The approach we can deduce from the prophet’s biography:

 Dear brother, today we are starting a new lesson on the biography of the Prophet, PBUH, and it should be quite clear to you that the objective of these lessons is to deduce from the acts of the Prophet of Allah, PBUH, and from his biography the rules of dealing [with people]. The events that took place in the Prophet’s life, were meant to happen so that the Prophet, PBUH, would respond to them in a manner that was perfect, demonstrating the kind of behavior which is pleasing to Allah the Exalted, because when an event is reflected in behavior, its impact is much greater.

 Furthermore, the biography of the Prophet has another aspect, which is that of an idealistic reverie which one would not pay much attention to, claiming that what one deals with is gloomy reality. Human being avoids both idealistic daydream and painful reality. However, the biography of the Prophet, PBUH, combines idealism and realism. We can rightly call it ideal realism or realistic idealism.

 People do not learn by means of hearing only, but by means of seeing as well, and undoubtedly, rather than his speech, the behavior of the Prophet, PBUH, is the most evident sign of his understanding of the Divine Scripture (Qur'an), because behavior is something tangible, but speech may be subject to different interpretations. My opinion about a certain subject, as regards speech, may imply different interpretations, while as far as behavior is concerned, it will be unequivocal. Thus, the great value of the biography of the Prophet, PBUH, is to be found in this aspect.

The prophet is a good example for us:

 The Prophet, PBUH -as you know- was a legislator in his speech, act, approval [of anything that took place and was not condemned by him] and his character, hence if we truly want to embrace this great din, we have to stick to the Prophet's biography, since we learn from it. Allah the Almighty says:

"Indeed in the Messenger of Allah you have a good example to follow for him who hopes for (the meeting with) Allah and the Last Day,
and remembers Allah much."

(Surat Al-Ahzab, 33:21)

  Allah made him to be an excellent example, therefore He made him experience everything –He made him poor, among other things. A'ishah (the Prophet's wife, may Allah be pleased with her) said:

The Prophet, PBUH, entered [the house once], and asked: "Do you have anything to eat? I said there was nothing, so he said: Then I am fasting."

(Reported by Muslim)

 He (Allah) made him rich as well:

A man asked the Prophet, PBUH: To whom does this valley full of sheep belong? The prophet answered: It is yours. The man said: Are you making fun of me? The Prophet answered: No, am not, by Allah. The man said: You give as someone who does not fear poverty, so I do witness that you are Allah’s Messenger.

(Reported by Muslim)

 He made him feel frustrated in Ta'if [when he went there to call people of that area to Islam since people of Mekka rejected this din] but they denied his call and made fun of him, and encouraged their children to hurt him. Yet he said there his well-known supplication:

"O Lord, if you are not angry with me, I do not care about what has happened, and I seek to please You until You are satisfied. "

(Biography of the Prophet by Ibn Hisham)

 Allah the Exalted made him feel what it is like to be victorious at the conquest of Mekka. The Prophet, PBUH, asked the people of Mekka:

"What do you think I will do to you? They said: You are our honorable brother and the son of our honorable brother. The prophet said: You are free to go [no one shall be harmed]."

(Biography of the Prophet by Ibn Hisham)

  And Allah made him feel [the bitterness] of losing his son. The Prophet, PBUH, said:

"Our eyes are overflowing [with tears] and we are brokenhearted, yet we say nothing but what pleases the Lord. We are much grieved to be parted with you, O Ibrahim."

(Reported by Al-Bukhari from Anas, may Allah be pleased with both of them)

  He made him feel the loss of his wife and the divorce of his daughters. He made him emigrate and made him go through many other experiences, and his attitude was perfect under all circumstances.
 Dear brother, I'd like to point out this crucial fact -it isn't heroic not to be afflicted by a calamity; some people would describe the one who manages to escape calamities as jinni, but it is heroic to react perfectly right when a calamity occurs. The Prophet, PBUH, taught us how to face calamities in perfect attitude.

