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Assalamu Alaykum Wa rahmatullahi Wabarakatu, everyone.
Bismillah AlHamdulillah was Salatu Wassalamu 'ala Rasulullah
wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi wa-man wa'la
Welcome back to The Firsts-
Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameen
As we have finished 50 episodes of season one of The Firsts,
we are inshaAllah Ta'ala going to spend
the next few months with some of the shorter biographies,
people whose names are relatively unknown
and about whom we may have just a couple of paragraphs,
but they are from the earliest Muslims,
the first Muslims and bi-idhnillah Ta'ala
in this last batch of The Firsts,
we are going to revive their memory inshaAllah Ta'ala.
So the person we are speaking about today
is a woman by the name of Shifa bint Abdullah al-Adawiya,
Shifa Bint Abdullah al-Adawiya.
And she is the daughter of Abdullah ibn Abdi Shams
and Fatima bint Wahab.
She is married to Abu Hathma ibn Hudhayfa Radiallahu Anhu
and they had two sons
by the names of Sulayman and Masruq Radiallahu ta'ala Anhu.
So she is known as
Shifa bint Abdullah al-Qurashiya al-Adawiya.
She is from Quraysh
and she's also from the tribe of Banu Adi,
which is the tribe of Umar Radiallahu Ta'ala Anhu.
And I forgot to mention that the first few bios
that we are going to go through inshaAllah Ta'ala,
in these short bios are all somehow connected
to Umar Radiallahu Ta'ala Anhu.
So that's how we're going to batch
this first group inshaAllah Ta'ala.
So she is related to Umar ibn Khattab Radiallahu Ta'ala Anhu
and her name often comes up as if she's one of the Tabi'ah.
She's someone that came later on in Islam
because the role that she became known for
is after the death
of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
However, her reputation actually precedes Islam
and she is considered amongst the very first people
to become Muslim, okay?
Her name actually was not Al-Shifa, that was her nickname.
Her name was actually Layla,
but she gained the nickname Al-Shifa
and which of course refers to the healer.
And this was something that would stick with her
for the rest of her life.
Now what makes this woman so unique?
Number one, her wisdom.
She had a reputation for her Hikmah.
Number two, she was someone that belonged
to the small group of people
that were literate at the time.
Remember when we spoke about
Umar Khattab Radiallahu Ta'ala Anhu,
we said the majority of people were illiterate in Mecca.
Al-Shifa was one of the few women
who could actually read and write in Mecca,
where they only had about 20 to 30 people,
according to biographers that were able to do so.
So she acquired the skill of reading and writing
of literacy, which was very rare.
She learned medicine as well, hence her name, Al-Shifa.
And on top of that, she also was a calligrapher.
So she didn't just know how to write,
she used to teach people, particularly,
how to do calligraphy.
And so we find Hafsa Radiallahu Ta'ala Anha,
the wife of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
was a student of Al-Shifa, obviously related to her.
And Al-Shifa taught her how to read,
she taught her how to write,
she taught her calligraphy as well.
So when did she become Muslim? We don't have the exact time,
but we know that it was within the first three years
of the call of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
that she embraced Islam and she is also amongst
the first women to make the Hijra
with the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
to al Medina.
Now, here's where it gets even more interesting with her,
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam trusted her,
and took her as a confidant
in seeking her advice in many matters due to her wisdom,
particularly when it came to issues of finance,
issues of the marketplace,
where she had a particular understanding.
So when they got to Medina, she's considered
amongst the first batch of women to make the Hijrah,
she had a house that was set up for her,
between the Masjid and the marketplace.
And that was the famous home of Al-Shifa,
that was very prominent in Medina.
So in Mecca, she was known for her healing,
she was known for her reading,
she was known for her writing.
In Medina, her home was prominently
situated between the Masjid and the souk.
And so the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he used to visit her frequently.
And this is where you see some of the beauty
of the reverence that these people had
for the Messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
She always anticipated the next time
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
would visit her family.
And so what she did was she had a particular izar,
a particular blanket, particular amenities
for the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
for the rare times that he would come to her home.
And when I say rare,
obviously that is relative to everyone else.
I mean, to live in Medina,
to host the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
is a moment that you will never forget, right?
But she wanted the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
to frequent her house even more.
And so she has everything cut out and ready
and prepared for the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
as a guest whenever he would come.
And so the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
would visit her family
and the Messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
would put on the izar and the blankets
and use the amenities that she had for him
and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
would take a nap in their family home.
So Subhan Allah, I mean, think about how beautiful that is
for her to have the honor of hosting
the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam frequently in Medina.
