Sacrifices by Abu Talib for Prophet & Islam - Our Prophet 4 - Struggles In Mecca

Now, let us examine a very important subject over here, as we talk about Abu Talib. So far, we have seen how Abu Talib, the uncle of the Prophet, was with the Prophet since he was young. Let us not forget when the Prophet was young and he would take him to those trips to Syria, right? How he was very protective of the Prophet. And remember what Bahirah told him? You know, that he has enemies and Abu Talib took him back immediately.

So, Abu Talib really raised the Messenger of God. He supported the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa aalihi, you know, in a way that no one did at that time. But historically, the faith of Abu Talib has become a sectarian issue. The followers of Ahlul Bayt believed that he was a believer. Not only was a believer we have Hadith [narration] that he was actually a prophet. Yes, a local prophet who did not have a public message, but he was in the rank of prophets, or he was a prophet, or he was a successor to a prophet.

So, the followers of an Ahlul Bayt are very clear that Abu Talib was of high rank and a very high faith and he was a Muslim. However, you find many schools of thought, many Muslim books like Bukhari and others, they condemn Abu Talib and they accuse him of dying as a Mushrik, as a pagan and that he is burning in hell every day. We will examine some of those hadiths.

So, this is actually a very important point. And one reason why it is very important is because you often hear other schools of thought attacking the Shi'a of condemning companions, right? We always hear that you guys condemn the companions. You guys slander the companions. All companions are to be respected.

Here, you have the single most important companion of the Prophet, Sahaabi, who lived with the Prophet in Makkah, yet they curse him and they condemn him and they say he went to hell. So, when they accuse us of condemning companions, you are the first to condemn companions, the first companion of the Prophet, the first supporter of the Prophet. You guys are condemning him and you are saying he went to hell. And they get offended if you talk about some other companions and say they disobeyed the Prophet, they deviated, they do not take it properly. But when it comes to Abu Talib, they slander him, they attack him, they accuse him of going to hell and so on and so forth.

So, this is a very important issue that must be discussed because this is the biggest supporter of the Prophet in Makkah. We have to do justice to the personality of Abu Talib, 'alayhi as-salaam.

So, let us not forget the stance of Abu Talib since the first day that the Prophet declared the religion of Islam. When you put all these pieces together, it will generate certainty that he was a firm believer in the Prophet. First of all, let us not forget that when Abu Talib saw the Prophet along with Lady Khadijah, along with Imam 'Ali praying in Masjid ul Haraam. That was the first prayer. Only three.

What did he tell his son Ja'far? He told his son Ja'far 'Sil jinaaha Ibni 'ammik",-'Go and join your cousin.' So, we see Abu Talib knew that Imam 'Ali had joined. He actually commands his other son Ja'far to go and support the Prophet.

You as a father, if you do not believe in the message of that Prophet, would you command your son? Now, okay, your first son did not get permission from you. He was a believer from day one. Right? And he was asked whether he took permission from his father. He said, Allah did not take permission from my father when he decided to create me. So, I do not need his permission to worship God the way he wants. Okay. Imam 'Ali did not take permission from his father.

However, Ja'far, who is the one who commanded Ja'far to go and join the Prophet? It was Abu Talib. If you do not believe in the message of the Prophet, why are you sending your other son to join the Prophet?

Number two, when we say the Prophet being when we said the Prophet being harassed repeatedly, being harassed in Masjid ul Haraam. They would take the intestines of animals, they would pollute his body and his clothes. What would Abu Talib do? He would get up, he would seek revenge from them. He would stop them. He would threaten them. He would take those same intestines and he would wipe them on their moustaches.

Why would you do that if you do not really believe in the message of the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa aalihi? It is not just him being emotional because he is his nephew. That is not the case. And what proves this is that last time we mentioned, when they were in the valley, what would Abu Talib do every night? Not only would he keep a watch on the Prophet, he would surround the Prophet. With who? With your sons? Who is closer to you, your son or your nephew?

Why would you sacrifice your son for your nephew, if you do not believe in the message of your nephew? Because Sunnis you say it was out of, you know, out of the natural compassion that a relative has for his relative. Right. Well, if you are talking about emotions, then you should have more emotions for your sons because your sons are closer to you than your nephew.

But we see Abu Talib, he always defends the Prophet, supports the Prophet, even if it means putting his sons in danger. That is not acting emotionally. You would only do that if you believe in the message of the Prophet. So, this is another indication over here.

All these actions are, you know, are giving you an image of someone who believes in the message. He is not acting because of tribal interests or family interests. No! So, let us examine some points to establish that Abu Talib was truly a man of faith.

The first point is that Abu Talib commanded a very high status in Makkah, because essentially he was the most high ranking member of Bani Hashim. And he was old, he was in his eighties at the time, so he was very well respected.

He sacrificed his status by going against the elite of his society. He put Bani Hashim into difficulty by supporting the Prophet. Is this something that you do out of emotion or because you believe in the message of the Prophet? See, if you are looking for the interests of your tribe, you should not support the Prophet. Because you are dragging the entire tribe to a showdown with the pagans. You do not do that! That is not someone whose wise and he cares about his tribe. No!

So, when they accuse him of 'oh, it was a tribal reason why he was defending the Prophet', right? Because they came from the same tribe, same family, Bani Hashim? No! It is the exact opposite. If you care about your tribe, he should not have defended the Prophet. Because defending the Prophet meant the destruction of his tribe, the loss of their status, being boycotted for three years. Obviously, this demonstrates that he believed in the message of the Prophet.

So, this is one point. By the way, when it comes to the idea that Abu Talib was not a believer, not all Sunnis accept that. There are some Sunni scholars who believe that he was a believer and that he died a believer. But most Sunni scholars have maintained throughout history that he did not die as a believer.