Did Allah Command You To Leave Us Here?

Prophet Muhammad SAW was born in Makkah around the year 570 or 571 the Christian Era (CE). Makkah was a thriving town at that time. Most of the Makkans engaged in trades and tended livestock. As Makkah was barren, and basically nothing could grow there, they did not engage in agriculture.

Makkah was the most important religious center in the Peninsular Arabia at that time. This is because it has a cube-like structure called Kaabah. It is considered as the House of God, where the Arabs came to do pilgrimage, either the major one known as Hajj, or the lesser one known as Umrah.

So Makkah was both the trading center as well as religious center for the Arabs.

About 2,500 years before that, however, Makkah was just a barren land. No one lived there, as the place had no source of water. So how did Makkah get populated?

The story started with the Prophet Abraham (Nabi Ibrahim). He lived around 4,000 years ago, or about 2,500 years before the Prophet Muhammad was born.

When Abraham was born, no one worshipped the one true God. The Tawhid, that is the belief in one true God, as was taught by the first man and the first Prophet, Adam AS, had been lost. People at that time worshipped idols, that is, the images they made to represent the gods they worship. These images could be the sun, stars, moon, trees, human beings, animals, spirits, or anything that they consider as gods. Even Aazar or also known as Terah, the father of Prophet Abraham, was an idol maker.

Allah had chosen Abraham to revive the true belief, namely tawhid. But after the long struggle, instead of believing in him, they threw him into inferno. He had no choice but to leave his people and travel to other regions with the hope that some people would believe in him. In the journey, he brought his wife, Sarah, and his nephew, Lot, who believed in him.

His nephew, Lot (Nabi Lot), was to become another prophet. Years later, when Abraham decided to part ways, he told his nephew to go to the region called Sodom and Gomorrah. People in this region, however, indulged in homosexuality. The men prefer men to be their sexual partners. That is why homosexuality is called sodomy. The name sodomy is taken to represent the towns of Sodom that Allah destroyed.

Back to the story of Abraham, among the places he visited with his wife was Egypt. The king of Egypt was someone who cannot see beautiful woman, and Sarah was very beautiful. So the king took Sarah to be among his concubines. But whenever he wanted to take Sarah to bed, he became inflicted with some kind of paralyzing disease. In short, he cannot lay his hand on Sarah. He became normal again the moment he left Sarah alone.

After trying for three nights and the same thing happened, the king realized that this was a special woman. So instead of trying for the fourth time, the king presented Sarah with one of his slave girls name Hagar to be the bondmaid. Some said Hagar was the daughter of the king of Egypt himself. Others said she was the daughter of the King of Maghreb, that is the country west to Egypt, but was captured during the war with Egypt, and was made the slave by the King of Egypt. Allah knows best.

After many years of traveling here and there, Abraham finally decided to stay at the region called Canaan. The place is now in Israel.

Abraham mission was not very successful in terms of getting the believers. Not many people believed in him. And after many years of marriage, he did not get any offspring. He was worried that if he did not have any children, the message he brought will be lost again. So he prayed continuously to God to give him children. By then, both Abraham and his wife Sarah were already old.

Sarah knew that her husband wanted very much to have children. However, she was not only barren, but already beyond the age of conception. So she told her husband to take her bondmaid Hagar to be his second wife.

After Abraham slept with Hagar, they got a son. They named the son, Ishmael. All three were happy. But not for long. Because the woman’s jealousy quickly interfered. Sarah could not bear to see Abraham paid too much attention to the boy and the boy’s mother who used to be her bondmaid.

Sarah then told her husband to put away Hagar and the boy so that she didn’t have to see them again. That way, she would not be overwhelmed by jealousy. But, instead of bringing Hagar and the infant Ishmael to the next village, Abraham sent them thousand miles away from home. He brought them to Makkah, a barren valley he never visited before.