To learn from him Alayhi Salatu Wasallam,
to be a companion of his
and also to be consulted by him SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And when she passed away,
her most precious belongings that she left for inheritance
were not any of the wealth that she had acquired in Mecca
or in her time in Medina,
nothing that she had inherited from her husband,
but rather the most precious belongings
were the things, the clothes, the blankets,
the things that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
used to use when he used to come to her home
Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anha.
And so she actually, you know,
allowed for Suleiman and Masruq,
her children, to inherit those things.
And that was considered the most precious
of the inheritance of Al-Shifa Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anha.
There are a few stories of her
there's one narration particular
that we find in Abu-Dawwud
where the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
entered upon her and Hafsa Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anha
and of course, as we said, she and Hafsa were very close
as she was considered from the extended family
of Umar Khattab Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu.
So she says in an authentic Hadith in Abu Dawud,
dakhala Rasulullahi SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam a'inda Hafsa
"The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
entered upon I and Hafsa when we were sitting together
and he said to me-"
allatu allimina hadihi ruqyatan namlati
qama allamtihal kitaba
"Will you not teach Hafsa how to perform a type of healing
for ant bites, infections that come
as a result of ant bites?"
Remember she is a healer, she knows medicine,
she knows how to do ruqya
and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
approved her to continue to do ruqya
so long as it was grounded in what was coming
from the Quran and the Sunnah,
not from the practices of Jahiliyyah,
but other types of medicine as well.
So she had a particular way of treating ant bites.
So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
"Will you not teach Hafsa how to cure ant bites
and infections that come as a result of ant bites,
the same way that you taught her,
how to read and how to write?"
So Subhan Allah, why is this so important to us?
And why is it something that is significant?
Because we find that the Quran
was gathered in the house of who?
It was gathered
in the house of Hafsa Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anha.
And some of the Ulama mentioned
that that is because of her literacy, right?
That it was all gathered in her home.
And she was unique in that sense,
as there were only a few people
that knew how to read and how to write.
So Shifa had something
to do with the Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anha
in teaching Hafsa Radhi Allahu Anha
how to read, how to write,
how to use calligraphy and also how to treat ant bites.
So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
passes away and she maintains that home.
And there is a story that Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu,
when he became the Khalifa,
he formally appointed her
as being in charge of the marketplace.
Now there's nothing that is firm to suggest that entirely.
But we do know that Umar RadiAllahu Anhu,
at the bare minimum used to frequently consult her
on matters of the marketplace, the fiqh of finance,
business issues and things of that sort.
And of course, Umar RadiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu,
who honored the Sunnah
of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in every way,
used to visit her home
between the Masjid and the marketplace,
just as he saw the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
used to do so.
And so we find that Umar as the Khalifa
would frequent this woman's house.
And on one occasion,
he asked her about her children, particularly Suleiman.
So her son Masruq was appointed as an Amir somewhere.
And he was, considered a person of great knowledge,
a person of great status
under Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu.
So, Masruq was appointed as an Amir.
Her son, Suleiman, was a person who was known
for his recitation of the Quran
and his long nights of prayer.
He was a Hafiz, and he used to lead the people in prayer.
So Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu,
on one occasion, asked her why her son, Suleiman
was not present at the Fajr prayer.
And she replied that Suleiman, her son,
had been praying all night long
and he fell asleep right before Fajr.
And so he wasn't able to actually
catch the Fajr in Jama'ah.
And so the famous narration of Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu
where he said,
wasalli subhfil jama'ah
"For me to pray Fajr in congregation-"
ahhabu ilayya min an usali al layl
"Is more beloved to me than praying the entire night.
If I'm able to catch Fajr in congregation,
that's better than praying the entire night."
Because the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said
that whoever catches Isha in a congregation,
then it is as if that person
has prayed the first half of the night
and whoever prays Fajr in congregation,
it is as if they prayed the entire night.
So that's actually the context
of this particular narration
from Al-Shifa Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anha.
So we find again, Suleiman and Masruq
both play an integral role,
and they, the only lineage that we see that survives,
Shifa Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anha
is through her son, Suleiman, who had two sons
and he named his two sons what?
Abu Bakr and Uthman, Abu Bakr and Uthman.
So Shifa, relative of Umar, is the grandmother
now of Abu Bakr and Uthman.
And they became narrators of Hadith.
And so that is why we find some of the surviving Hadith
of this woman who was very early on in Islam,
Shifa bint Abdullah Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anha al-Adawiya
amongst the famous Hadith that she narrates.
She narrates the famous Hadith that we will talk about,
when we talk about this companion
of the letter that was sent to Kisra
with Abdullah ibn Hudafa Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu.
So we'll talk about that Hadith in a few weeks
In Sha Allah Ta'ala
and it's a powerful and beautiful story
that we find in our history.
She also narrates a famous Hadith,
where she says to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
or she says about the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
that Rasoolullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam-
su'ila an akhthalil a'mar
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was asked,
"What are the best of actions?"
