting point to said that Allah subhah wa tala blessed the early umah with people who Complemented one another perfectly so the gentleness and mercy of Abu Bakr was complemented with the strictness ofar and the two of them together brought about the glorious time ofak sik and the harshness of Omar was complemented

and coupled with the shyness and softness ofman and Allah subhana wa T then blessed that era as well and this is the uh difficult reality that every leader of every position knows that W it's a very difficult line when should you Forgive when should you punish when should you look the other way and when should you be strict this is something that anybody who's in charge of anything you have the same problem how often should you forgive how often should you and people are different their Mis is different and Allah blessed the early umah that

you had both of these figures ofak Omar and then Omar and and they together complimented each other and brought about that glorious era of the First two is also narrated of the accomplishments of ofman as well or of his responsibilities that during the last year of the of during the last year of the of he allowed the to perform now realize the had special laws upon them they had different laws and of those laws was what they cannot okay that's one law that's true they cannot remarry okay that's definitely One law they cannot remarry another

law they cannot be seen in public even in what we now call regular hijab or scarf that they have to have an extra layer of protection now I've spoken about this in my other classes and this uh causes some confusion the the quranic term for this extra layer is hijab okay and that is why when the sahab Would visit the house of there would be a physical curtain and that curtain was called the hijab and when she went outside there was a tent around her when she went to the camel there would be a tent

you couldn't see even her body there would be a complete C hovering around her that was the extra layer of hijab and Allah subhah wa tala mentions this hijab for the wives of the prophet he mentions the and the jilbab for regular Muslim ladies Okay so and are the terms that are used for other ladies and the Arabic word means that which covers the head and the Arabic word jilbab means a loose covering something that is covering the body so ladies in the Quran are commanded to cover their head and their bodies andab okay and

the wives of the Prophet are commanded to cover their entire personas their entire bodies by a special layer that is called hijab now what has happened is that we have taken The term hijab and applied it to the and theab and that's what we say when we say does she wear the hij I does she wear the there's nothing wrong with that it's not un Islamic but the problem now comes that you have groups of people that come and say and this is a complete tangent from and whatnot but it's necessary we understand this you

have groups of people say oh Allah never commanded Muslim ladies to wear the hijab the hijab was only for the wives of the Prophet wasallam and this phrase it is technically true but what is intended is false okay anytime you hear somebody say oh the hijab was only for the wives of the Prophet this is technically true but what is in ended is complete falsehood technically it is true because Allah has commanded the hijab for the wives of the Prophet but when this man or this lady Of our time says was only for the wives

of the prophet he means and that's wrong covering of the body and covering of the hair is an explicit commandment for all Muslim ladies don't call it hijab fine call it call it call it what you will but the concept is clearly quranic and Islamic but what we have now is this notion that oh the covering of the hair is a Persian Custom or a non-muslim custom imported into Islam the Quran doesn't command it the hijab is only for the wise of the prophet and all of this is simply uh a type of revisionism a

type of changing of history in the Quran that a simple reading of the Quran and Sunnah will contradict so going back to our story the wives of the Prophet wasam remained at home and they got a stien and they were taken care of the needs but by in large they remained at home and they Wanted to go for Haj so in the last year of his life he didn't know it would be the last year of his life but in the 23rd year of the Hijra which happened to be the last year of his life

he gave the permission that okay all of you can come and we'll make special arrangements for you because this is now a logistical you know extra that you have to have a special part of the Caravan And everybody has to be care so this area and this on uh this Caravan of the wives of the Prophet was placed in charge of it and that's a very sensitive position a great honor that these these are our mothers and and also ABD these two were placed in charge of taking care of the wives of the prophet sallallahu

alaihi wasallam and there are other things mentioned in the of Omar as I said I skipped over them because it's too technical I mean What he said to Omar what are the what are the taxation laws there's a number of things that he said what are the financial the fiscal I mean I'm sure you would get bored and we just I just decided to skip over them point is he was one of the inner cabinets in the time of okay now let's get to the somewhat controversial story it's not controversial for us but it is

controversial for other groups of the appointment of man okay howman was Appointed for us it's an open shut it's clear history no problem whatsoever but as you know this is where the tensions uh become really pretty nasty and there's an alternative version of history that nons Sunni groups have and we will not mention their narrative today at all you should just be aware they have a totally different Nar they have different books of History so our books of History are very clear there's no controversy very straightforward and This is what common sense as well would

