Oh Allah, Take Vengeance Upon Them !

Opening Praise

الحمد لله وحده والصلاة والسلام على من لا نبي بعده نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم اللهم تسليماً كثيراً أما بعد

All praise is due to Allah, and His praise and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and upon his family and companions. I bear witness that Allah is the only one worthy of worship and Muhammad ﷺ is his last and final messenger.

A Scene in Al-Kufa: Ibn Mas'ud's Memory

My dear brothers and sisters, in the small city of Al-Kufa in Iraq, one of the companions of Muhammad ﷺ — one of the great companions of the Prophet ﷺ, one of the closest and the earliest Muslims — Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, at that point was appointed as the treasurer and in charge of the masjid, the main mosque in Al-Kufa. As well, he used to be a judge appointed by the khalifa at that time, Umar ibn al-Khattab.

These are the days of Izz al-Islam — the days of the strength of the Islamic State at that time. One of the golden eras. And while he is sitting with his students, with those who were born into this stable life that Muslims had at that time, with a strength dominating the world as a new growing civilization, knocking down the Persian Empire and the Roman Empire in Sham — people have a very different lifestyle than what Abdullah ibn Mas'ud grew up witnessing, how Islam used to be.

So he is sitting with his students, with these new Muslims, with the converts, with second and third generations in Islam. And all of a sudden he had a moment of nostalgia, where he remembered another gathering. And he started telling them about the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca in the early days of Islam. His memory took him back 30 years — not long, just 30 years. And we are going to compare how in just 30 years things had shifted and changed tremendously.

The Day They Humiliated the Prophet ﷺ

30 years back — after the death of Abu Talib, the Prophet's uncle. Quraysh never dared to physically harm the Prophet ﷺ until his uncle died. Never dared to touch him physically. They would talk badly to him, they would do things, but they never ever dared to physically assault the Prophet ﷺ until his uncle, Abu Talib, died.

And the Prophet ﷺ one day was in Mecca, praying. He was praying in the shade of the Ka'bah. Ibn Mas'ud was describing the Prophet's ﷺ salah to these young men, telling them that the Prophet's ﷺ salah that day was so long — the ruku' was long, the sujood was long, the recitation was beautiful. He was just standing, praying ﷺ by himself.

And Abu Jahl was sitting that day in the Hijr — which is one of the sides of the Ka'bah; there is an arch today to identify that place. He was sitting with the leaders of Quraysh. Abu Jahl with a group of the leaders of Quraysh — as if Ibn Mas'ud sees them with his eyes and his memory. And he named them: Utbah ibn al-Rabi'ah, Shaybah ibn al-Rabi'ah, Al-Waleed ibn Utbah, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, Umarah ibn al-Waleed, and Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt.

So these six people with Abu Jahl were sitting, and Abu Jahl told them: "Look at this man who is showing off his prayer." And he said, "One of you should — didn't any of you go and humiliate him? I heard that so and so just slaughtered a camel, and usually after you slaughter the camel the guts and the manure and the filth will be outside the house. Why don't any of you go take it and dump it on his back so he doesn't show off his prayer anymore in our place, in front of us like that?"

The worst of them ran and got it. And he saw the Prophet ﷺ still making sujood. So he got all this filth — the blood, the guts of the camel, and the manure — and he dumped it on the Prophet's ﷺ back while they were laughing, laughing at the Prophet ﷺ.

He said — Abdullah ibn Mas'ud — "I was watching them doing this, laughing at the Prophet ﷺ, doing this to the Prophet ﷺ, and I don't have the power to protect or defend the Prophet ﷺ. I don't have the ability to do that. I'm not part of Quraysh. He's not from the tribes of Quraysh." Abdullah ibn Mas'ud was from a tribe called Hudhayl, which is outside Mecca. So he said, "I couldn't — I know I don't have the power to stand against them. And I don't have the power to protect the Prophet ﷺ."

Until a young girl came running — and he realized that this was the Prophet's daughter, Fatimah. And she came and immediately went to her father's back, cleaning his back with both her hands. And she was cursing them, making du'a against them, shaming them. And they didn't care for what she was saying.

The Du'a of the Prophet ﷺ

He faced the Ka'bah — because at that time the Prophet ﷺ used to face Jerusalem in the salah; that was the Qibla, the direction. So he faced the Qibla of Mecca, he raised his hands ﷺ, and with a loud voice he praised Allah, then he said:

"O Allah, bring vengeance against Quraysh, O Allah, bring vengeance against Quraysh, O Allah, bring vengeance against Quraysh." He then mentioned the seven who were plotting against him ﷺ by name, and he made this du'a against them ﷺ.