The two tragic incidents that took place in the tenth year after revelation:

 We will now mention two tragic and painful incidents in his biography which took place in the tenth year [after the Revelation began]. This year was called in his biographies the Year of Grief- for the Prophet, PBUH, lost two people who were dear to him. One of them was his inner support, his beloved wife Khadijah, and the other one was his outer support, his uncle Abu Talib, who had always backed him up in Mekka.

 Dear brother, the Prophet, PBUH, said:

"This life is a winding road not a straight one, and a place of grief not of joy, he who knows it [well], won't be happy in prosperity or sad in difficulty. Allah the Exalted has created this world as an abode of calamity and the Hereafter as Abode of Recompense. So He made the calamity of this life to be one’s reward in the Hereafter, and the reward of the Hereafter is the recompense for the calamity of this life. So He takes [from someone, for instance –money, a child, any kind of property] and puts [someone] to the test in order to reward [this person]."

(Reported by Dailami from Bin Omar)

 Dear brother, as believers, when we place ourselves in the position in which we perceive this life as a place of calamity and unease, when we realize this fact, then we won’t be surprised [with any thing may happen].

 A pilot was made prisoner after having bombed a city, and was shown the devastation he had caused. He smiled saying that such is war. But war is not like that.

 As believers you should know for certain that you will surely be afflicted with calamity. Our master Al-Shafi'i was asked once if we should ask Allah for calamity or prosperity. He smiled and said: You won't prosper unless you are afflicted with calamity.

 There are three phases in the life of a believer, which either appear separately or overlap: the phase of calamity, the phase of discipline, and the phase of honoring.

 Sometimes a difficulty can come as discipline for a violation or a shortcoming, or exceeding the limit or aggression, for we, as believers, are under the encompassing care of the Lord of all the Worlds, and we are at a level of understanding Allah. I often tell you that the one who is overwhelmed by his sins and disobedience will be out of the encompassing care of Allah, that he will be forsaken and discarded [by Allah]; so be happy when you stumble [doing something that displeases Allah] and when you are being disciplined. This means that you are being looked forward to, that you are wanted [for something promising], that you may return back to the Lord.

 It is exactly as the case of somebody who goes to the doctor and is diagnosed with a malignant tumor which affects all of his body. The patient asks the doctor: What shall I eat? The doctor says: You can eat anything you like. What can I do? You can do whatever you like. Can I travel? Certainly.

 The doctor says this because the patient is about to die anyway, his case is hopeless; there is no cure for him. However, if the doctor told this patient that he had a severe stomach disease and prescribed him a detailed diet, he would surely insist upon following this diet and all the other instructions. Why would the doctor do that? Because there would still be hope, and he would expect this patient to recover.

 By Allah, I console myself, and you as well, that once you have committed a sin, or exceeded a limit, or have been remiss, or stumbled, or diverted from Allah's Path, and the punishment comes along [to let you know that you have done something wrong], or it maybe that you encounter a difficulty –know that you are under the mercy and encompassing care of Allah, and that's a fact.

 Thus, adversities are of several kinds. The Prophet, PBUH, passed through two of them in the tenth year of hijrah, but in their midst he would always try to teach us.
 Abdullah Bin Masood heard the Prophet, PBUH, say:

"If I had taken a bosom friend [from amongst you], I would have taken Abu Bakr, for he is my brother and companion, but I have taken Allah –your and my bosom friend."

(Reported by Muslim)

  The truth is quite evident, and it is that only Allah shall remain alive forever, and nothing else remains the same. Every creature is bound to die; nothing will remain but the Exalted and Omnipotent [Allah].

 A poem says:

“No matter how long the night lasts, dawn shall surely shine.
No matter how long you live, know that you are a grave dweller.
No matter how healthy a man is, he shall be carried in a coffin.
And if you carry someone to his grave,
know that soon you shall be carried too.”

  As I mentioned earlier, it isn't heroic not to be afflicted with a calamity, but heroism is to react correctly when a calamity occurs. So the Master of all Creation and Allah's Beloved One passed through two adversities –the loss of two people, one of them was his inner support (his beloved wife Khadijah), and the other was his outer support (his uncle Abu Talib who protected him in Mekka from his enemies). He faced both tragedies with exceptional composure, for believers do get afflicted by calamities.

