The Letters of Prophet Mohammad (s) to the Kings | Sayed Muhammed Baqir Qazwini

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The Letters of Prophet Mohammad (s) to the Kings | Sayed Muhammed Baqir Qazwini
Ahlul Bayt Center of Toledo

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[0:04]i begin in the name of the almighty god the compassionate the

[0:11]merciful the one who has created everything in utmost perfection and may

[0:15]the peace and blessings of the almighty god be upon his pure

[0:20]and beloved messenger the peak of his creation the symbol of humanity

[0:25]the holy prophet muhammad and his immaculate progeny of the bait peace

[0:36]be upon them especially the leader of our time the awaited savior

[0:40]al-imam al-may allah hasten his reappearance and make us all amongst the

[0:49]sincere and dedicated servants allah subhanahu ta'ala states in the holy quran

[0:54]bismillah in this blessed verse allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is calling muslims

[1:19]to have dialogue with the people of the book say to the

[1:25]people of the book ya rasulullah ta'ala in being let's come to

[1:33]a common ground what is that common ground that unites us for

[1:39]us to worship only god and not to ascribe any partners to

[1:45]him in our discussion tonight my dear brothers and sisters i would

[1:48]like to shed some light on a very interesting aspect of the

[1:55]life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi and that is the prophet sallallahu

[1:57]alaihi reaching out to the rulers and the kings of his time

[2:04]in the year six or seven of the hijra there was an

[2:11]event that represented the a turning point in the history of islam

[2:14]and that was the treaty of hodeidah the prophet sallallahu alaihi concluded

[2:20]a treaty with the pagans of mecca and in doing so the

[2:25]pagans of mecca had to recognize that now the prophet and muslims

[2:31]are a very important force in the arabian peninsula this was a

[2:37]very important turning point this gave muslims a lot of power a

[2:41]strength of identity so after the prophet concluded this treaty with the

[2:51]pagans he sent letters to the kings of his era for instance

[2:55]the prophet sallallahu alaihi sent a letter to a najashi the negis

[2:58]who was the ruler in abyssinia modern-day ethiopia he also sent a

[3:08]letter to the caesar of rome meaning heraculus who was ruling constantinople

[3:12]eastern rome because at that time the roman empire was divided between

[3:18]east and west so the prophet sent a letter to caesar who

[3:23]is miraculous the ruler of eastern rome in the byzantine empire he

[3:29]also sent a letter to the persian emperor the persians were a

[3:40]big rivals to the romans they were constantly fighting one another the

[3:44]prophet also sent a letter to the ruler of egypt at the

[3:50]time who was installed by the roman empire in arabic he was

[3:55]called and many other rulers it's very important for us to appreciate

[3:59]why the prophet did that and what lessons we can learn from

[4:04]that so it was around this the the sixth or the seventh

[4:06]year of the hijrah where the prophet sallallahu alaihi had his companions

[4:10]write these letters for him and he would send them to these

[4:16]kings now the prophet had these letters written in arabic he could

[4:19]have chosen their language by bringing an interpreter but the prophet wanted

