The Enduring Power of Storytelling in Islamic Tradition

Opening Praise and Glorification

الحمد لله الخالق الوجود من العدم، وجاعل النور من الظلام، ومخرج الصبر من الألم، وملقي التوبة على الندم، فنشكره على المصائب كما نشكره على النعم، ونصلي ونسلم على رسوله الأكرم، ذي شرف الأشم، ونور الأتم، وكمال النبيين والكتاب المحكم، سيد ولدي آدم، الذي بشر به عيسى ابن مريم، ودعا لبعثته إبراهيم عليه السلام حين كان يرفع قواعد بيت الله المحرم، والذي بارك الله به كافة الناس العرب منهم والعجم، فسبحان الذي لم يتخذ ولداً ولم يكن له شريك في الملك ولم يكن له ولي من الذل وكبره تكبيرا.

Allah says in His book — after we seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Shaytan, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:

And Mus'ab ibn 'Umayr رضي الله عنه said to his mother: "You brought me out of the womb, and Allah has brought me through it from the darkness into the light."

Respected audience, dear brothers and sisters, and honorable esteemed guests of Allah — let us start off with the glorification of Allah, as any khutbah devoid of the mention of the greatness of Allah remains incomplete.

O Allah — the eyes cannot see You, thoughts cannot fathom You, and anyone attempting to give an accurate description of Allah is unable to do so. He knows the weight of the weightiest mountains and the depths of the deepest oceans. Nothing remains hidden from the sight and the vision of Allah — He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing, and All-Capable.

As He Himself gave us the command, Allah says:

Allah says that if all the trees that exist on the face of the earth were to be turned into pens, and all the water that exists in the oceans of the planet were to be turned into ink, and the order is given by Allah for them to note down the glorification of Allah — the pens will perish and the ink will diminish, yet the glorification of Allah will never finish.

Then we send peace and blessings and salawat upon Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, as the poet says:

The eyes have not seen anything as beautiful and as radiant as Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, and the women are not capable of giving birth to anyone as handsome as Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. You have been created devoid of all defects — it is as if you yourself were given the choice by Allah of how you would like your physical appearance to be.

The Power of Storytelling in Islam

Respected audience, dear brothers and sisters — when it comes to storytelling, that's something that mankind has been obsessed with for thousands and thousands of years. There are tales that are being told, and many a times those tales are passed on from one generation to the other. You see many a young man, when trying to benefit from the older people, will sit by the knees of the elders and will learn their stories in order to gain the necessary lessons and to not repeat the mistakes that were made.

Sometimes these stories would become a reason for the salvation of many lives — as you know the famous tale of the thousand nights and the thousand stories, of a king who was killing one wife after the other, and a woman said that she had the cure for the king. She started to tell him a story and she would never finish the story at the end of the night, and the king, out of curiosity to find out what happened till the end, would spare her life. That's how she was able to spend a thousand nights. The legend goes on to say that that's how we ended up with Aladdin and Ali Baba and all of those other stories.

But my point being — for us as Muslims, who do we look towards for stories? We look towards our pious predecessors, the salaf as-salihin, and their examples. And when we look at the Quran, the book of Allah, we'll notice that the Quran is full of stories. We know that the objective of the book of Allah is not storytelling — many a times you'll find bits and pieces and snippets from the stories of the anbiya (peace be upon them) and they are not in a chronological order.

There is only one story in the Quran which follows a chronological order, and that is the story of Yusuf (peace be upon him). Allah says that we are going to narrate to you the best of the stories, and oh Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, you and all the people that have come before you are unaware of this story. So that is the only story which is mentioned with a sequence of events.

But when we look at the stories of the other prophets and other pious beings, you'll notice that wherever Allah wants to stress the lesson for mankind, that portion of the story will be mentioned and then the Quran will move on. When we look at the example of Musa (peace be upon him), the later portion of his story is mentioned first, and then the earlier portion is mentioned afterwards.

When we read these stories and recite them, the main objective is the lessons that we derive from the stories of the pious predecessors. And when you look at their example, you'll find out that they came from environments that may have been worse than the environments that we're living in. Sometimes as Muslims we end up blaming the times that we're living in — there's a famous Urdu phrase for this, and we say it in English as well: "times are bad."

