The Prophet's Unique Journey Towards Makkah

Opening Praise and Glorification

الحمد لله الخالق الوجود من العدم، وجاعل النور من الظلام، ومُخرج الصبر من الألم، وملقي التوبة على الندم، فنشكره على المصائب كما نشكره على النعم، ونصلي ونسلم على رسوله الأكرم، ذي الشرف الأسمى، والنور الأتم، وكمال النبيين والكتاب المحكم، سيدي وُلدِ آدم الذي بشّر به عيسى ابن مريم، ودعا له بعثته 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، وكبّره تكبيرا.

Respected audience, dear brothers and sisters, and honorable esteemed guests of Allah, let us start off with the glorification of Allah himself, as any khutbah, any talk, any sermon devoid of the glorification or mentioning the greatness of Allah is incomplete.

O Allah, the eyes cannot see, and the thoughts cannot fathom, and anyone attempting to give an accurate description of Allah is unable to do so.

يَعْلَمُ مَثَاقِيلَ الْجِبَال — He knows the weight of the weightiest mountains. وَمَكَايِيلَ الْبِحَار — and the depths of the deepest oceans. لَا تُوَارِي مِنْهُ سَمَاءٌ سَمَاءً — nothing can remain hidden from the sight and the vision of Allah. He is all-seeing and all-hearing.

The Limitless Glorification of Allah

Rasulullah ﷺ was commanded to say in the Qur'an:

Allah gives the example of all the trees that exist on the face of the planet — if they were to be turned into pens, and all the water that exists on the face of the planet were to be turned into ink, and the pens were given the command to start to note down the glorification of Allah — Allah mentions that the pens will perish, and the ink will finish and diminish, and there will still be more glorification of Allah to be noted down.

Imam al-Nasafi rahimahullah, the famous mufassir, mentions in his tafsir — Tafsir Madarik, also known as Tafsir al-Nasafi — that the fi'il that was used here was يَمُدُّهُ. يَمُدُّهُ is a fi'il mudari — a verb form that speaks about the present and what may continue into the future. Imam al-Nasafi mentions that the meaning being given by the usage of the fi'il mudari is replenishment — that the water will continue to finish, and it will be continuously replenished, and the glorification of Allah will continue to be noted down till the end of times.

Salawat upon the Prophet ﷺ

And then we send peace, blessings, and salawat upon Rasulullah ﷺ, as Rasulullah ﷺ is the very reason for our existence. Had it not been for you, O Rasulullah ﷺ, this entire universe would not have come into existence.

I have never seen anything as beautiful as the creation of Rasulullah ﷺ, and no woman has given birth to anyone as beautiful as Muhammad ﷺ. You were created devoid of any defects, and it is as if you were given the choice of how to be created. Just imagine for a second — if we were ever given the choice, what would we demand in the type of creation? The poet says: it is as if you were given the choice of your creation, of how you would like to look. And that is how beautiful the creation of Rasulullah ﷺ is.

"I am the best of creation, the best of insan — and I am not arrogant about it."

The Journey to Makkah: The Year 6 Hijri

Respected audience, dear brothers and sisters, I would like to start off with an incident which took place in the lives of the companions and Rasulullah ﷺ in 6 Hijri. In the year 6 Hijri, Rasulullah ﷺ decided to embark on a journey. This journey was unlike any other journey that had taken place — this was not an expedition, this was not even a call to defense of the Muslims as had happened in Badr and Uhud. This was a different kind of journey, and Rasulullah ﷺ had announced amongst his companions — his sahaba, Ridwanullahi ta'ala alayhim ajma'een — that he intended to perform Umrah.

Just think for a second — they wanted to go back to their homeland. This was their homeland. This was the place in which Rasulullah ﷺ was born. The place that you are born in, you have a special connection and a special affiliation with that place — nobody can take that away from you. This was the very town and the very city from which they were expelled. They were forced into exile, and it had been 6 years since they had left that town, and they had not been allowed back.