[4:24]them to recognize islam as a religion that has its language and

[4:31]its own identity this gave a lot of strength to muslims we

[4:35]have our own language don't underestimate us and by writing the letters

[4:44]in arabic the prophet was inviting those other rulers to study the

[4:49]holy quran and to understand the holy quran now some of the

[4:55]companions who were chosen to deliver these letters were scared they were

[5:02]concerned because you know it's not really a safe thing to send

[5:05]big kings and tyrants letters some of them have an attitude if

[5:11]they feel that anyone is asking them to submit they would not

[5:18]accept so some of the companions who were chosen by the prophet

[5:21]sallallahu alaihi to go and hand deliver these letters they were concerned

[5:25]they hesitated or their families hesitated you know they might be put

[5:30]in danger so the prophet goes to his member to his pulpit

[5:34]and he says to his companions allah has sent me as a

[5:39]rahmatul everyone not just you muslims i am a mercy for all

[5:44]humankind it is my obligation to reach out to different people and

[5:49]i don't want you to dispute like the disciples of jesus disputed

[5:54]they told him what do you mean how did they dispute he

[5:58]told them when jesus sent them with letters those who had to

[6:05]go to local areas they were not scared they took the letters

[6:09]but those who had to go to a distant place they were

[6:13]scared so they told them oh jesus we're scared to go there

[6:16]so he made a dua he said oh allah give them patience

[6:21]give them the power to go and deliver these letters and inspire

[6:27]them to speak the language of the places they are going to

[6:30]this was the dua prophet isa so the prophet says i also

[6:38]ask you to follow into their footsteps now don't dispute and just

[6:42]take these letters now al-wakidi who is a historian he believes that

[6:47]one of the miracles of the prophet sallallahu alaihi is that these

[6:52]messengers that he sent instantaneously allah subhanahu ta'ala taught them the language

[6:57]of the place they were going he believes this was one of

[7:02]the miracles of the prophet sallallahu alaihi they went into that new

[7:06]territory speaking the language when you speak the language you're more effective

[7:09]in delivering a letter so the prophet sallallahu alaihi prepared these letters

[7:14]and these letters were so beautiful in their content the prophet did

[7:22]not threaten any of them you have to step down oh caesar

[7:28]of rome step down oh kasra of the persian empire stepped down

[7:30]i'm going to send my own ruler no the prophet never did

[7:35]that in those letters the prophet wrote them a beautiful letter first

[7:40]of all starting with his name min muhammad from muhammad the messenger

[7:47]of allah he has to introduce himself he's a prophet allah has

[7:50]sent him you have to introduce yourself who are you you are

[7:56]acting on whose behalf but some of those tyrants were very arrogant

[8:00]you know what kasra did when kasra saw that the letter started

[8:06]with the prophet's name and then his name he started to rage

[8:12]and he ripped up the letter he tore the letter so the

[8:16]messenger came back to the prophet he told him ya rasool allah

[8:19]did not even read the letter when he heard in the opening

[8:24]statement bismillah muhammad the messenger of allah to kasra the great ruler

[8:32]of persia see even the prophet gave them a title he raged

[8:38]he said how dare he put his name before my name look

[8:42]at the arrogance due to his arrogance he tore up the letter

[8:48]so the messenger told the prophet that he tore up the letter

[8:52]he did not even give me a response you know what the

[8:54]prophet stated he tore up my letter may allah rip apart his

[9:03]kingdom and subhanallah that's exactly what happened within days within days kasra

[9:08]the emperor of persia his own son killed him his own son

[9:14]killed him and that was the end of his rule and that

[9:16]was the downfall of the persian civilization at that time so some

[9:22]of these tyrants were very arrogant but the prophet still showed them

[9:26]respect for instance when the prophet would write to caesar of rome

[9:35]he would say adem you're the great leader of rome you have

[9:38]to show them that respect this is a lesson for us my

[9:43]dear brothers and sisters if there's ever a problem in your family

[9:47]in the community and you go up to someone who has an

[9:49]important social position and you want to tell them that what they're

[9:51]doing is wrong be careful with your approach start with the good

[9:57]go to this person tell him i understand you have a very

[10:02]important social position you've done all these good things and be honest

[10:05]don't make it up i mean people do have good things right

[10:09]mention the good praise them for their good and then tell them

[10:15]what the issue is tell them but this issue needs to be

[10:20]addressed the way you handled this was unjust was not fair that's

[10:24]how you start speaking to people because that way they'll see you

[10:29]as being more objective they'll accept from you but if you go

[10:32]to them and you immediately tell them look you're wrong i condemn

[10:35]what you do they'll get defensive they're not going to listen from

[10:39]you the approach is really important so even though the prophet sallallahu

[10:44]alaihi is speaking to these unbelievers they don't they don't believe in

[10:49]the actual religion of allah but the prophet was gentle in his

[10:53]approach so he sends them these letters i would like to analyze

[10:57]the letter that the prophet salallahu alaihi sent to caesar who is

[11:04]heraculous the roman emperor the prophet chose dechel kelby one of his

[11:08]good companions for this job here's the letter the prophet had it

[11:11]sealed go and deliver this to kaiser so this is traveling towards

[11:19]the levant area you know the palestine area and then from there

[11:24]he wants to go to constantinople modern-day turkey when he gets to

[11:29]the 11th area he is told that kaiser is coming he's not

[11:34]in turkey he's not in you know modern-day istanbul constantinople he's coming

