Pictures from the lives of the Companions - Episode (34) - Hudhayfah bin Al-Yaman, may God be pleased with him

0:00 In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

0:15 Mawaddah Association is pleased

0:18 to present to you snapshots from the lives of the Companions,

0:22 by Dr. Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,

0:25 may Allah have mercy on him.

0:27 Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, may Allah be pleased with him.

0:46 "If you wish, you may be among the Emigrants (Muhajirun),

0:49 and if you wish, you may be among the Ansar.

0:51 So choose whichever of the two is dearer to your heart."

0:54 With these words, the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, addressed him

0:59 when he first met him in Mecca.

1:02 And behind offering Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman the choice

1:05 to belong to either of these two noblest groups,

1:07 which are the dearest to the Muslims, lies a story.

1:10 Al-Yaman, Hudhayfah's father, was a Meccan from the Banu 'Abs tribe.

1:14 However, he had shed blood among his people,

1:17 which forced him to emigrate from Mecca to Yathrib.

1:20 There, he allied with the Banu 'Abd al-Ashhal and married among them,

1:24 and his son Hudhayfah was born to him.

1:27 Later, the obstacles preventing al-Yaman from entering Mecca ceased to exist,

1:33 so he began traveling back and forth between it and Yathrib,

1:36 though his residence in Medina remained more frequent and permanent.

1:40 When Islam shone its radiant light upon the Arabian Peninsula,

1:45 al-Yaman, Hudhayfah's father, was one of ten men from Banu 'Abs

1:48 who came as a delegation to the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,

1:52 and declared their Islam before him,

1:55 and that was before he emigrated to Medina.

1:58 Hence, Hudhayfah was Meccan by origin, yet Medinan by upbringing.

2:04 Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman was raised in a Muslim home,

2:08 brought up under the care of two parents who were among the foremost to enter the religion of Allah,

2:13 so he accepted Islam before his eyes ever beheld the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.

2:19 Hudhayfah's longing to meet the Messenger filled his entire being;

2:24 ever since he embraced Islam, he eagerly sought news of him and persistently inquired about his descriptions,

2:30 which only increased his deep devotion to him and yearning for him.

2:35 So he traveled to Mecca to meet him, and as soon as he saw the Prophet, he asked him:

2:41 "Am I an Emigrant or an Ansari, O Messenger of Allah?"

2:45 He, peace and blessings be upon him, replied, "If you wish, you may be among the Emigrants,

2:50 and if you wish, you may be among the Ansar; so choose for yourself whichever you prefer."

2:55 He replied, "Rather, I am an Ansari, O Messenger of Allah."

3:00 When the Messenger, peace be upon him, emigrated to Medina,

3:04 Hudhayfah adhered to him as closely as one eye to the other,

3:08 and he took part with him in all the battles except Badr.

3:12 Concerning Hudhayfah's absence from Badr, there is a story he recounted himself, saying:

3:17 "Nothing prevented me from participating in Badr except that my father and I were outside Medina,

3:23 and the disbelievers of Quraysh captured us and said, 'Where are you heading?'

3:29 We said, 'To Medina.' They said, 'You only intend to join Muhammad.'

3:34 We replied, 'We intend nothing but Medina.'

3:38 They refused to let us go until they took a covenant from us

3:42 that we would not support Muhammad against them nor fight alongside him.

3:46 Then they released us.

3:48 When we came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,

3:52 we informed him of the pledge we had made to Quraysh

3:56 and asked him what we should do.

3:58 He, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

4:01 'We shall fulfill their covenant and seek the help of Allah against them.'"

4:05 When the Battle of Uhud took place,

4:07 Hudhayfah fought in it alongside his father, al-Yaman.

4:10 As for Hudhayfah,

4:12 he fought with the utmost valor and noble distinction,

4:15 emerging from it unharmed.

4:17 As for his father, he was martyred in it,

4:20 but his martyrdom was by the swords of the Muslims,

4:24 not by the swords of the polytheists.

4:26 There is a story behind this that we recount as follows:

4:30 On the day of Uhud,

4:32 the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, placed al-Yaman

4:36 and Thabit ibn Waqsh

4:38 in the fortresses along with the women and children,

4:41 because they were two elderly men advanced in age.

4:45 When the heat of the battle intensified,

4:48 al-Yaman said to his companion:

4:50 "Confound you! What are we waiting for?

4:53 By Allah, neither of us has any life left to live

4:56 except as little as the time it takes a donkey to get thirsty!

4:59 We are but dead men of today or tomorrow!

5:02 Shall we not take our swords

5:04 and join the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,

5:08 so that Allah might grant us martyrdom alongside His Prophet?"

5:11 Then they took their swords, entered among the ranks,

5:14 and plunged into the battle.

5:16 As for Thabit ibn Waqsh,

5:18 Allah honored him with martyrdom at the hands of the polytheists.