dictate as I will explain their version of events has some conspiracy theories and some trickery and deceit and whatnot and that's their version of events from our side it is well known and we mentioned this that appointed the six people when he was stabbed and uh he said that you will have three days to decide amongst yourselves who will be the Khalifa you have three days and then after that whoever you decide he will be Your Khalifa anyone who then disagrees he is the rebel fight him and kill him okay once agreement is done that

will be the and he said will lead the Salah for those three days why because he wanted to appoint somebody neutral it wouldn't make sense to appoint one of the six to lead the prayer because that would be preference to one of the six okay so he appointed Ari uh to lead the Salah by the way I Find this interesting I find we we should all have an affinity withi because he was raised in the Byzantine Empire so he spoke fluent Latin so he's leading the Salah and he speaks the mother language of English cuz

English is coming from Latin okay speaks fluent Latin because he's raised in Rome he's raised in the Byzantine Empire uh by the way ethnically he was Arab ethnically that's why he came back but he went as a very young lad we'll Get to history we get toi why did he end up there and whatnot he went as a young child and he grew up in the Byzantine land so he is speaking Roman uh Latin basically like a native and of course he's Arab ethnically so he speaks Arabic as well uh and now he is leading

the Salah so his fluent Arabic and and he speaks the mother language of English as well so the the one sahabi he's the only sahabi that we know of that could speak fluent um Latin so is leading the Salah For 3 days and the six gathered together and uh this is now on a Sunday morning of the death of he passes away on a Sunday so on the morning of Sunday the six of them gather together and ABD says let three of you there's six let three of you withdraw and nominate one person in his

stad let's cut it in half okay this is how we're going to begin each one whoever wants to voluntary Let each one of you who is of this three choose one person that you Will nominate and then you get out of the race okay so who wants to do that so Zu narrated nominated and Zu and Ali are second cousins as we'll get to okay Zu nominated Ali goes i' I'd rather Ali to be the the one in charge I I don't have any desire to be Theif and Ali will be my my nominee okay

gave his right toban and T andman are also close Relatives Andi gave it to ABD the one who's saying let's divide it into three okay so gives it to ABD so now we have Ali and ABD clear three of them have voluntarily withdrawn and they said my vote goes to him so automatically there are three votes he I mean Allah knows what ABD had desired he probably would have wanted all three to nominate one person so that would have been clear but there wasn't a majority each one is nominating one so We're back to square

one but now instead of six we have three okay so abman says to the other two that I don't want it who of you two is willing to recede your right and will leave the one the rest the last standing okay so all of this is voluntary there's no pressure on anything ABD says I have no desire I have I don't I don't want to be the Khalifa but who amongst you is willing To step back and then will hand it to the last of them and Allah will be his helper and he'll and he'll

have the support of the Muslim um both of them remained silent neither said anything so it's clear that the both of them are willing and interested and as I mentioned when you go back to the story of Ali from the very beginning there's nothing wrong with this at all some people have this desire and there's Nothing wrong and they feel themselves qualified and they feel they can benefit the umah and they are now handed this responsibility and Ali and they both felt you know I can do a good job inshallah the um will will will

will benefit so neither of them wants to step out of the race so ABD when he sees that neither of them is stepping out says okay do you both agree then to make me the arbitrary between the two of You so if you're not going to how else are we going to do this now basically right I'm the last one left I'm going to step back but both of you have to agree that you will then listen to my choice and and I Promise You by Allah that I will do my utmost to choose the

one who is the better qualified amongst you so he is basically saying I promise to be neutral and fair and I will do my sincere best to choose the right candidate okay so the both of them Agreed and Subhan Allah this shows us The Cordial nature of the sahabah this shows us the purity of their politics and just compare this to not just our country and the dirty politics going on now any country any political scenario the smear campaigns the Slanders the innuendos the advertisements that are meant to denigrate the other the mockery right and

the egotistical nature of each candidate I am the best vote for me W the Islamic system is so this early Stage and I'm not romanticizing we cannot look at the and and and compare this of course not things happen in their era that were not the best but now in the time of the sah and you cannot compare the sahab to the it's come on right the sahab what an amazing pure election you couldn't get purer than this not a single person saying vote for me because it's egotistical not a single candidate saying oh that