Kinds of calamities that afflict the believer to upgrade them:

1. The pushing calamities:

 Allah the Exalted says:

"Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere, who say, when afflicted with calamity: "To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return." They are those on whom (descend) blessings from Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance."

(Surat Al-Baqarah, 2:155-157)

  Calamities that believers are afflicted with are either to make they pay or to upgrade their rank. For instance, in case of lack of eagerness, lack of submission in one's prayer, loss of sensation upon hearing the recitation of the Qur'an, an adversity comes across to urge them to exert more effort, and then the connection with Allah the Almighty is more firmly re-established, and they are in this way encouraged to take more and more steps [seeking the pleasure of Allah]. So when they slacken again, another difficulty comes along from the Lord in order to boost their march forward and to strengthen the will to move toward Allah with hasty steps. This type of calamity is in order to push you forward.

 It has been said:

"Allah has ordered this life to become difficult and unpleasant to His pious slaves, so that they should meet Him [when they die]."

 By Allah, dear brother, there was a man who had gone astray far away from the Path of Allah. He suffered a heart attack and was admitted to hospital, to an intensive care unit. He panicked when he realized that he was about to die. So he implored the Lord saying: O My Lord, I do not wish to meet You naked, without any good deeds. Give me a chance to meet You with some good deeds.

 Allah gave him a new lease on life and he committed himself to regular lessons [to learn more about Islam] in our mosque. He regretted [wasting his life time being away from Allah], cried a lot and was much touched. He told me: Once I supplicated: O Allah, You have given me all this happiness after the disease, how come You did not affect me with it years ago? This shows how happy he was.

 The Hand of Allah is Merciful and Magnanimous; it works in the Unseen. For He may give you something to deprive you of something [else that is much more valuable]; and He deprives you of something to give you [something else that is much more valuable].

 Those who suffer are under the protection of Allah, and exposed to His Mercy. Allah loves broken hearted people; sorrow makes you innovative; it leads to heroism and glory; whereas prosperity, wealth and health [unless used for a great cause] do nothing to mankind.

2. The raising calamity:

 The other type of calamity that believers are afflicted with is in order to be raised in rank before Allah, something that a believer would not achieve on his own. In other words, believers are not in a position to reach such a station by means of their own deeds. Allah thus causes them to experience adversity so that on being patient they might be raised to a higher level. When you say that believers are afflicted with a calamity, it is either to push them forward or to raise their station, and these ayaat are about them:

"Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere, who say, when afflicted with calamity: "To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return." They are those on whom (descend) blessings from Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance."

(Surat Al-Baqarah, 2:155-157)

Calamities that afflict the disbelievers:

 However, the disobedient, the ones who have gone astray, the kafirun and the mushrikun have two calamities: the first one being the smashing type; the second –the deterrent type.

 So if there is one to a million possibility that the deterrent calamity would work [then Allah predestines it]; but if He knew that it won't work then the smashing calamity is destined. Allah will afflict the kafirun and the mushrikun until they are totally ruined.

 Allah says:

"It was revealed to Noah: None of your People will believe except those who have believed already! So grieve no longer
over their (evil) deeds. "

(Surat Hud, 11:36)

Calamities that afflict the prophets and messengers:

 There are calamites in the lives of Prophets and Messengers, and those are revealing. The Prophets and Messengers are the elite of mankind. Their perfection can hardly reveal itself in an ordinary situation. It is as if you had a 250 horsepower vehicle, and most vehicles are 15-20 horsepower. A 250 horsepower vehicle surpasses ten times an ordinary vehicle. You may not perceive the power of such a vehicle on a straight road or going down a slope, but when you climb up a slope you will realize the full power of its engine; it remains concealed under normal circumstances.