And he said,
imaanun billah wajihadun fi sabililah wahadjun mabrur
"The belief in Allah Subhan Wa Ta'ala,
to strive in the path of Allah
and a accepted and accepted and perfect, perfected Hajj.
So Imaan, Jihad and Hajj.
This narration also comes through
Shifa Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anha.
The most famous thing that she narrates,
is the story of how Umar ibn Khattab Radhi Allahu Anhu
was named Amir ul Mu'mineen,
the famous tile that's given to him
of the commander of the believers.
Now if you remember when we spoke about,
Umar Radhi Allahu Anhu,
when Abu Bakr Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu
was alive as the Khalifa, it was simple,
he was Kalifa to Rasulillah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he was the successor
of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
But you couldn't just keep having
the Khalifa of the of the Khalifa of Rasulullah
and then the Khalifa of the Khalifa of the Khalifa
of the Rasulullah.
And so there was a curiosity about what
Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu was going to be called.
And so one of the beautiful stories here,
and sometimes it's beautiful just to read about
how the Hadith or the narration is transmitted.
Imam az-Zuhri Rahimahullah ta'ala,
he narrates that Umar ibn Abdi Aziz Radi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu
asked Abu Bakr ibn Suleiman,
so that's the grandson of Shifa,
he asked him, I'm sorry,
"Who was the first one to write Amir ul Mu'mineen?"
"Who was the first person
to call Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu by the name
Amir ul Mu'mineen?"
Such a beautiful and endearing name,
the commander of the believers.
And he says, my grandmother, As-Shifa
was one of the first women to make the Hijra
and when Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu went to visit her,
he would frequent her on his way to the marketplace.
And she told me that one time
Umar ibn Khattab Radhi Allahu Anhu who wrote a letter
to a governor in Iraq and said,
"Send me two men, two of your best men,
so that I can ask them about Iraq and its people."
So the two men were sent by this governor of Iraq,
and they were Labid ibn Rabi'a and
'Adi ibn Hatim,
may Allah Subhan Wa Ta'ala be pleased with them.
So they came to Medina and they entered into the Masjid
And as they entered into the Masjid
of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
they found 'Amr ibn al-'As Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu
and they said to him-
ista' dhin lana ala amirul mu'mineen
"Can you seek permission from Amir ul Mu'mineen
for us to enter upon him?"
And 'Amr ibn al-'As Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu he said,
"Wallahi, you two have been granted success
by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
in the name that you just addressed him by."
Fahuwal amir wa nahnul mu'minoon
"For, he is the Amir, he is indeed the commander
and we are the believers."
So he said that
"I then went to Umar ibn Khattab Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu
and I said-"
As Salaam Alaika ya Amir ul Mumineen
"Peace be onto you, oh commander of the believers."
And Umar Radhi Allahu Anhu said,
"Why are you calling me that, ibn al-'As?"
And he said that,
"Well, Labid and 'Adi came to me and this is what they said
and you are the Amir and we are the Mu'mineen"
And from that day onwards,
this is the name that Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu
used to go by.
So Subhan Allah, this comes through a conversation
literally between a grandmother and her grandson,
which then is transmitted to the greatest grandson
of Umar ibn Khattab which was Umr ibn Abdil Aziz,
the fifth of Khulafa
ar-Rashideen Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu Ajmaeen.
May Allah be pleased with them all.
So, this is the role that she plays.
She also has a narration similar to that,
of Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha, narrating
the traits of Umar ibn Khattab Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu,
where she once saw some men that were walking very slowly
and she asked about them.
And they said that these are people
that were praying all night.
And she said,
kaana Umar idha hadath asma wa idha masha asra' wa idha at
am'a ashba wa idha dharaba awja
That Umar Radhi Allahu Anhu, when he used to speak,
he used to make sure everyone heard him, he spoke loudly.
And when he walked, he walked fast.
And when he fed, he fed generously.
And when he hit, he hit hard.
So a similar narration,
to Aisha Radhi Allahu Anhu Ta'ala Anha,
that we also find from her speaking about
Umar ibn Khattab Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu.
And we find that this great woman
who was a woman of great scholarship,
a woman of great literacy and above all of that,
a woman who embraced Islam in the very first years
and had that noble position
with the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
and Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu
would pass away leaving behind some of the Hadith
that are narrated by Buhkari, Abu Dawud and Nasa'i.
And she passed away
in the time of Umar ibn Khattab Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu
and Umar Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu would lead the Janazah
of this great woman, al-Shifa bint Abdullah al-Adawiya,
may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la be pleased with her.
And may Allah allow us to follow in their footsteps,
Allahumma Ameen.
InSha Allah Ta'ala, I'll see you next time,
where we will continue to talk about some of the people
around, Umar Radhi Allahu Anhu
about whom we usually don't hear much about.
As Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu
(ending chime sound)