person he has this track record and that track record And he did nothing absolutely nothing this is Islamic politics at its best and that's why they're called the not one word against the other not one word in support of yourself that's the ideal so ABD says I promise to do everything I can to choose which of you two is the better one but you both have to agree to my arbitration and of course they agreed and this takes place on a Sunday morning so Subhan Allah within an hour from six candidates they're down to Two

this is Islamic politics huh not like the primaries here and we're still wondering who's going to come and we're making Dua to Allah that that guy doesn't come he's like Subhan Allah you know in this uh this tense thing where nothing at all nothing within an hour from 6 to 2 and the both of them are agreeing that the other is qualified to to basically take over so abdan then this is Sunday morning and the deadline is 3 days he spent the Next uh uh 72 hours it is said he barely got any sleep thinking

and going house to house and asking all of the sahabah and even the delegations and the um that had come in those three days when they heard of the death of of Omar and he even it is said asked the ladies behind the curtain like they had this notion of young ladies with behind the curtain he would literally go and get their mashar which of these two is Better so that he gets a type of understanding of the people of Medina who do they think is more qualified to be the uh khif and he also

visited and Ali privately and he asked that look if you are not chosen who do you think is the most qualified out of all of the six of us andman said Ali he's going back to the six said Al if it's not me Ali is definitely the most qualified and he asked the same question of suppose you are out and the Six of us are back or the five of us who do you think is the most qualified and he said as well now this is our version and this is W The Logical and the

one that appeals most and the one that makes the most sense when you look at how they interacted with one another and here is where I mean I am not sugar coating it the fact of the matter is clearly each of these two is interested and they think they can do a better job than the other one but there's no negative in Their hearts about the other and there's not a feeling of oh if I don't get in then then the world is lost no they understand if I don't make it you know the next

best person is the other candidate so even they both assumed that the other person is going to do an amazing job no problems at all and out of the rest of the sh they both are nominating each other if it's not going to be them which clearly demonstrates for us what we Consider to be the true Islamic um Brotherhood and by Tuesday night he had decided and our books mentioned that indeed some people had said that Ali should have been the Khalifa but the majority of them and this was the feeling of the uh most

of the senior sahabah thatman was the better qualified and again there's nothing we we say that and definitely those two were closer together in their rank than let's say AB Bakr and Omar there was a clear Difference between the two that Abu Bakr and Omar they were not exactly the same everybody knew Bakr is Head and Shoulders above Omar right and they knew that Omar is above everybody else and we all agreed that Ali their difference was not that marked and that's why there's so much talking and discussion and whatnot and to the very end

at the end of the Tuesday night so this is Sunday Monday Tuesday night and and ABD is going across the uh City And asking people and he makes his decision and before he announces it he has a private meeting with both Ali and we don't know what he said it's a private meeting but Subhan Allah what an amazing what an amazing leader was ABD rman even though he never became a leader what a farsighted uh true manager he knows exactly how to manage and we'll get to his biography inshallah in a few months when we

talk about and that demonstrates his character and he had a Private talk with and a private talk with Ali we have no idea what was said is completely private nobody else was there other than those two but it's clear what he's telling the two of them I mean you don't have to you can assume what is he telling Ali that he's chosen man and basically he is a great candidate you know but and he must have given his reasons and he would have told that look I'm going to choose you and you need to realize

that Ali was a close Second and you need to keep him close to you which is what Didi was one of the most trusted ministers ofman which explains in our Sunni perspective everything fits into place the other Paradigm really has some cognitive distance dissonance we're going to call it they really have some big puzzles that don't come to together how could Ali be a minister under how could Ali be a judge under how could Ali do so much under as we're going to see When we talk about this in in a few weeks doesn't make

any sense if he truly felt that this is a a divine right from Allah and from the messenger then he couldn't be living among such quote unquote Hypocrites in in their perspective right it would have been hypocritical for him to be acquiescing to all that's going on right this is our perspective and in any case so uh ABD makes his decision and on the fuder of Wednesday on the fuder of Wednesday he calls all of the senior sahabah and also some of the governors of the provinces would also come it is even said that mua

was there at that time because mua had done Haj that year and had decided to come back to Medina and Omar was stabbed after the performance of the Haj as we said by literally a week or two so many of the governors were still there in Medina at the time andd after left LED ABD then climbed the m and he was wearing uh the turban of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam as a token of look I am now bestowing the the the the decision I made so he then gave a praised Allah subhana wa tala

