Would You Leave Your Family for Battle?
Quality Over Quantity in Faith and Battle: Lessons from a Previous Prophet
Summary
This lecture discusses a hadith from the chapter on truthfulness and truth, narrating the story of a prophet from previous nations who prepared his people for battle. The prophet instructed those with worldly attachments—such as unmarried men intending marriage, those with unfinished homes, or those with pregnant livestock—not to follow him, emphasizing quality over quantity in his troops. The lecture draws parallels to the story of Jal and how the Companions practiced this principle of maintaining spiritual and military purity. The narrative concludes with the prophet's miraculous request to Allah to keep the sun in position during battle, allowing his forces to complete their victory before nightfall, and introduces the unique permission given to the Prophet Muhammad and his nation regarding the spoils of war.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Alhamdulillah. Continuing.
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In the chapter of truthfulness and truth authored by Noi. In the fifth narration of that chapter,.
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One prophet of the previous nations went and was preparing his people to to lead them into battle. And he said to his men,.
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And so he said to his men, No man amongst you who has married a woman who has not consummated his marriage with her as of yet and is intending to consummate his marriage with her is to follow me into this battle. He said, "Nor any man who has built any building or houses and has not completed said houses and finished raising their roofs, nor any man who has livestock that are pregnant livestock and he is awaiting them to give birth. What the point of all of this is is anyone who has any attachments to this world that will keep him from giving his absolute all and utmost in battle because he is worrying about returning and he feels he is not ready to be martyed then this person is not to follow us. This is a very important point with respect to soldiers. How many of his troops do you think he lost by this? He gave them an out. He gave them an out. And he very likely lost many of his troops who had these excuses and did not follow him into battle. So a person may say, well, isn't the point of an army to have as many numbers as possible? No. The point of an army, a military, any group of people who are undergoing anything of the commandments of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, what is expected is quality, not quantity, not amount, not numbers. You may walk into certain or you may see certain scholars. They have very few students. Others will have hundreds or thousands. Yet this is not this is not a gauge for success. Numbers is not a gauge for success. And the companions understood this. They understood this lesson in the story of Jal.
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That when in the story of Jal he told his troops that Allah is going to test you and thin out the weak amongst you with a river. So whoever drinks from this river is not of me is to go back. And whoever does not drink from this river is to accompany me further to the front lines of battle. And this is what the companions practiced in their time after the prophet sallall.aii wasallam's death. The companions who went for battle led by They insisted on their battalions being purged of anyone who is not a companion. Anyone who is not a companion is not to be part of a battalion of the companions. They can be their own battalion of the students, the but the muajirin and the they wanted to keep their battalions and their platoon pure. And when they had difficulty in in fighting, one of the things that they insisted from is that they that he separates anyone who is a non-compion and that he make their front lines consistent only of companions. And when they did that, they were able to overcome and they were able to push through the lines of Musam. And so this is what the prophet sallall.aii wasallam is telling us here with regards to this prophet, this messenger. He said, He said, "And so when he arrived at the city that he was to lay siege to, it was around the time of Ozel or after Ozel. And so he was worried that he would lose this element of surprise, that he would lose this element of having the battle. Now it's nightfall. We'll have to wait until tomorrow in order to have the battle. And this will give them an edge. And so he turned to the son speaking to it and said, "You have been commanded by Allah and I also have been commanded by Allah. Oh Allah, keep the sun up for us." And so the sun was kept in its position for the duration of the battle. It did not set upon them until they had completed their battle. He says, "And so then he gathered the war booty, the spoils of war, and the spoils of war were never allowed to be kept by any prophet or messenger and his and his army. always the spoils of war. They would not be allowed to keep those spoils of war because this was not the purpose or the intent of their battle. However, this nation, the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam as we will hear at the end of this narration that he says that our prophet and his nation sallallam is the first nation to be allowed to keep the spoils of war. We will complete this narration tomorrow morning. Inshallah.
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