5:22 But as for al-Yaman, Hudhayfah's father,

5:25 the swords of the Muslims struck him repeatedly while they did not recognize him.

5:29 Hudhayfah began shouting:

5:31 "My father! My father!"

5:33 Yet no one could hear him.

5:35 The elderly man fell slain by the swords of his companions,

5:38 and Hudhayfah said no more to them than:

5:41 "May Allah forgive you,

5:43 and He is the Most Merciful of the merciful."

5:46 Later, the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, intended

5:49 to pay the son the blood money for his father,

5:51 but Hudhayfah said:

5:53 "He was only seeking martyrdom, and he has attained it.

5:57 O Allah, bear witness that I have given his blood money as charity to the Muslims."

6:03 This only elevated his status further with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.

6:08 The Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, probed the depths of Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman's character

6:14 and recognized in him three distinctive traits:

6:17 an extraordinary intelligence

6:19 that aided him in resolving complex dilemmas,

6:22 a compliant, sharp wit

6:24 that responded whenever called upon,

6:26 and an ability to keep secrets

6:28 such that no one could penetrate his inner knowledge.

6:31 It was the policy of the Messenger, peace be upon him,

6:35 to discover the strengths of his Companions

6:38 and harness the latent potentials within them,

6:42 by placing the right man in the right position.

6:46 The greatest challenge facing the Muslims in Medina

6:50 was the presence of the hypocrites, the Jews, and their factions,

6:54 and the plots and conspiracies they were hatching against the Prophet, peace be upon him,

6:58 and his Companions.

7:01 So the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, disclosed

7:04 to Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman the names of the hypocrites—

7:08 a secret he revealed to none other of his Companions—

7:12 and entrusted him with monitoring their movements,

7:15 tracking their activities,

7:17 and warding off their danger from Islam and the Muslims.

7:20 From that day on,

7:22 Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman was called "the keeper of the secret of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him."

7:28 The Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, utilized

7:31 Hudhayfah's talents in one of the most perilous situations,

7:36 one that most urgently demanded extraordinary intelligence and quick wit.

7:41 That was at the peak of the Battle of the Trench (al-Khandaq),

7:44 when the enemy had surrounded the Muslims from above them and from below them,

7:49 the siege had grown prolonged,

7:52 the distress had intensified,

7:54 and exhaustion and hardship had reached their absolute limits,

7:58 to the point that eyes grew wild and hearts reached the throats,

8:02 and some Muslims began entertaining doubts about Allah.

8:06 Yet Quraysh and their polytheist allies in those decisive hours

8:12 were in no better condition than the Muslims;

8:15 for Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, poured out upon them of His wrath

8:18 that which sapped their strength and shook their resolve.

8:22 He unleashed against them a howling, freezing wind

8:24 that overturned their tents, overturned their cooking pots,

8:28 extinguished their fires, hurled gravel in their faces,

8:32 and choked their eyes and nostrils with dust.

8:36 In such critical moments in the history of warfare,

8:41 the losing side is the one that groans first,

8:45 while the winning side

8:47 is the one that maintains its composure just a blink of an eye longer than its adversary.

8:51 In these moments when the fates of battles are decided,

8:56 military intelligence holds the paramount role

9:00 in assessing the situation and offering counsel.

9:03 Hence, the Messenger, peace be upon him, needed

9:07 the talents and expertise of Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman,

9:10 and resolved to dispatch him into the heart of the enemy's army under the cover of darkness

9:15 to bring him their news before deciding on a course of action.

9:19 Let us leave the floor to Hudhayfah to tell us about this journey of death.

9:24 Hudhayfah said: "On that night, we were sitting in ranks,

9:29 while Abu Sufyan and the Meccan polytheists with him were above us,

9:34 and the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayzah were below us,

9:37 and we feared for our women and children from them.

9:40 Never had a night passed over us darker or with stronger wind than that night;

9:47 the sounds of its wind were like thunderclaps,

9:50 and its intense darkness made it impossible for any of us to see his own finger.

9:54 The hypocrites began asking the Messenger, peace be upon him, for permission to leave,

9:59 saying, 'Our homes are exposed to the enemy,'

10:03 while they were not exposed.

10:05 Whenever anyone of them asked him for permission, he granted it to him,

10:09 and they kept slipping away until only about three hundred of us remained.

10:15 At that point, the Prophet, peace be upon him, stood up

10:19 and began passing by us one by one until he came to me.

10:24 I had nothing to protect me from the cold

10:27 except a small woolen wrap belonging to my wife that did not reach past my knees.

10:31 He approached me while I was crouching on the ground

10:34 and said, 'Who is this?'

10:36 I said, 'Hudhayfah.'

10:38 He said, 'Hudhayfah?'

10:40 So I shrank closer to the ground, reluctant to stand up due to severe hunger and cold,

10:45 and said, 'Yes, O Messenger of Allah.'

10:48 He said, 'Something is happening among the enemy,

10:53 so infiltrate their camp and bring me their news.'