[11:39]to palestine so why don't you meet him there so finally in

[11:44]the syrian city of homs decha goes to me and he is

[11:49]carrying the letter of rasulallah when he gets there the people the

[11:55]aides of kaiser they tell him look if you want kaiser to

[12:00]look at your letter you have to prostrate to him three times

[12:06]do so do it for him three times then he'll listen to

[12:10]you he'll give you an opportunity to speak otherwise he won't listen

[12:15]to you was outraged told them this prophet sent me to teach

[12:21]kaiser and to teach you guys that we only worship allah we

[12:25]only worship the one god we only prostrate to the one god

[12:29]you want me to go and prostrate behind him that will defeat

[12:33]my purpose if i do that i have come against such practices

[12:38]what do you mean they told him that's it that's the only

[12:40]way he's going to get you know your attention you'll get his

[12:45]attention that's the only way he refused but look at the arrogance

[12:52]of these tyrants allahu akbar look at what the world does to

[12:55]you when you have power you feel like everyone is your slave

[13:00]this was his condition he was a christian ruler christian by name

[13:05]right but look at his arrogance you have to prostrate before me

[13:10]three times then i'll listen to you that's what the world does

[13:15]to you that's what power does to you always ask allah my

[13:19]dear brothers and sisters always ask allah to protect you from the

[13:24]drunkenness of power from money because it really makes us arrogant believe

[13:29]me i'd rather be miserable having nothing in this world than to

[13:37]be a powerful tyrant who acts arrogant like that he says no

[13:42]i can't do that is there any other way please give me

[13:46]an alternative so there was a friendly courtier there he tells him

[13:49]i'll give you a tip you see that table next to his

[13:54]throne if you put the letter on that particular table he'll read

[13:57]the letter this is an inside thing that we know to go

[14:00]and put it there he's going to read it so he goes

[14:05]he takes the letter he puts it on the table kaiser comes

[14:09]he opens the letter to read the letter of the prophet sallallahu

[14:12]alaihi when he opens the letter what really catches his attention is

[14:18]how the letter starts bismillah he's shocked who is speaking like that

[14:25]and he remembers the bismillah of sulaiman he says this is the

[14:32]greeting of solomon the prophet when he sent his letter to the

[14:36]queen of sheba in his letter he said bismillah in the name

[14:43]of god the compassion of the merciful so that caught the attention

[14:46]of caesar now he's reading the letter look at the beautiful letter

[14:52]of the prophet sallallahu alaihi the prophet says greeting him this is

[15:00]from me to you the great leader of rome i send my

[15:06]salutations on those who follow the path of guidance oh caesar follow

[15:10]the path of guidance then he tells him islam tesla submit to

[15:15]allah follow the path of god you'll be safe allah will protect

[15:20]you he'll prolong your life he'll even protect your kingdom then he

[15:25]mentions this beautiful verse oh you people of the book let's come

[15:30]to uncommon ground let's only worship one god then the prophet tells

[15:34]him in the letter that if you believe in my message allah

[15:36]will double your reward but if you don't allah will double the

[15:44]sin for you because so many people will be blocked from seeing

[15:49]the light of my religion if you reject my offer if you

[15:55]reject my message very beautiful letter from the prophet salallahu and remember

[15:59]he does not threaten him he doesn't tell him if you don't

[16:01]accept i'm going to send an army to fight you will depose

[16:05]you no the prophet tells him if you truly want the blessings

[16:11]of allah subhanahu ta'ala accept my message the text of the letter

[16:16]has survived my dear brothers and sisters 185 letters from the prophet

[16:20]sallallahu alaihi have actually survived historians have collected them in some books