And the reason they were expelled is because:

Because they said that their Lord is Allah, that they wanted to worship Allah. And the response of the Quraysh was:

"Your combining all gods into one god, O Muhammad, makes no sense to us whatsoever. You want to worship your Allah? Get out of here. There is no place for you to worship Allah here."

That is why Allah mentioned in the Qur'an:

Whose act could be more atrocious than the act of an individual who stops people from coming to the house of Allah, who prevents them from worshiping Allah — and he does not stop at that: سَعَىٰ فِي خَرَابِهَا — he intends to demolish the masajid and cause harm to the houses of Allah.

Advancing Towards Makkah

Imagine for a second, anyone of us who has ever been blessed with the tawfiq by Allah to perform Umrah — what are your feelings when you are about to embark on that journey? To fall into hostility or to face someone stopping you from advancing on your journey of Umrah is indeed something we have never experienced ourselves, specifically us Muslims in the West. Some of us are able to, by the tawfiq of Allah, perform multiple Umrahs — sometimes twice on an annual basis. But people from other parts of the world face multiple hindrances when it comes to their performance of Umrah.

So just imagine for a second — you're leaving, you're at the airport, your mind is made up, you are in a state of ihram, and all of a sudden someone comes and says: "You can't go for Umrah." And the reason is not a visa issue, it's not a technical difficulty — it's because "we don't like you." That was the answer given by the people of Makkah. "You're not welcome in our city."

Now if we were strangers to that city, you would have a sense of affiliation, but your grief cannot be tantamount to the grief of Rasulullah ﷺ. He was born in that city. He was raised in that city. His entire childhood was spent in that city. Imagine if someone comes and says: "You can't stay here, you're not welcome here." Sometimes when people say that to us out in the street — "Go back to your country" — it hurts, doesn't it? And collectively we may make light of that situation, but when you are alone in that moment, it weighs down very heavy on you when you realize that people are sometimes not welcoming in the land you are living in.

So these people came and said: "Muhammad, there is no place for you here. You cannot advance any further." Rasulullah ﷺ said to the sahaba: "Let us go, let us attempt to perform Umrah. Maybe Allah will open ways for us." And movement is barakah by Allah. So as they were embarking on their journey, Rasulullah ﷺ sent an individual by the name of Bishr ibn Sufyan — an ally of Rasulullah ﷺ — and said: "Please go and find out what is going on, because we do not want to run into something that we are not aware of."

So Bishr ibn Sufyan went and came back and gave his account to Rasulullah ﷺ. He said: "Ya Rasulullah, they have all gathered. Their only intent is to stop you from advancing any further." And the wording he used here is very unique — he did not say that they are stopping you from coming to the city of Makkah. He said: they are stopping you from the house of Allah. He did not even use the name of the city of Makkah.

The reasoning behind this is that the people of Makkah were respected all over Arabia because they were known as the custodians of the house of Allah. They used to boast:

"It is our job to be the caretakers of the Ka'bah, of the house of Allah. We are the ones who are dutiful towards the hujjaj. We feed them and we quench their thirst." They used that as a banner of honor all over Arabia — wherever they would go, they enjoyed a protected status and were given respect. Arabia was in chaos, but wherever they would see the caravan of Quraysh, everyone would stand aside: "These are the custodians of the house of Allah, we do not want to mess with them."

But consequently, it had never happened before in the history of the house of Allah that anyone had been prevented from performing Hajj or Umrah. This was one of the milestones of the custodianship of the people of Quraysh — and now it was happening for the first time.

And he said:

"They are going to stop you and they will do everything in their power to prevent you from visiting the house of Allah. And they have not only gathered their own people — they have gathered mercenaries. They have hired people to fight you, and these people have no affiliation whatsoever. They are going to stop you at any cost."

The Counsel of Abu Bakr and the Plea for Peace

Rasulullah ﷺ, as was his habit, turned towards his companions and said:

"O people, tell me what to do. Give me your counsel." And Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu said:

"Ya Rasulullah, we came with the intent of Umrah. We do not have the intention of fighting. We just want to go and see the house of Allah — our birthplace. We just want to perform Umrah. Let us advance." Rasulullah ﷺ gave the order: امْضُوا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ — and they kept moving forward until they reached very close to Makkah al-Mukarramah.