and then basically addressed Ali directly in front of all of the people and he said Ali I thought carefully about this matter and I asked the Believers and I realize that all of them will agree Forman so do not have anything in your Heart against this decision so publicly he is calling alali to a high standard and Ali lived up to that standard throughout the entire time ofb afan he lived up to that standard no grudge never wants any statement why you not me nothing and in fact as we will come to himself and his

two sons literally defended to the very end and it was only when they went to take a break and rest did the Riff Raff and Ruffians Attack Ali sent Hassan and Hussein armored and with weapons to guardman how can anybody claim that Ali had any grudge against again from our perspective this whole narrative really I don't want to be too harsh but it is nonsensical from our our perspective true Ali felt he could be a better Khalifa So what nothing wrong with that he didn't have a grudge against that's the key point he didn't have

any any at All and he was a loyal Minister a loyal Muslim to the of of and we'll talk about this inshallah at its time and I'm not going to go over uh the other side just you should know that the other side has an entirely different version of events that you will not find basically in our sources that it was a conspiracy from the beginning that's the the other side loves conspiracy theories everything is a conspiracy because it must be a conspiracy when the entire s came Together and they rejected Ali what is it

other than a conspiracy right so every single generation has multiple conspiracies there's always plots that are coming together and from their perspective the six had already or the five have already decided they'd already made up their minds that they're going to cut Ali off and apparently from their perspective Ali said that this is a trickery and deceit but it doesn't make sense because even their books Acknowledge he gave the he gave the oath of Allegiance on Wednesday morning in front of the rest of the sahab everybody was there everybody saw it and if truly this

was then he shouldn't have given the oath and he should have died a Shahid and met Allah subhana wa tala as a Shahed but he didn't he gave the oath and even they acknowledge he gave the oath right they say he did it under pressure what pressure Shah what pressure what is the pressure there That's going to happen you're if you're really that certain then go ahead and die Shahid as Hussein and others were about to die as well holding on to the truth as we talked about in in the issue of kbal again the

point is that from our perspective and we're not saying this to stoke the uh fans of sectarianism as you know my position is very clear that we have our narrative they have their narrative in this world we will live with mutual respect even if we don't Respect the beliefs we'll respect the person as a human being and even yes as a Muslim and they have the right to hold the belief even if we disagree and Allah will judge in the and I am very clear that I do not make of those who uh look down

at some of the sahab that is and but it's not kufur I'm very clear in this regard to look down upon some of the sahab and to speak ill of some of the sahabah is A evil Innovation and it is a sin in the eyes of Allah but in and of itself it is not a rejection of Allah subhanahu wa tala it's not blatant kufur now some extreme elements of it could become a type of kufur but not generally speaking criticizing some of the is and but it is not and from my position that group

by and large if they say Thea and they pray and they fast and they go for Haj and whatnot they are within the fold of Islam but they Are not correctly guided within Islam this is my position and the position of basically almost all of the classical and mainstream Sunni now realize that and with this we conclude in 10 minutes inshah the order of this Abu Bakr then Omar then it might have been a little bit gray at the time of the death of Omar that some sahab supported Ali and most of them supported okay

but with the choosing of Unanimous consensus was reached even with he gave the even gave the so it is now a matter of theology for us to consider the of to be a valid it's not just a history for us as Sunni Muslims this is and Theology and anybody who disputes this is not mainstream Muslim and there are many many narrations that prove this point in fact there's a famous in that said that During the lifetime of the Prophet sallallah alai wasam we would not consider anyone to be equal to Abu Bakr and then after

him Omar and then after him so he even mentions and after that we would be quiet and not mention anybody now realize when he is saying this Ali is still in his 20s is speaking and Ali is just a few years older than him okay so in the lifetime of the Prophet sallam it was Clear when Omar passes away Ali is now much older and so there's a little bit more of a gray area and some people did say that Ali was more qualified than and who is one of the most famous the students of

the the sahab uh he said when the prophet died died the Muslims chose Abu Bakr and if they knew anyone who would have been better than Abu Bakr they would have chosen him and when Abu Bakr died he chose Omar and if he knew Anybody better than Omar he would have chosen him when Omar died he chose the six and those six agreed Onan and if they knew anyone who would have been better thanan and they didn't choose him then they have all betrayed us and are treacherous meaning who can accuse them of this now