The people of Mecca knew that when a righteous man makes prayer in Mecca it will be accepted. And they were terrified — but this time they laughed it off. Ibn Mas'ud said: "I never saw the Prophet ﷺ make du'a against the people of Quraysh except that day. That is the only time the Prophet ﷺ made du'a against Quraysh."

Five Years Later: The Battle of Badr

My dear brothers and sisters, Ibn Mas'ud goes on: five years later — just five years after this incident — the Prophet ﷺ met with his army and the army of Quraysh in the Battle of Badr. Ibn Mas'ud said: "We defeated them so badly." And the Prophet ﷺ said: "Who will go and see what happened to Abu Jahl?"

Ibn Mas'ud said: "I said: I will, I will." He still remembered that incident — what Abu Jahl had done. So he wanted to see what had happened to him. And Ibn Mas'ud said: "I looked at all the people on the ground, the battlefield — flipping the bodies, the corpses — wanting to see where he lay dead, what had happened to him. Then I found him in his last breath, right before he died."

And he looked at Ibn Mas'ud and said: "Young man — who won, us or them?" He was basically asking: "Did we win or did we lose?" Then Ibn Mas'ud said: "Allah have humiliated you, the enemy of Allah. Adhaf — the victory today belonged to Allah and His messenger ﷺ."

He witnessed Abu Jahl in the most humiliating way in his last breath — killed by the hands of those who used to be mocked, defeated by the army of the one that, five years ago, he had humiliated in front of the Ka'bah.

As for the rest of the seven — six of them were all dead. And their bodies were taken, because it was a very hot day that day; their bodies turned and a strong odor came out of them, and the people were so affected by their bodies more than anyone else's — to the extent that they took them and dumped them in a hole far away from the people. Except one of them, which was Umayyah ibn Khalaf. He was a big man — big. It was hard for them to carry him. And when the horses ran over him his body was not even whole — it was cut into pieces. So they just left him in his place. Five were dumped and the sixth was left. And the seventh one was taken to Medina and he was executed.

The Prophet ﷺ Speaks to the Dead

What a difference between what Ibn Mas'ud had witnessed on the day in Mecca when he saw them humiliating the Prophet ﷺ, and five years later when he saw how Allah turned things around.

And the Prophet ﷺ came and stood where those bodies were gathered in that hole, and he told them ﷺ:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3976; Sahih Muslim, Book 40, Hadith 6869)

He mentioned them by name, as if he was talking to them: "O Abu Jahl ibn Hisham, O Umayyah ibn Khalaf, O Utbah ibn Rabi'ah, O Shaybah ibn Rabi'ah..." He mentioned them by name and said: "Wouldn't you be happy now if you had obeyed Allah and His messenger ﷺ? Did you find what Allah had promised me to be true? Did you find what Allah had promised you to be true?"

And the Sahaba were surprised that he was talking to dead people like that. Then the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3980; Sahih Muslim, Book 40, Hadith 6869)

"By Allah, they can hear me better than you. They can hear me as you hear me — and even better. But the only difference is that they cannot reply."

Amazing. And the Prophet ﷺ did this three days after their death — not right away. After three days, before he left the battlefield to return to Medina, he passed by their place and said that.

Lessons from This Story

This shows us that people will be tested. This is Rasulullah ﷺ — the most honorable one, the most righteous one — and he went through that difficulty, that hard time, that harsh time ﷺ. And nobody was there to help him, nobody was there to stand for him, nobody there to aid him, except his little girl.

Sometimes you might be in a position — you as an individual, us as an ummah, part of our ummah as we see today — where there is nobody there to help, nobody there to defend, nobody there to secure. That doesn't last forever. And that happened, and it will happen. It will manifest itself in many different ways. Don't be overreacting. Because when you read history and you read the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, you know that there are certain points and moments in our history where the weakness comes to that level — and that is Muhammad ﷺ himself.

I couldn't really pass the point that the people of Quraysh — who are known to be noble Arabs, known for their nobility, who have good character traits, especially when it comes to the issue of honor and nobility — and this is their own cousin — doing this to him, mocking him like this, when he did nothing to them.

But what I want to tell you — what I learned from this — is that even people with good codes, principles, and cultures, whatever you are going to call it: when it comes to kufr and Islam, Islam is the one that will always allow you in faith to maintain these principles. But people who have no religion, no faith, no true faith — they are willing to sell these principles at any time, if the right cost is there and the right price is there, and for their desires.

I see today in Gaza. I see today in Palestine. We have a lot of great human rights principles — but they all disappeared. Today in Syria — there is a civil war, and Russia has the audacity to say, "We would like to stop the bloodshed between the Syrians, and this is really bothering us, how Syrians are killing each other." Really? You forgot about how you bombed the Syrian people all those years?