One of the individuals who had an alliance with the Muslims, Budail ibn Warqa' al-Khuza'i, said: "Ya Rasulullah ﷺ, it is not suitable for you to advance any further. These people are intent on war. If you advance any further, they will do whatever they can to stop you from approaching the house of Allah."

And the plea that Rasulullah ﷺ made at that time resonates with many of us — specifically our oppressed brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. Rasulullah ﷺ said: "What is the problem with Quraysh? What is wrong with them?"

"Have they not been weakened by constant fighting?" Because the year Rasulullah ﷺ performed hijrah, they advanced on Madinatul Munawwarah with the intent to wage war at Badr — and were defeated. Then Uhud took place. Then Ahzab, where they gathered around 12,000 men against a city that barely had a population of 3,000, and advanced upon Madinatul Munawwarah. Rasulullah ﷺ tried to appeal to their common sense: "I came with the intention of just performing Umrah — let me pass so that I can perform Umrah and visit the house of Allah. If they want to sign a treaty of peace with me, I am open to that." This shows us that Rasulullah ﷺ showed restraint and caution even when facing his enemy, and he was willing to sign a peace treaty.

The Envoy and the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

They advanced, and Quraysh sent an envoy to Rasulullah ﷺ by the name of Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi. He was a very hardened individual. He came and disrespected the companions in the presence of Rasulullah ﷺ. He said: "Muhammad, I see that these people gathered here" — as it has been translated in the books of Sirah — "are street urchins, and the moment they see any difficulty, they will run for cover."

And Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu was standing beside him and replied firmly: "You and your beliefs can take themselves away from here. Your thoughts are not welcome over here. We are with Rasulullah ﷺ —"

"In times of ease, in times of adversity, and in times of difficulty."

And ultimately the peace treaty was signed. But the point is that all the odds were stacked against the Muslims. From the very beginning, the Quraysh said: "Any Muslim who accepts Islam and immigrates to Madinah — you need to hand him back over to us so we can deal with him. That's part of the clause of the treaty." They also said: "You are not allowed to come for Umrah this year. We don't want to give the message that Muhammad was able to advance past our defenses and perform Umrah. You can come quietly next year."

So they stopped him from visiting the house of Allah. And Umar radiallahu anhu was extremely agitated. He said:

"Are we not on the right path? Are we not on the correct path? Why should we take the lower stance in front of these kuffar and these mushrikeen?" And Rasulullah ﷺ reminded him: "I am a prophet of Allah, and remember — everything that is being decided is being decided by the pleasure and the will of Allah."

The Open Victory: Surah al-Fath

And while all of this was happening, verses were being revealed in the Qur'an:

"Verily, We have granted you an open victory." Had it been us, me and you would say: "What is this? What victory are you talking about? We were prevented from performing Umrah, we are not able to advance any further, and the treaty that we signed has absolutely no honor in it for us whatsoever. What is this?" But very soon the signs began to emerge that this was the victory Allah was talking about. The very undertaking of Hudaybiyyah served as a catalyst for the Fath of Makkah — the conquest of Makkah — and opened doors for the Muslims that had previously been closed to them, including the doors of da'wah, which now opened wide.

Allah's Pleasure with the Believers

Respected audience, dear brothers and sisters, here we take example from Rasulullah ﷺ and from the companions — where sometimes, apparently, things may seem as though they are against us, and it may seem that there is no victory, and we at times tend to lose hope. But remember — Allah is watching. Yes, maybe temporarily there may be difficulties, but eventually Allah will open doors. As was mentioned in the verse:

That Allah is pleased with every single individual who participated with you in that pact — and Allah knows their intentions.

And Allah will give you multiple bounties, and Allah will open doors for you that had previously been closed.

And at the end Allah also mentioned:

"O Muhammad and your companions — do not fret, do not be saddened. A time will come when you will enter the house of Allah with shaved heads, you will have performed Umrah, and you will have fulfilled your duties to Allah."

Time does not permit me to go any further. I ask Allah to give us the tawfiq to implement whatever was said.

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