 Calamities of Prophets, peace upon them all, are meant to reveal their perfection. A man is going on foot, not in Al-Sham but in Al-Hijaz [Saudi Arabia], where the temperature goes up to 56 degrees Celsius, with no vegetation, only deserts and mountains; the heat is unbearable. By Allah, in the season of pilgrimage, if you leave an air-conditioned house, it is as if you were in an oven, even at 10 pm. In such harsh hot environment, Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, went on foot, not in an air-conditioned car, to Ta'if. How many kilometers did he walk? 80 kilometers, the distance we have to Alnabk [a town north of Damascus]. There were high mountains and rugged slopes, nevertheless he reached the city of Ta’if, expecting its inhabitants to believe and support him in the difficult circumstances he was in after the death of his uncle and wife. Contrary to his expectations, they disbelieved and made fun of him, and encouraged their kids to throw stones at him. At that moment the Prophet, PBUH, made his well-know supplication:

"O Lord, if you are not angry with me, I do not care about what has happened, and I seek to please You until You are satisfied."

  It was then that the Angel (in charge) of the Mountains came to him, and said:

 O Muhammad, I have just been authorized to take vengeance on them. If you wish, I will crush them between those two mountains.

 Anyone able to crush someone who has just abused him severely would certainly do so, but the Prophet, PBUH, said:

"O Allah, bestow your guidance upon my people for they know not. Perhaps Allah may bring out of their offspring such who will proclaim His Unity."

  He did not forsake his own people; he supplicated and apologized for them, and asked for their offspring to be upright, and in the situation he was in it was a calamity to be called a liar, to be mocked and beaten.

 One may wonder why Allah allowed the lads at Ta’if to hurt the Master of all Creatures, PBUH, His beloved one, the Master of Adam's offspring, the one by whose precious life Allah swore, the one who reached Sedrat Al-Mountaha the highest? It happened so that the one who calls people to Allah and gets hurt or beaten should have the Prophet, PBUH, for a model till the Day of Judgment. If the Master of all Creation was beaten, anyone who works for the sake of Islam and goes through hardship or loses his freedom will have the Prophet, PBUH, as an excellent example. Why was A'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, accused of wrongdoing as regards the most precious thing that a woman has, that is her honor? Because if any believing woman gets wrongly accused [of adultery] while she is innocent, she has A'isha’s example to follow.

 O brother! As I said, calamites are meant to push the believers forward or to raise them to a higher rank, and they are to worn out the disbelievers, and they are to reveal the qualities that the Messengers and the Prophets of Allah have.
 In the life of a believer there is [something] called the disciplinary phase, and another called calamity phase. For instance, a student answers a question correctly. The teacher asks him: Are you sure? The student says: No, I was wrong. He is being tested as to whether he really knows what he is saying, or whether he has just heard it from a friend of his. Calamites are not necessarily preceded by a sin; they could be a test of one's credibility.

Phases the believer passes to be disciplined:

 So at one stage the believer is being disciplined, at another he is tested, and at the third one he is honored. These phases either overlap or are separate, but I would like to assure you that if a believer was being disciplined by Allah and returned to His Way, and was being tested and passed the test, his life will continue with honor. This is what Allah meant when He said:

"Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has Faith, verily, to him will We give a new Life, a life that is good and pure and We will bestow on such their reward according to the best of their actions. "

(Surat An-Nahl, 16:97)

 And also:

"But for him who fears the standing before his Lord there will be two Gardens."

(Surat Ar-Rahman, 55:46)

  Some scholars say: "In this life there is a paradise; if someone did not enter it, he will not enter the Paradise of the Hereafter." And Allah says:

"Those who believed and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah: verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest."

(Surat Ar-Ra'd, 13:28)

 You will find the same meaning in the poem of someone with a deep knowledge of Allah:

“If you had seen the beauty that they [the righteous] have seen, you wouldn't have gone to someone other than Him (Allah).
If your ears had heard [deeply] the good speech (of Allah), you would have taken off the dress of arrogance and came [humbly] to Him.
If you have tasted [what is equal to a] grain of His compassion, then you wouldn't blame the one who's willing to die for His love.
If you were close enough to feel His Breeze, then you would wish to drop dead rather than miss being close to Him.”

 Behind these calamites there are mighty reasons, and they are destined to be the safety of the believers –the disciplinary phase, the testing phase, the honoring phase.