he is speaking in an era already the fitna has begun already in the time of the early umad people are speaking against in kufa the people who killed Their followers remained and they're already speaking ill of the talk has begun from a very early time the talk has begun and on the other side it is true to say there were people speaking ill of Ali so this F unfortunately we're going to have to come to it sometime but we're going to gloss over it as we said it really dates back to the early um time

so sh is speaking at a time when people are already talking like this he says Look if you're going to say thatman was not the best Khalifa you are accusing all of the sah and especially the six of being treacherous and who amongst you will be willing to do that andb mentions in his famous mentions that when the news came to kufa of the election ofman uh IB Mas was the leader of kufa at the time and IB Mas was the one who made the announcement to the people of kufa I mas the famous sahabi

is giving the Announcement to the people of kufa and it is the people of kufa who will eventually come as well to be of those who are surrounding the house ofman and he Mas said that the sahabah have chosen the best amongst us and they have exerted their best effort to find our khif so acknowledges that is the best person and therefore anybody who considers the of to be invalid is theologically not a Sunni Muslim and uh has left the fold of Sunni Islam it is a Point of theology however there's another point and it's

a little bit Advanced and sometimes I don't like mentioning issues at the same time because we're in an era where there's so much information it's probably helpful and it's healthy that I mention rather than you hear it from other sides there were some scholars in our Sunni tradition and I'm not going to mention names for this class but some of You all of you know some of their names some of these are very famous who held a position that is not found anymore in any mainstream group and that position was that Ali would have been

the better choice over but's Choice was valid and he was a valid khif but Ali was better than in terms of and Ali would have been a better khif and it would have been better if the sahab chose Ali but they chose and that's fine And life goes on okay this position has been explicitly found in many of the and and like the third generation amongst Sunni Muslims and the line between Sunni and Shia is actually not that clearcut it's actually a spectrum and the ending of sunnism is the beginning of shiism and there is

somewhat of a gray area in the middle so you have this group which is the group that says Ali so it should beak Ali and in terms of What in terms of no not ranking D and the of is valid but Ali's would have been more appropriate right this is a trend that is found in some Sunni Scholars and you then have more than this that the of is invalid and Ali should have been Theif and this is the beginnings of trends of shiism which don't exist anymore no sh group says this anymore as far

as I know okay because this group acknowledg abak To be valid but they said between and Ali should have been and's is invalid that is a position that was found in the first groups of Shia which no longer exist the first groups of Shia never spoke about abak and om how could they when it was such a glorious era when so many and conquests took place when it was such a beautiful world back then nobody nobody at that stage is speaking about abak andar so the beginnings of t are criticisms of and The support of

Al over those versions no longer exist anymore they're gone historically and eventually these versions gave rise to later ones which then now impune Abu Bak andar as well and we said the only group that doesn't do this uh in an extremely harsh manner are the zis of Yemen they're the only group that consider Abu bak andar and to be legitimate but not the best and they say Ali would have Been better for all three and Ali was the best but the other three are ja permissible and they're not as ranking and so that is the

one group that as I said the sunn is consider sh the sh is consider Sunni these are the zes of they're also called the fivers of Yemen uh because they believe the Zade is their fifth Imam and then they go from there the point being from our perspective from our perspective um there is now Unanimous consensus and I do not know of a single Sunni scholar really for the last thousand years that has held a position that was more qualified than that's a gone position even in Sunni Islam and in the sh side as well

the position that AB Bakr and om were valid was invalid and Ali should have been Theif that's also gone so these middle grounds that were gray areas are gone what we have are now the Mainstreams of both sides and there is a huge divide between those those mainstreams and how they understand these uh times inshallah next Wednesday I will discuss the first six years of the calip ofman and the amazing amazing Conquest that took place which were a continuation of the era of and the conquests of uh parts of uh what are now the Russian

States and of Africa and further Inland in Syria and the first Naval Expedition and the Conquest of Cyprus an amazing Conquest Muslims rule Cyprus for hundreds and hundreds of years uh and uh it was in the time ofan that the sahaba landed in Cyprus next to the island of Greece imagine the symbolism here right so all of this in took place in the era aan and we'll summarize that inshallah next Wednesday and with that inallah we conclude for today and I will see you next Wednesday in