[16:25]beautiful letters i recommend you to study the text of these letters

[16:31]so when he reads this letter he says to his people this

[16:36]is not a normal letter i need to investigate about this man

[16:41]so now he makes it his goal to investigate let me see

[16:46]if he's truly a prophet or not so he tells his people

[16:50]go and find me someone from his tribe someone from mecca someone

[16:54]from quraish so i can interrogate and i can ask questions about

[16:58]this prophet abu sufyan the enemy of the prophet happened to be

[17:04]in syria at the time so they brought him to the caesar

[17:06]the caesar told him do you know muhammad sallallahu alaihi he said

[17:11]yes of course i know him he's our biggest enemy he told

[17:15]them okay i have questions answer me and i will have some

[17:20]people to verify whether you're lying or not make sure you're not

[17:22]lying you said okay ask me he's like i have a few

[17:27]questions about this man tell me does he come from a noble

[17:29]tribe he said yes i won't dispute that he comes from a

[17:34]very noble tribe the bani hashem tried he says okay my second

[17:40]question did anyone from his ancestors claim to be prophets he said

[17:44]no he's the first one in mecca to do that none of

[17:48]his you know ancestors claimed that he's like okay the third question

[17:52]do the rich and the powerful follow him initially or the poor

[17:56]and miserable people he said no the poor people the weak ones

[17:59]the miserable ones they follow him he's gathering clues to see if

[18:06]he's really a prophet or not he's like okay my fourth question

[18:09]my next question before he announced his prophethood did he ever lie

[18:14]abu sufyan he's like he's my enemy right but i won't lie

[18:21]to you he is known to be truthful before his prophethood we

[18:25]never caught him lying he had a good reputation i'll give him

[18:28]credit for that he asked him okay what does he teach what

[18:32]does he preach why are you fighting him he says he is

[18:37]he preaches that we should worship only one god we should establish

[18:42]you know be good to our kin he teaches us not to

[18:47]commit adultery not to drink to give charity to the poor he

[18:52]mentioned what the prophet you know advocates for the caesar is listening

[18:56]when abu sufyan finished the caesar told him look if what you're

[19:01]saying is true then he must be a prophet he must be

[19:05]a prophet so this gave caesar confidence that the one who wrote

[19:11]him a letter is actually the prophet sallallahu alaihi so he does

[19:16]even some more research and then caesar comes back to dahil kelby

[19:20]he tells them listen i know this man who sent you as

[19:27]a prophet i admit that i completely admit that however i never

[19:33]thought that he would come from the arab tribes i never thought

[19:39]that the final prophet whom we are waiting to we christians are

[19:43]waiting for the final prophet jesus spoke about him i thought he'll

[19:47]he'd come from palestine it never crossed my mind that he would

[19:50]come from arabia and he was saying this in front of his

[19:57]people and this shows you that the caesar had some racism he

[19:59]was not open to a prophet who was not from his location

[20:04]from his geography so he told him you know it's kind of

[20:06]difficult for me to accept that but he seems to be a

[20:13]prophet now listen to the trick that caesar did caesar knew the

[20:16]haqq my dear brothers and sisters many times people know the truth

[20:20]but you look at your own personal interests caesar thought i am

[20:25]the king of rome i am the most powerful person i know

[20:29]this man is truthful but you want me to submit to him

[20:32]you want me to follow him never that's what power does it

[20:37]corrupts you it blinds you caesar knew this man was a prophet

[20:41]but now he concocted a plan to turn the people against the

[20:49]prophet you know what caesar did subhanallah look at how shrewd some

[20:51]of these tyrants are caesar came out he called all of his

[20:55]people to gather around his palace and he told them i have

[21:02]an announcement this letter has come from this man he claims that

[21:05]he's a prophet and i have accepted his message and i have

[21:10]become a muslim guess what happened his people went crazy they took

[21:16]out their weapons and they started chasing him they told him you

[21:21]are leaving our religion instantaneously who is this man that you follow

[21:25]we don't even know him some man from arabia this is preposterous

[21:28]we don't accept that from you when he saw them like that

[21:34]he said stop stop i was just testing you i wanted to

[21:37]see if you guys give up the christian faith so easily no

[21:41]no no i've not done that it was just a test so

[21:44]he calmed them down now when the prophet was told about caesar

[21:52]the prophet sallallahu alaihi commented a very important comment because he was

[22:00]told that caesar said you are truly a prophet the prophet said

[22:05]he's a liar he did not submit he lied he fabricated that

[22:10]he knows that i am a prophet but he lied in saying

[22:13]that yes i admit that he is a prophet he had enmity

[22:18]with the prophet and he had enmity with islam and later and

[22:22]later history shows that this same caesar actually fought the muslims he

[22:25]tried to fight the prophet sallallahu alaihi now why did the caesar

[22:33]do that when you analyze this historically you find that if caesar

[22:38]really believed in the prophet he would have found an effective way

[22:41]to invite his people to islam slowly teach them who the prophet

[22:45]is what the quran is how islam is a continuation of christianity

[22:51]exactly like the najashi did why did ethiopia embrace islam because najashi