 Dear brother, in order to be accurate we should say that we badly need Allah the Exalted, the Magnanimous, the Kind. The Merciful said in a hadith qudsi, and your heart can melt hearing it; Allah the Almighty says, as narrated by His Messenger, PBUH:

“I do not hesitate” -Allah never hesitates- “in anything I do but when I take the soul of my Muslim slave. He hates death, and I hate to displease him, but his hour does arrive.”

(Reported by Al-Bukhari from Abu Hurrairah)

  Before our Lord the Exalted takes the soul of His believing servant, He hesitates, as mentioned; Allah the Almighty is Merciful.

 Thus, when Allah has destined a calamity for someone, it is something necessary. Therefore Allah the Exalted begins with guidance and explanations; as you are healthy and correct, you have your five senses, a house, a family and a wife, you cannot complain of anything. He makes you hear something about Islam, or if you attend the Friday prayer, the imam will clarify something, or while you are sitting in a mosque, you may attend a lesson and hear Islamic rulings, or a stance of a great Companion. This is rhetoric guidance. The most perfect stance to take to such rhetoric guidance is to respond to Allah:

"O you who believe! Answer Allah (by obeying Him) and (His) Messenger when he calls you to that which will give you life, and know that Allah comes in between a person and his heart and verily to Him you shall (all) be gathered."

(Surat An-Anfal, 8:24)

  If we did not respond [obeyed], then Allah will subject us to the disciplinary procedure:

"And indeed We will make them taste of the Chastisement (of this life) before the greater chastisement, in order that they may (repent and) return. "

(Surat As-Sajdah, 32:21)

  The most perfect response to such discipline is to repent to Allah, but if you don’t, then Allah will subject you to a third procedure, which involves enjoyment.

"But when they forgot the warning they had received, We opened to them the gates of all (good) things, until, in the midst of their enjoyment of Our gifts, on a sudden, We called them to account, when lo! they were plunged in despair!"

(Surat Al-An'am, 6:44)

  So if you did not remember and you didn’t return to Allah's Way, then the forth procedure is inevitable. It all begins with rhetoric guidance, then comes disciplinary action, then alluring enjoyment, then rupture. I ask Allah for me and you to fall under the first phase –the rhetoric guidance.

Good deeds have no value without faith in Allah:

 The calamity suffered by the Prophet, PBUH, was indeed severe –the death of his uncle Abu Talib, and of his wife Khdijah Bint Khwailed, the Mother of the Believers, may Allah be pleased with her, at the end of the tenth year of Prophethood, after the Muslims abandoned the city, and after the boycott that had lasted three years, during which, Abu Talib had the Prophet, PBUH, under his care and protection, and would speak up for him. But there is one thing that I do not like to mention, and it is that in spite of Abu Talib's effort to take care of the Prophet and to defend him, and to safeguard his position, he did not embrace Islam. This is a crucial point: a good deed is worthless if not based on faith. No man had served the Master of all Creation since the very beginning of the Revelation as his uncle Abu Talib had, who, nevertheless, did not become a Muslim.

 The Quraish greatly respected him. Their chiefs came to him while he was on his deathbed to insist on his sticking to the idols Latt and Al-Uzzah and not to embrace Islam. On the other hand, the Prophet, PBUH, insistently offered him to become a Muslim and asked him to utter the two sentences of shahadah (the testimony of faith), but his uncle replied him saying: "The Quraish would make me pay for saying this.” He did that because of his dread. He refused to say the testimony and I do not wish to continue talking about it.

 There are mighty reasons behind the fact that one's [good] deed is as worthless as a speck of dust unless based on one’s belief in Allah. Does it make any sense that a person dies [without this belief], while the whole Universe proclaims Allah’s Existence, Unity and Perfection. Allah the Exalted revealed afterwards:

"It is true you will not be able to guide everyone whom you love; but Allah guides those whom He will and He knows best those who receive guidance."