And yes — President Trump talks about Russia being the invader and Ukraine having been invaded. Yes, they have been invaded — unfairly, unjustly. But where is this principle when it comes to the issue of Gaza and Palestinian rights? When we talk about it, they say, "Well, they are not Americans," as if rights and principles only apply to American people. As if they are aliens.

That code of morality will be easily given up if there is no real true faith to back it up. I couldn't pass over that. But when I see what Quraysh did, I said: I am not surprised by what I see today. I see how Allah honored the du'a of Muhammad ﷺ. I see how Ibn Mas'ud witnessed that miracle — that Allah brought the vengeance for the Prophet ﷺ.

And it was not personal. Even when he was standing at the hole where their bodies were gathered, he didn't say, "Oh, you remember what you did to me?" He didn't mention anything personal. He said: "Would it not have been better for you to believe in Allah and His messenger?" Because it is not personal.

Knowing the Size of Your Power

I also couldn't pass over the point that Ibn Mas'ud understood his size, his power, his ability. He was not ashamed. He was sad that he was not able to help, but he did not feel guilty. He did not feel that he had done something wrong. And he is still saying this 30 years later.

Some people don't understand that lesson too. They don't understand the size of their power. So they don't invest in what will benefit us. If Ibn Mas'ud had been killed that day by the people of Quraysh, we would not have the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ documented and narrated to us. Nobody let the Prophet ﷺ tell him: "Shame on you — why didn't you come to help?"

That ability to balance — to understand the size of your power — and based on that, you make the decision, you make the move. It is not a shame that you are weak. Because being weak doesn't mean you are a coward. What it means is: work on yourself until you become strong. That fiqh, that understanding, is so deep. There is much to be sad about in this incident. But I ask Allah to gather us with those companions and with our beloved Muhammad ﷺ.

The Patience of the Prophet ﷺ

Just something to reflect upon: when Ibn Mas'ud said "I never heard him making du'a against Quraysh except that day" — you would be wrong to think that this was the only day Quraysh had harmed the Prophet ﷺ. Quraysh harmed the Prophet ﷺ so many times. And he was patient. This is the only time Ibn Mas'ud heard him saying that. That shows the amount of patience and forbearance that he had.

I love how the Prophet ﷺ, when they put the filth on his back, didn't react — he continued making sujood and moved on with his life. And by the way, you will never see the Prophet ﷺ mentioning this incident again. Even when Aisha asked him, "What was the hardest day of your life?" — he didn't mention that day. He didn't live with this memory as something that painted his future, or his view of society, or how he would act for the rest of his days. He didn't carry it as a trauma that he had to go through therapy for and live with for the rest of his life. Strong. Move on.

I'm not undermining trauma. I'm not putting down people who have trauma or are affected by it — I know that it is real. But my point is this: don't let your trauma, don't let a bad incident or bad things that have happened in your life, control your life. Don't let it be the lens through which you see everything in the future. Don't let it control your life. You need to learn how to move on and stay strong.

Fatimah: A Lesson in Strength

I love how his little girl didn't say "I'm young," didn't say "I'm a girl." She came to defend her messenger before even defending her father. And she didn't just cry like a victim — she came strong. She cursed the people of Quraysh, she made du'a against them, and she spoke out in their faces. What a strong woman.

There is a lot to be learned from the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, and I always recommend that we pay close attention to it.

Closing Du'a

May Allah make us among those who love the Prophet ﷺ and follow the footsteps of Muhammad ﷺ. May Allah make this last month of Ramadan a Ramadan that brings us close to the way of Muhammad ﷺ — the way we behave, the way we think, the way we plan. I ask Allah to make us among those whose sins Allah forgives and whom He frees from the Hellfire — us, our parents, our families, and our loved ones. And I ask Allah to bring peace and tranquility to the world. And I ask Allah to bring relief to the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine and everywhere in the world.

And before I go down to lead the prayer — I have a request from all of you today. Especially those who don't pray Taraweeh: Ramadan is the month where this masjid needs your support. This masjid is not supported by any government, by any institute, by any funds — it is by you, from you, and to you. And I ask you to be so generous as you walk out today, and to donate to the masjid. Let's start strong with the first Jumu'ah in Ramadan, so Allah puts barakah in the rest of our days in Ramadan.

I'm not going to do an official fundraise, but I'm asking you — as your imam, as a person, your brother, your friend — please don't walk out from the masjid this Jumu'ah without giving something. Thank you very much. Let's pray, insha'Allah.