10:57 I set out while being among the most terrified of people and the coldest.

11:02 Then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

11:06 'O Allah, protect him from in front of him and from behind him,

11:10 from his right and from his left,

11:12 and from above him and from beneath him.'

11:15 By Allah, no sooner had the Prophet, peace be upon him, finished his supplication

11:19 than Allah stripped from my heart all the fear He had placed in it,

11:24 and removed from my body all the cold that had afflicted it.

11:28 When I turned to go,

11:30 he, peace and blessings be upon him, called out to me and said:

11:33 'O Hudhayfah, do not instigate anything among the people until you return to me.'

11:38 I said, 'Yes,' and proceeded to slip away under the cover of darkness

11:43 until I entered among the soldiers of the polytheists and became just like one of them.

11:49 It was not long

11:51 before Abu Sufyan stood up among them to deliver a speech and said:

11:56 'O people of Quraysh,

11:58 I am about to say something to you that I fear might reach Muhammad,

12:02 so let every man among you look at who is sitting beside him.'

12:05 Immediately, I grabbed the hand of the man next to me

12:10 and said, 'Who are you?'

12:12 He said, 'So-and-so, son of so-and-so.'

12:15 Thereupon, Abu Sufyan said:

12:17 'O people of Quraysh,

12:19 "By Allah, you are no longer in an enduring abode.

12:23 Our riding beasts have perished,

12:25 Banu Qurayzah have abandoned us,

12:28 and we have suffered from the severity of the wind as you can see,

12:31 so depart, for I am departing!"

12:34 Then he went to his camel, untied its hobble, and mounted it;

12:38 then he struck it, and it sprang to its feet.

12:41 And had it not been that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

12:44 commanded me not to initiate anything until I returned to him,

12:48 I would have killed him with an arrow.

12:50 Thereupon, I returned to the Prophet (peace be upon him)

12:55 and found him standing in prayer, wrapped in a woolen garment belonging to one of his wives.

12:59 When he saw me, he drew me close to his feet

13:03 and cast an edge of the garment over me.

13:05 I then conveyed the news to him,

13:07 and he rejoiced greatly over it,

13:10 praising and extolling Allah.

13:13 Hudhayfah Ibn al-Yaman remained the entrusted keeper of the secrets regarding the hypocrites

13:17 for as long as he lived,

13:19 and the Caliphs continually referred to him regarding their affairs.

13:23 Indeed, 'Umar Ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him),

13:26 whenever a Muslim passed away, would ask:

13:30 "Did Hudhayfah attend the funeral prayer for him?"

13:33 If they said yes, he would pray over him,

13:36 but if they said no, he would suspect him and withhold from praying over him.

13:42 'Umar once asked him,

13:44 "Is there among my governors any of the hypocrites?"

13:47 Hudhayfah replied, "One."

13:49 'Umar said, "Point him out to me."

13:51 He replied, "I will not."

13:54 Hudhayfah said,

13:55 "Yet it was not long before 'Umar dismissed him,

13:58 as if he had been guided right to him."

14:00 Perhaps few people know that Hudhayfah Ibn al-Yaman

14:04 conquered for the Muslims Nahavand,

14:07 Dinawar,

14:08 Hamadhan,

14:09 and Rayy,

14:10 and was the reason for uniting the Muslims upon a single Qur'anic codex (Mushaf)

14:14 after they were on the verge of dividing over the Book of Allah.

14:18 Yet despite all of that,

14:20 Hudhayfah Ibn al-Yaman harbored an intense fear of Allah for his own soul,

14:25 and a tremendous dread of His punishment.

14:28 When his terminal illness weighed heavily upon him,

14:31 some of the Companions came to visit him in the dead of night.

14:34 He asked, "What hour is this?"

14:38 They replied, "We are close to dawn."

14:41 He said, "I seek refuge with Allah from a morning that leads me to the Fire."

14:47 Then he asked, "Have you brought a burial shroud?"

14:51 They said, "Yes."

14:53 He said, "Do not be extravagant with shrouds,

14:56 for if there is good in store for me with Allah,

14:59 it will be replaced with something far better;

15:01 and if it is the other case, it will be stripped from me."

15:04 Then he began to say,

15:06 "O Allah, You know that I used to prefer poverty over wealth,

15:11 and humility over worldly honor,

15:14 and death over life."

15:17 Then, as his soul was departing, he said,

15:20 "A beloved has arrived upon longing;

15:23 may he who regrets never prosper!"

15:25 May Allah have mercy on Hudhayfah Ibn al-Yaman,

15:28 for he was truly a singular kind of man.

15:32 "Whatever Hudhayfah narrates to you, believe it;

15:35 and whichever way 'Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud recites to you, recite it."

15:43 "'Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud recites to you, recite it."

15:46 A noble hadith.

Pictures from the lives of the Companions - Episode (34) - Hudhayfah bin Al-Yaman, may God be pleased with him

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