There is a hadith of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم that the son of Adam harms Allah — and how is that possible? Allah says: he goes on to curse the times that he is living in, knowing little that that is the decree of Allah. Time itself is a creation of Allah.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4826; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2246)

When we notice the stories of the pious predecessors, we realize that they had challenges which were far bigger than ours. If we think we have it rough and difficult, just look at the example of the Sahabah رضي الله عنهم and Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم and the environment of the city of Mecca — anything imaginable existed within the walls of that city.

The Story of Habib al-Najjar: The Carpenter of the City

I wanted to start off with the story of a person who was not a prophet — because when we look at the stories in the Quran, most of them revolve around the prophets. And when we read those stories, we think to ourselves that we are weaker beings, and how can we be comparable to the prophets? There is no comparison between us and them.

But the story I wanted to mention today, and derive some lessons from, is not the story of a prophet. It's the story of a person who may not even qualify to be considered a pious individual according to the life that he led. Yes, according to the outcome he may be a pious individual — but this person had engaged in 70 years of idol worshipping. And not only that, he used to sit at the gates of the city, and whoever would enter or exit, he would sell idols to them. He was a carpenter by profession and he would carve idols from wood. If anyone was leaving the city, he would try to sell them the idols. If anyone was entering, he would try to sell them the idols. If not that, the people would at least prostrate to the idol as the last thing they did before they exited the city. So that was his profession.

Once upon a time he came across a few individuals that looked different and strange. He asked them, "Who are you people?" They said, "We are messengers of the messenger." They were not prophets themselves — they said, "We have been sent by Isa (peace be upon him), who is the prophet of that time, and he has sent us here to propagate the deen of Allah." He said good, and they both went their separate ways.

It so happened that when those people started calling people towards Allah, naturally the course of actions is that people turned bitter enemies towards whoever calls them towards Allah — and that's exactly what happened. This person — Habib al-Najjar, Habib the carpenter — was sitting by the gates of the city and he heard a great cry. So he rushed towards it and found out that the people wanted to crucify those individuals who were calling them towards Allah. He thought to himself, let me try to save these individuals. So he called out to his people, and he said:

And if these ayat ring a bell — this is from the surah that we recite on a daily basis: Surah Yasin. He says, "Oh my people, follow the example of these individuals." The people said, "What do you know about them? Why are you calling us towards the belief of these individuals?" So he said:

"The reason why I know they are on the haq is because they are calling you towards Allah and they are not seeking anything as a recompense." The natural process of this world is — you invest in anything, you give time to anyone, you spend time on anyone, what outcome do you usually expect? You expect some kind of benefit. He's saying that you need to follow the examples of the people who don't want anything from you.

He says, "My reward is upon Allah — He is going to be the one rewarding me." And so naturally, the wrath that was being directed at those messengers was now directed towards Habib al-Najjar. Imam Qurtubi rahimahullah mentions in his tafsir that they tackled him to the ground and then trampled on him until nothing was left of him but the dust of his bones — hundreds and thousands of people trampled upon him.

Allah became so happy with his sacrifice. And the reason why I am stressing this part of the story more than any other is that we think we are sinful individuals, and many a times when a lot of sins happen and we live a certain type of life, we say or we think that there is no hope for us. "I have done this, I have done that, and there is no way for me to seek the forgiveness of Allah."

Notice — Habib al-Najjar engaged in the disobedience of Allah for 70 plus years. Not only that, he was engaged in the profession of idol selling — he would carve the idols and he became the source of putting many people into idol worship. But this person, in that split second, made a decision: he believed in Allah and became a reason for calling his people towards Allah. Not even a single individual may have accepted Islam at his hand — but Allah liked his sacrifice so much that Allah put his message in the Quran, so that people who come until the Day of Qiyamah are going to continue reciting these verses and reviving the story of Habib al-Najjar.

They say that his example is unique in the sense that he became the only individual who called people towards Allah in both life and death. When he was alive, he said:

And then when he passed away, Allah mentions the thoughts going through his mind:

"I wish my people could see my outcome. They may think that I've been trampled on the ground and I'm dead — but I wish my people could know the outcome." And what is his outcome? Everything, all the sins committed by him, have been forgiven by Allah. And not only that — وَجَعَلَنِي مِنَ الْمُكْرَمِينَ — Allah has given him a high status and a high place in Jannah, not just an ordinary level.

