Why Did Prophet Muhammad Ban This Practice?

[Arabic recitation]

In which the prophet sallall.aii wasallam was once on a journey. He was traveling and he had of course a caravan of companions with him as they would travel. And as he was traveling he sent word back through the caravan. Now, I want you to imagine what this kind of looks like when you have a caravan of people traveling. This caravan, depending on if it's a military or if it's tradesmen, it could be anywhere from five or six camels or people all the way to 30, 40, 50,000 people who are all traveling together in this caravan. And so a caravan could snake on for miles and it would take time for word to be passed back all the way to the end of the caravan and for word to be passed back up to the front of the caravan etc. This is how they communicated. And the prophet sallall.aii wasallam traditionally would travel at the front of his caravan. He would be in the very front. His closest companions would be around him and with him. His generals, his advisors, Abu Bakr, Omar, Ali, Abu Abnah, these different companions, they would be up there and the caravan would go back far. However, after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed the verse in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commanded Lord to leave in the morning before and to follow his family out to safety out of Sodom and Gomorrah. After this verse was revealed, the prophet Sam started to travel at the very end of the caravan. If you notice in the story of when they didn't notice that was not in her that she wasn't in her, you know, it's a little room that they would place on top of the camel. she would be in there and because she was so light and she was so young, they didn't notice four big men carrying this thing. They didn't notice she wasn't in there and she was only noticed to be missing by someone that was traveling days after the caravan. It's because the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam and his wives would be at the back of the caravan. That's why. So if they got left behind, they wouldn't notice until a day or two later. So the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam was on this journey and suddenly he sent word with his messengers through the caravan. He sent word that every tendon be cut off of the necks of camels. What's that mean? Cut off the tendons of the necks of camels. What is this? was the superstition in the time of Jahia. Warriors, their closest companion was their sword and their bow. Their bow is their livelihood. It was their protection. It was what they hunted with. It's what they fed their family with. It was with them wherever they went. And how would they string their bows? They used to use tendons from camels. you know, the tendons, these tendons that are very kind of have a a bit of an some elasticity to them. They would use these tendons. They didn't they hadn't discovered rubber yet at that time. So, they would use these tendons and stretch them tight to be able to string their bows and use these to to shoot arrows. And this is referred to in Arabic as a wet. A wet is a tendon, right? And they also used to use these tendons as handles on their swords, right? Because it would be kind of grippy, almost almost like rubber. So they would wrap the handle of their swords with these tendons, right? And these things would wear out over time. The tendon would get stretched out to a point where it needs a new one. And so they would take this tendon off of the handle of their sword or take it off of the string of their bow. And they wouldn't just throw it away. They would say to themselves, "This tendon here was a part of my sword. It was a part of my bow. It's been with me for years. I've killed how many enemies with it? I've defended my honor with it, etc. And I've lived long enough to tell the tale. Therefore, this is now a lucky tendon. This is called a And so now they would take these used tendons and they would hang them on their house, their their their camps or they would hang them most predominantly around the necks of their camels. Right? And they believed that this would repel the evil eye and it would repel evil spirits and it would repel evil jin and right and this was referred to as this is what they called it in Arabic. Now in Islam, this was also referred to as a tim. What is a tim? It comes from the root word a t. A tam is to make something whole, to make it complete. They viewed that this emulate would complete their entourage, complete their ensemble. It would protect them from evil spirits. It would ward off evil eye, etc. And so they would hang these things on their hands. They would wear them on their hands. Sometimes they would hang them around their children's necks if they were worried about their children. They would put them under the under the pillows of their children to ward off evil spirits when the children slept. They would put them on their camels just people hang them on their rearview mirror today. Same thing, same belief system. And so the prophet sallall.aii wasallam sent word through the caravan that not one of these is to be left hanging around the neck or hand of anyone or animal. And then he sent word.

[Arabic recitation]

"Whoever hangs or whoever dawns a tim or a a an emu, then this person has fallen into a type of shik. This person has committed an act of shik. This person has fallen into an act of superstition which is considered to be a type of shift. Now the concept behind this is found everywhere in every country in every people all over the world. It just has a different look to it. In some in the Arab world at that time they use these old tendons, these old strings from their bows and their armor. In other countries, they'll use pieces of metal. In other countries, they'll use a bracelet that they put on the child ever since the child is born. And as the child gets older, it'll be a bigger bracelet all the way until they're adults until they die. And this is all that has different looks to it. It has different outward appearances to it, but it all roots back to the same concept. What is that concept? The concept is an emulet or a charm that a person will wear on his per on his body or on his children or on his house or on his car or over something that is precious to them and in their belief it will ward off evil spirits or jin or whatever it is. This is referred to in Islam as aim and this is considered to be a type of shik in Islam. Once a group of young men came to the prophet Sam to give be to him to pledge allegiance to him. And the way that they would pledge allegiance is they would come and the person pledging would take the prophet's hand sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the prophet would tell him certain things to pledge allegiance to and they would repeat after him. And so this group had come and and they all pledged allegiance to him except for one of these young men. The prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam seemed to go out of his way to ignore him. He didn't look at him. He didn't speak to him. He took the allegiance of everyone else except for this young man. And so the others they asked, they said, "Yeah, our our friend here, you didn't take his allegiance." Listen to what he said. He said, he said, "The reason is he has on his hand an amulet. He has on his hand." They used to wear this wrap on their hand that they believed would protect them from evil spirits or protect them from fever and stuff that, you know, illness, things that. And so this young man, he heard the prophet sallall.aii wasallam say that they're saying you you didn't pledge take the pledge of our friend. He said because he has an amulet wrapped around his wrist. How can he take the prophet's hand while sayingahill I pledge to upholdahill while simultaneously upholding at the same time. It can't work. That allegiance is neither neither effective nor is it valid. And so the boy, the young man, he heard this and he cut this off of his hand and the prophet sallall.aii wasallam then took his hand and he pled allegiance to him as the rest of his companions did. The narrations in this regard are very numerous throughout the Quran throughout the sunnah of the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam generalities in the Quran and specifics which are mentioned in the prophet's sunnah but all of this roots back to one superstition and that is if I have this particular thing it's going to bring me good luck or it's going to ward off bad luck or bad or misfortune right you have and don't think that we in the modern days today because we have fancy technology and We have GPS and we have iPhones that we have risen above these superstitions. They sell them right there in the drugstore. The every pharmacy you've ever walked into has these emulets and they have amulets made out of brass. And it was believed by the ancient Romans that brass would help you with arthritis. Right? This is an amulet. This is exactly what it is. These beliefs are taken from that. Every newspaper you've ever seen printed has a section for horoscopes, a section that is dedicated to a we have basketball players, very famous basketball players today in the NBA and other and elsewhere that never change their socks. They wear the same set of socks they ever wore since they were since they were a new pick, a new player. Why? Because those are his lucky socks. And if he doesn't wear his lucky socks, he's not going to shoot the basketball, right? And you've got baseball players with a lucky glove and they're they're or movie stars with a lucky belt or Bruce Lee with his lucky with his lucky mirror that they would put as is in Chinese culture. The point is is that we did not rise above or transcend these superstitions. They still exist. They're everywhere. They're all around you. And this is whyed is something that you have to go out of your way to learn because the scholars of Islam refer to things emulets and superstitions and so forth as landmines, religious landmines that are in your home that infiltrate themselves into your life that you will only realize are there and will only blow up in your face when the angel of death comes to take and collect your soul.

[Arabic recitation]