After staying with them for a while, he left. Being left in a valley where nothing grew and no source of water, we can imagine how desperate Hagar had become. It meant that they cannot survive for long, as there was only a little food and water left. So she repeatedly called for her husband who was already leaving. But Abraham did not say anything. He did not even turn around looking at his desperate wife and young infant.

Hagar, however, was a good believer. She knew her husband would not have left her and her infant boy in that deserted area, not only because he was a good man, but also because he loved both of them. Furthermore, Abraham had been wanting to have a child. When Ishmael was born, he was overjoyed. Thus, it did not make sense that he would leave the mother and the infant son like that, unless he received order from the Higher Up. So she asked: “Did Allah command you to leave us here?”

Abraham turned his head around and said: “Yes.”

Then Hagar said: "We are not going to be lost, since Allah, Who has commanded you, is with us."

A few days later, the food and water ran out. Hagar went looking for water. She thought she saw water at the mount Safa. When she reached there, there was no water. Then she thought she saw water at the mount Marwah. She walked briskly there. No water also. This walking back and forth took place seven times. But no water found. Nevertheless, it was from this event of walking back and forth, known as sa’i, that we take as part of our ritual of umrah or hajj.

After completing the seven round of walking back and forth between these two hills, Hagar saw her infant boy was playing with water. Apparently while she went looking for water between the hills of Safa and Marwah, the angel came to the infant boy and dug a fountain of water there. That fountain of water, known as zam-zam, remains until these days.

At that time, there was a tribe coming from Yemen camping outside of Makkah valley. The tribe is called Jurhum. They saw birds flying above the barren valley of Makkah. The flying birds circling the area indicated that the area has water. They sent scouts to go and check. When they saw a woman with young infant boy and a source of water, they asked for Hagar’s permission to live there.

Hagar agreed because she also needed other people around. It was dangerous to live only with her infant boy. The Jurhum were the Arabs. Hagar was an Egyptian, while her husband was a Hebrew, so she and her infant boy Ishmael learned to speak the language spoken by the Jurhum. When Ishmael grew up to be a man, he married a woman from this tribe of Jurhum.

Like Prophet Lot, the nephew of Abraham, God also appointed Ishmael the son of Abraham to be the prophet as well. We know him as Prophet Ishmael (Nabi Ismail). He had 12 sons, and through them his descendants multiplied and spread all over Arabia. They were known as Ishmaelite Arabs. About 2,500 years later, one of his descendants was born. He was named Muhammad. He was none other than our Prophet. It is said that there were 60 generations between Ishmael and Muhammad.

So Hagar, the great-great-great-great grandmother of the Prophet, was right. Allah did not abandon her when her husband was commanded to leave her in Makkah. Those who have no faith would say that Abraham was very cruel to have left his younger wife and an infant boy like that. But we the people of faith understand that Allah has a greater plan. The plan was to create a great nation giving birth to the great and last prophet, that is, to prepare the way for the coming of the last brick in the house of propethood.

Humble Beginning

When the Prophet SAW died at the age of 63, he left behind more than 100,000 companions.  For more than half of his mission as a prophet, however, he had only a handful of followers.  Most of the time, they were being persecuted.

The Prophet started his mission at the age of forty, when he received the first revelation in the cave of Hira.  A man suddenly appeared to him and asked him to read verses written on a piece of cloth the man was holding.

As Muhammad was unlettered and said he cannot read, the man embraced him so hard he was choking for breath.  This happened three times and finally the man himself read the verses to him and these verses were imprinted in his heart.

Muhammad  was bewildered and very confused with the event.  He ran home as soon as the man suddenly disappeared.  He thought he had been possessed by the demon.  His wife comforted him, saying that Allah will not put a good man like him under the spell of the Devil.  Then she took him to see her cousin, Waraqah, the Christian scholar in Makkah at the time.

After listening to his story, Waraqah declared that the one who visited him was also the one who visited Prophet Moses.  Then Waraqah said if he is still alive the day Muhammad is being persecuted, Waraqah would stand behind him.