The Lesson: Never Lose Hope in Allah's Mercy

His example became such that people until the Day of Qiyamah — because the Quran will be recited till the end of times — this person who was not even a prophet, and whose life was not that of a pious individual, at the last second accepted Islam and started calling people towards Allah, and everything was forgiven. Till the Day of Qiyamah, his story will continue to be revived.

And that's the example that we want to take — that when we sometimes become hopeless in the mercy of Allah, Shaytan plays with us in such a way where he reminds you again and again that there is no hope for you. He tells you, "You have done this and you have done that — might as well continue doing it." And that is the biggest trickery of Shaytan. He plays the person in such a way where you get into this vicious cycle and you realize there may be no way out — but remember, the only thing you need to do is tawbatan nasuha, a sincere repentance towards Allah.

Remember:

The severest sin that was out there — and if that sin can be forgiven with sincere repentance — that is shirk, the association of partners with Allah. And if the person sincerely repents in this worldly life and seeks forgiveness from Allah, even that sin is forgiven. So let alone all the other things which have been committed.

Although this should not be the reason that a person goes on to commit other sins, thinking that Allah is merciful and will forgive me — that becomes a higher level of jur'a, or dare, that you try to go against the commandments and orders of Allah. So these are the things we need to keep in mind in terms of tawba — that sincere repentance, and the doors are always open. As the message given by Allah is:

My mercy far precedes my wrath — provided you are willing to turn back towards Allah.

The Story of Wahshi: From the Worst Crime to Forgiveness

On a concluding note, I would like to mention the story of Wahshi رضي الله عنه. This individual is from the ummah of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم — he is not from any of the previous ummahs. And he committed one of the worst crimes imaginable: the crime of murder.

He was hired as an assassin by Hind رضي الله عنها to kill the uncle of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, Hamza رضي الله عنه. She told him, "You kill Hamza and you will be granted your freedom." He prepared for days and days, and when he got the opportunity, he hurled his javelin at Hamza رضي الله عنه — it went through and through, and Hamza رضي الله عنه fell to the ground.

We know the immense grief of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم — we do not need to be reminded of that. They say about 70 people became shaheed in the Battle of Uhud. Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم would order the janaza of Hamza رضي الله عنه to be brought again and again, and he prayed on Hamza رضي الله عنه while crying and shedding tears.

It so happened that when Wahshi رضي الله عنه realized that Islam was spreading and eventually Islam took over the city of Makkah al-Mukarramah, he thought, "There is no way out for me. There is no escape. The Muslims are everywhere — wherever they find me, they are going to kill me." So he found his way to the majlis, to the gathering of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم.

He said, "I had heard that إِنَّ مُحَمَّدًا لَا يَقْتُلُ أَصْحَابَهُ — it is the habit of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم that he does not kill his companions." He said, "I stood at the head of Rasulullah, a little bit behind him so he couldn't see me, and I loudly started to recite the kalima:"

He says that Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم looked up towards him and said, "Is it you, oh Wahshi? Is that you?" He said, "I got scared at that moment — maybe the command will come for me to be killed at that very moment." But instead, Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم made him sit down, and he took the shahada at the hands of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم and became a Muslim.

He said the question he asked Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم was that Allah mentions in the Quran that those who engage in sins like murder, killing, looting and plundering will never be forgiven — it was a concern that he had. And imagine for a moment — verses are being revealed regarding Wahshi, who has just been Muslim for a few moments. In order to address the concern of whether he will be forgiven or not, Allah mentions the verses in the Quran:

The only sin which is unforgivable is the sin of shirk — if a person dies on it. Yes, if you were able to sincerely repent, even that type of forgiveness is accepted. But other than that, according to the will of Allah, He can forgive any sins that He wants. And that is the decree of Allah.

We ask Allah — we are hopeful in the mercy of Allah, and we are also fearful of the punishment of Allah. May Allah give us the tawfiq to sincerely repent before it is too late.

I say this and ask Allah's forgiveness for me and you and for the rest of the Muslims — so ask His forgiveness. He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

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