(Surat Al-Qasas, 28:56)

  So, if there is amongst us, O brother, a believer in the Creator of the Worlds, then he is in great grace. There are some people who cannot pronounce the testimony of faith even at their deathbed, but only remember the things they were concerned with in the life of this world. So the one who has devoted his life to playing dice, will not remember anything but dice, and the one who has spent his life in disobedience to Allah, will not remember anything but his disobedience.

Unauthentic hadiths about Abu Talib’c convert to Islam:

 It is to be regretted that there are ahadith that contradict [what I'm saying], but those have no authentication. One of them has it that they both were resurrected, and Abu Talib became a Muslim, and there are other ahadith that are not authentic, and simply untrue. We have nothing to do with that; it’s Allah's Job to do whatever He wills with him. Yet, we feel pained and wish that the deeds of the man who protected, supported and defended the Prophet with everything he owned be accepted by Allah. There is no room for worrying; the final reckoning of the deeds of Allah’s servants is entirely His Job.

 Regarding to what Bin Isaac said: that Al-Abbas saw Abu Talib mumbling something, and he said to the Prophet, PBUH: O my nephew, by Allah I heard him saying what you have asked him to say. To that the Prophet, PBUH, said: I did not hear him saying it.

 So it is not true for sure. We do not want a comforting illusion; we want the plain truth; a comforting illusion is worthless.

 For instance, what is happening nowadays? Someone who has never performed salah, has never stood in the direction of Ka’ba, whose earnings are not licit, and who used to drink heavily –dies, and then his family say: We saw him illuminated by light, wearing white robes.

 This is not right; do not involve yourself in evaluating people, it is Allah's Job, when you do that, then you are being impudent to Allah.

The Prophet, PBUH, visited the family of one of his Companions who had just died, his name was Abu Sa'ib, and he heard a woman say: Congratulation Abu Sa'ib, for Allah has honored you.
If the Prophet, PBUH, had said nothing, then she would have been right in saying this, but he asked her:

How do you know that? You should say: ‘I wish that Allah might honor him.’ I am a prophet, sent with the Revelation from Allah, yet I do not know what is going to happen to me or to you.

 He is the Master of all Creation [but he did not know anything unless he had been informed by Allah]. It is wrong to predict and assume to know what Allah is going to do to someone, as described by scholars, claiming that someone is a dweller of Paradise. Who are you to say that this person is a dweller of Paradise or Hell? Who told you that? He may precede you if he had repented, as mentioned; to judge what is going to happen to people in the future is being impudent to the Lord. The scholars in the past, may Allah have mercy on their souls, would say if they were asked to judge someone: "We reckon that he is a righteous person (if they knew him), but we do not praise anyone over the Lord's judgment."

 When Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, handed over the caliphate to Umar Bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, some of the Companions warned him that Umar was a tough man. Abu Baker said: Are you frightening me? By Allah, if He asks me on the Day of Judgment why I chose Umar for your caliph, then I shall say: O my Lord, I have chosen the most merciful amongst them to become their caliph, but if he (Umar) changed (in a way that displeases the Lord) then this was beyond what I knew, this is the Unseen, of which I know nothing.

 Be polite with Allah; do not give the sentence of condemnation or faith on those who surround you, but say: I reckon he is a righteous person, but I do not praise anyone over the Lord's judgment.

 If you see a disobedient person –he disobeys (Allah) now, but he may repent and precede you. However, there some people who make the din unreasonable. Sometimes they consider someone who drinks alcohol a righteous man, but we do not know. He is not righteous; he drinks alcohol! These people are predicting Allah’s decision, to which they have no right.

 For example, Imam Al-Ghazali, may Allah have mercy on his soul, this great man who used to perform salah while everybody else was asleep, was seen by one of his students in a dream after he had died. He was asked: O Imam, what did Allah do to you? He said: My deeds did not do me any good– and his good deeds were as great as mountains– but Allah has forgiven me on account of letting a tiny fly drink from the ink with which I had written one word; I waited for it to drink, therefore Allah had mercy on me.

 He wrote many books, did great works and emigrated to convince you that [one's commitment to] the din is not [evaluated] by work, but the truth is that we shall enter Paradise by Allah's Mercy, and there we shall abide according to our deeds.