Muhammad became more confused and anxious, and asked Waraqah why would people want to do horrible things to him.  Because all along people always like him and even called him al-Amin, the trusted one.  Waraqah said that such is the nature of the job as a prophet and the mission he carries.

Details about this story can be found in the tafsir  of surah al-Alaq (Quran: 96).  Or any seerah book.

Because the Prophet was so bewildered and confused, and because he did not want people to call him a madman, he thought that death would be better.  So he went to the hill nearby with the idea of throwing himself down.  When he was at the top of the hill, the same being who visited him the first time appeared again.  But this time not as a man. Rather, as an angel. 

The angel, whose name is Gabriel, appeared on the sky in his own form.  He was so gigantic that he covered the whole horizon.  No matter where Muhammad turned his face, he saw the Angel Gabriel.  By then he knew the matter was not his choice.  It is decreed that he shall be the last prophet, or the last brick in the house of prophethood.

His wife, Khadijah, readily believed in him.  Then he talked to his bosom friend, Abu Bakar, a man about two and half year younger than him.  Abu Bakar also readily believed in him.  His slave whom he adopted as his son, Zayd, who about 25 years old, also readily believed in him. 

He didn't talk about his experience with Ali, because Ali was just a boy of 10 years old at the time.  But Ali, who lived with him, saw the Prophet and Khadijah were praying.  Upon inquiry, Muhammad told Ali about his appointment as a prophet to revive the true religion. 

Ali also readily believed in him, but thought that since he was a minor, he must get permission from his father first, Abu Talib.  Half way to his father’s house, the young but wise boy thought that his father never asked permission from God for Ali to be born.  Why should he now ask his father’s permission to believe in one true God.  He came back and declared his faith.

Through his wife, a few women entered Islam.  Through Abu Bakar, many young man of noble birth entered Islam.  Through Zayd, many men of slave or servant status entered Islam. 

Several months later, about 40 people became Muslims.  The Prophet taught Islam to them secretly.  After three years had passed, Allah commanded the Prophet to spread the message of Islam openly.  Then the persecution started.  The torture and persecution were so severe that a few of his followers died.  The Prophet then told his followers to find safer place to live and practiced Islam.  About 100 of his followers then migrated to Abyssinia in two successions.  Only a handful were left behind in Mekah.

The situation was getting worse by the day.  The leaders of Makkah, frustrated that Abu Talib, the uncle and protector of the Prophet, refused to hand Muhammad for them to kill, boycotted the whole clan of the Prophet, known as the clan of Bani Hashim.  No one shall have any relationship with Bani Hashim, although the majority of Bani Hashim were not yet believers at that time.  If they refuse to hand over Muhammad so that they can kill him, then the whole clan shall die of starvation.

Abu Talib, as the leader of the clan, brought the whole clan to camp at the valley outside of the Makkah city, living secluded from people.  The boycott lasted three years.  Many died of sickness and malnutrition.  Many times they went without food and had to survive even on leaves and grass.

Soon after the boycott was lifted, his uncle Abu Talib and his wife Khadijah died.  The severity of the boycott had taken toll on their health.  The  Prophet had lost his protector (uncle) and his comforter (wife).  This took place on the tenth year of his mission.

He went seeking help at the nearby town called Taif.  Instead of helping him, the leaders of Thaqif, as the people of Taif is called, chased him out, telling the kids to throw stones at him.  He fled, bleeding.

There was nothing more he can do with the Makkans, his hometown people, known as Quraish.  Those who believed him have believed.  The majority of them followed their leaders, who considered Muhammad the enemy number one.  So the Prophet went for other tribes who came to Makkah during hajj season to spread the mission. 

His task was made difficult because the leaders of Makkah kept following him telling the people not to listen to him, accusing him as a madman who bring nothing but trouble to the people.  One of these leaders was his own uncle Abu Lahab, who sided with the enemies.