[22:55]was a true believer he believed in the message of the prophet

[22:59]and then he invited his community slowly to accept islam caesar when

[23:04]he saw the truth he's like this truth is very powerful i

[23:09]need to come up with a plan right now to stop my

[23:10]people from investigating about this religion because if they investigate about islam

[23:15]i'm done they're going to become muslim so what he what does

[23:20]he do he angers his people without any preparation he goes up

[23:24]and he makes an announcement i've become muslim let's follow muhammad people

[23:28]are not ready so they threatened him they said no we're never

[23:33]we're not willing to he did not prepare them psychologically to accept

[23:37]this new religion that way he played on their racism he played

[23:44]on their ignorance and arrogance and in doing so he effectively stopped

[23:51]them from investigating about islam he told them yeah yeah you're right

[23:55]this is you know not the true religion i was just testing

[23:57]you so none of them actually thinks about following the prophet sallallahu

[24:06]alaihi it was a very evil satanic way to stop the people

[24:10]from joining the religion of islam so unfortunately we see that this

[24:15]person had this king had the opportunity to invite so many people

[24:24]to the path of allah through the letter of the prophet but

[24:27]unfortunately he gave up on this opportunity and the prophet salallahu alaihi

[24:32]dua against him i am rasulullah i'm reaching out to you with

[24:38]so much humbleness and you can stay as a regional governor you

[24:41]can stay as a king you can stay as an emperor i'm

[24:46]not asking you to step down honestly on the day of judgment

[24:48]what excuse do these people have for not following the path of

[24:53]allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so this is the lesson for us

[24:55]my dear brothers and sisters the important lesson is never allow your

[24:59]personal interests to get in the way of the haqq sometimes we

[25:05]wrong other people because of a family member because of a relative

[25:11]i know my relative is the wrong one i know he's cheating

[25:14]others i know he you know oppressed his business partner i know

[25:21]that but i stand with my relative because i have my own

[25:23]interests the holy quran teaches us always stand with the hub not

[25:30]with your own interests challenge yourself challenge yourself the holy quran in

[25:35]one verse states for the sake of justice sometimes you have to

[25:39]oppose your own family your parents your society in order to hold

[25:45]on to the truth when you see the truth accept the truth

[25:49]this is the beautiful lesson my dear brothers and sisters that we

[25:54]learn from the letter of the prophet alaihi but it shows you

[25:58]that he truly had a universal message he reached out to everyone

[26:01]those orientalists who say you know this religion was just for arabia

[26:07]that's not true look at the prophet making the effort to send

[26:10]letters to different nations to different people calling on them to the

[26:15]path of allah subhanahu ta'ala and this is something that we need

[26:18]to do today my dear brothers and sisters we live in a

[26:19]society there are so many non-muslims who don't have a clue what

[26:27]we represent reach out to fellow americans show them the beautiful teachings

[26:31]of islam believe me when they hear about the teachings of islam

[26:34]this softens their heart this inspires them make it a point that

[26:40]in my neighborhood on my street i will get to know my

[26:42]neighbors invite them over for lunch for dinner for tea give them

[26:48]a gift teach them about the religion of islam on college campus

[26:53]make it your obligation to go and invite people to the path

[27:00]of allah but more importantly you invite not your through your speech

[27:05]through your actions see caesar was smart he saw the words of

[27:09]the prophet are nice but he asked abu sufyan his enemy tell

[27:11]me about his character tell me about his actions when people see

[27:16]your character your actions that's when you truly invite people to the

[27:21]path of allah subhanahu ta'ala our imam alayhi salaam al-imam has a

[27:33]request for his followers call to our path but silently or without

[27:40]your tongues through your actions through your deeds we ask allah subhanahu

[27:46]ta'ala to illuminate our hearts and minds with the wisdom of the

[27:50]quran and the beautiful teachings of the prophet sallallahu alaihi and the

[27:55]imams of ahil bait we ask allah to forgive us our sins

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