"(Namely) those whose lives the angels take in a state of purity, saying (to them): Peace be on you; enter you the Garden, because of (the good) which you did (in the world)."

(Surat An-Nahl, 16:32)

 This means that you will get your share in the Hereafter according to your [good] deeds, but the admission there is by the Mercy of Allah.

The position of lady Khadijah:

 The Prophet, PBUH, lost his great support with the death of his uncle. His family, Banu Hashim, were not yet ready to support him in the same degree because of the physical and the psychological harm inflicted upon them as a result of the boycott.

 Khadijeh Bint Khwailid was an outstanding woman indeed, she could teach all women how a wife should be. Do not forget that at the conquest of Mekka the Prophet, PBUH, was invited by the city chiefs to stay at their places- but he said: Put up my tent near Khadijah's grave, and he raised the banner of triumph by her grave for the whole world to know that the woman in that grave was his partner in triumph.

 Khadijeh Bint Khwailid, may Allah be pleased with her, died three years prior to the Prophet’s emigration to Al-Madina, in the year of the death of his uncle Abu Talib. She was the most believing person after him. Dear brother, she had an incredible character. When the Prophet, PBUH, first received Revelation, he went back home in the state of panic. What did she say to him, even before having heard a word of this Revelation? She said: By Allah, He will never despise you, for you feed the hungry, clothe the bare, you support the afflicted, honor the guest, you maintain ties with your kinship, help when misfortunes occur. How did she know all that? This is innate.

Could Allah disappoint a straight believer?

 Dear brother, by Allah, I count on no-one but Allah. Any believing upright young man should be optimistic no matter how difficult circumstances are.

"Is then he who is a believer like him who is a fasiq (disbeliever and disobedient to Allah)? Not equal are they."

(Surat As-Sajdah, 32:18)

"Shall We then treat the men of faith like the transgressors? What is the matter with you? How judge you?"

(Surat Al-Qalam, 68:35-36)

"Or What! Do those who do evil deeds think that We shall hold them equal with those who believe and do righteous deeds,- that equal will be their life and their death? Ill is the judgment that they make."

(Surat Al-Jathiyah, 45:21)

  Mind my words: It is more than impossible that a straight person will be treated as a perverted one, an honest one as a liar, a trustworthy one as traitor and a just one as an oppressor. They are not on the same level. If they were equal, this would not merely contradict Allah’s Justice, but it would contradict His Existence. At any time or place or any difficult circumstance or state of confusion you are in, you [as a believer] have a special treatment.

"So We answered his call, and delivered him from the distress. And thus We do deliver the believers."

(Surat Al-Anbiya', 21:88)

The Prophet asked Mu'ad Bin Jabal while riding on a mule with him: O Mu'ad, what is Allah's right as regards his slaves? Mu'ad said: Allah and His Messenger know best. The Prophet repeated the question: What is Allah's right as regards his slaves? Mu'ad said: Allah and His Messenger know best. Then Mu'ad asked him: What is Allah's right as regards His slaves? The Prophet, PBUH, said: Allah's right as regards His slaves is to worship Him, and never associate anything with Him [in terms of worship]. Now pay attention, what is the right of slaves as regards Allah if they worshiped Him? Mu'ad said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He asked him twice, then three times. The Prophet, PBUH, said: The right of the slaves as regards Allah, providing they had worshiped Him, is that they not be tormented.

(Reported by Muslim)

  So do not worry, if you worship Allah, then you have a right as regards Him, and that right is not to be tormented.

"And thus We do deliver the believers."

(Surat Al-Anbiya', 21:88)

"And indeed We did send Messengers before you to their own peoples. They came with clear proofs; then, We took vengeance on those who committed transgressions; and (as for) the believers, it was incumbent upon Us to help (them)."

(Surat Ar-Rum, 30:47)

  Dear brother, in our next lesson we shall –insha-Allah– discuss the Journey of the Prophet, PBUH, to Ta’if, and the year we are talking about now is the tenth year, and it is called the Year of Grief because the Prophet, PBUH, lost then his inner support and his outer support. And the Prophet, PBUH, is the most excellent example to follow.