When things appeared bleak and his mission met dead end, Allah sent help in the form of six men from the town in the north known as Yathrib.  These people belonged to Khazraj clan of Yathrib.  They believed in him and spread the message in their town.  The message was well accepted.  Next two years, they came back to Makkah with 72 delegates to pledge their obedience to him and invited him to migrate to their town. 

The Prophet then sent his followers to Yathrib, including those who came back from Abyssinia.  Soon the Prophet also migrated to Yathrib and change the name of the town to Madinatul Rasul, meaning the City of the Messenger.  The town is called Madinah for short until this day.  He migrated to Madinah three years after the death of his uncle and his wife.

For the first five years in Madinah, the city was continually under attacks not only from outside including from Makkah and other tribes who wanted to destroy Islam, but the Muslims had to contest with the enemies from inside the city, the Jews and the hypocrites.  After that, the Muslims were stronger and by the eight year of his migration to Madinah, the Prophet brought 10,000 armies to conquer Makkah without bloodshed.

By the time he died three years later, he subdued the whole of Arabian Peninsula.   About five years after his death, the Muslims defeated the world superpowers at that time, the Persian and Roman empires. 

The final brick at last perfected Allah grand design.  The house that Allah built through His prophets since the prophet Adam was not a single house that we imagine, but the world itself.  From a humble beginning, the universal and timeless message that the Prophet brought reached the whole world.

I Am The Brick That Completes The House.

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "My similitude in comparison with the other prophets before me, is that of a man who has built a house nicely and beautifully, except for a place of one brick in a corner. The people go about it and wonder at its beauty, but say: 'Would that this brick be put in its place!' So I am that brick, and I am the last of the Prophets."

In this hadith, the Prophet SAW likens prophethood to a beautiful house made of bricks. Each brick represents one prophet, from Adam to Jesus. The house is missing one brick. Prophet Muhammad is the last brick that completes the house. As the house is already completed, there is no more need for any new brick. Likewise, as prophethood is already completed, there is no more need for any new prophet after him.

This would be the literal interpretation of the above hadith.

It would be more useful, however, to imagine that the teaching of our Prophet Muhammad SAW is the amalgamation of the teachings of all prophets. In other words, Allah combines and refines all teachings from all prophets and put everything into one nice package.

That one nice package is the Quran.

That is why Quran is a complete guidance for our lives. It guides all affairs in our lives, whether it is about faith, act of worship, economy or how to make a living, relationship with others, family life, the do and don't, everything.

Maybe some of us will say: I read Quran but don't really understand. In what way, therefore, Quran is said as a complete guidance?

The answer is that, like other guidebook, we often need teacher to help explain. Imagine we are not used to cooking. Then one day we try cooking using the recipe book. Definitely we will not be successful. The food that we cook will not be tasty.

Likewise with Quran. It needs the teacher who shows us the way. And the first teacher is the Prophet himself. As the teacher, the Prophet leads his life exactly as Quran wants. That is why the Prophet is called the walking Quran. In other words, we have two forms of Quran. First in the form of book. Second in the form of living person.

Although the Prophet had already died as a person, he is actually still living among us. This is because his life has been fully captured. It is what we call sunnah. We will find his sunnah in the book of hadith, seerah, or any book that talks about his life and teaching.

That is why the Prophet said whoever follows the Quran and my sunnah, he will be rightly guided.

After the Prophet died, the next teachers who help explain the guidance in the Quran were his companions. After them, the teachers are the scholars.

To summarize, we have with us the basic teachings of all prophets nicely packaged in one book called Quran. Together with Quran, we have the Prophet’s sunnah in the book of hadith, seerah, etc. To help us understand these guidances, we have scholars who explain to us what we do not understand.

Since Islam is based on Quran, and since the teachings in the Quran combine the teachings of all prophets, that is why no issue, no problem and no question that Islam cannot answer. If we don't know the answer, then we must ask those who know. Those who know are what we call scholars or ulama.

And this is the more practical way to understand the meaning of the hadith quoted at the beginning of this article.