Seerah 4 — Ṭāʾif, the Night Journey & ʿAqabah السيرة

DECK Section title from the Unit 3 deck (after the Year of Grief, ʿĀm al-Ḥuzn, ~619 CE — the deaths of Khadījah RA and Abū Ṭālib).

VIDEO With Makkah unworkable, the Prophet ﷺ decided to seek a new base for the daʿwah. He walked to Ṭāʾif (~60 miles) with Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (RA), aiming to win the tribe of Banū Thaqīf. He went house to house to its leaders for about ten days — they ridiculed, mocked and rejected him (one said, in effect, “Did Allah find no one but you to send?”). When the leaders finally told him to leave, they incited the youths and ruffians, who pelted him with stones until blood flowed into his sandals. He took refuge in an orchard belonging to ʿUtbah and Shaybah, sons of Rabīʿah, about 3 km out — hunger, grief and wounds together.

VIDEO Their servant ʿAddās brought a platter of grapes. Hearing the Prophet ﷺ say “Bismillāh”, ʿAddās asked who he was; learning ʿAddās was a Christian from Nineveh, the Prophet ﷺ spoke of Yūnus ibn Mattā (AS) as his brother prophet — and ʿAddās was moved and honoured him. Later ʿĀʾishah (RA) was told that the day of Ṭāʾif was harder than Uḥud — the worst day of his life.

DECK Section title from the Unit 3 deck — Allah's consolation (tasliyah) at the lowest point.

VIDEO — the Duʿāʾ of Ṭāʾif: alone in the orchard the Prophet ﷺ made his famous supplication of the oppressed, complaining to Allah alone: “O Allah, to You I complain of my weakness… You are the Lord of the weak and oppressed (Rabb al-mustaḍʿafīn)… If You are not angry with me, I do not care; but Your favour (ʿāfiyah) is more expansive for me… I seek refuge in the Light of Your Face…”

VIDEO — the angel of the mountains: on the return, Jibrīl (AS) brought the angel of the mountains (Malak al-Jibāl), who offered to crush the people between the two mountains of Makkah. The Prophet ﷺ refused: “I hope that from their descendants there will come those who worship Allah alone.” Maximum injury met with maximum mercy — the long-term good of the community over revenge.

DECK Section title from the Unit 3 deck — the Night Journey and Ascension.

VIDEO Allah's great consolation after the grief. Two parts: al-Isrāʾ — the journey on the Burāq from al-Masjid al-Ḥarām (Makkah) to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā (Jerusalem); and al-Miʿrāj — the ascension from al-Aqṣā up through the heavens. The whole journey happened in a single moment of the night.

VIDEO At al-Aqṣā the Prophet ﷺ led all the prophets in prayer — signifying he is the leader (sayyid) of the prophets and his sharīʿah is the final message. Ascending, he met prophets in the seven heavens (Ādam in the 1st … Ibrāhīm in the highest). He passed beyond Sidrat al-Muntahā — the boundary past which Jibrīl could not go — to a direct meeting, “two bow-lengths or nearer” (Sūrat an-Najm 53). The greatest gift was the five daily prayers, given directly. “The ṣalāh is the miʿrāj of the believer” — each prayer is the believer's own ascension and consolation.

DECK Section title from the Unit 3 deck — taking the message past Makkah.

VIDEO After Ṭāʾif the Prophet ﷺ changed strategy: he preached to the Ḥajj pilgrims camped around Makkah (e.g. at Minā). The Makkans now held a negative view of him, so Quraysh chiefs (Abū Lahab, Abū Jahl) warned pilgrims off him — he therefore sought fresh outsiders not yet poisoned against him. The daʿwah never stops: if one method is blocked, you change the method and continue. This is what brought a small group of men from Madīnah (Yathrib) to listen.

DECK The First Pledge of al-ʿAqabah — 621 CE (a deck section title and date).

VIDEO Six men of Madīnah accepted Islam first (prophethood year 11); the next year they returned, and twelve people took the pledge at ʿAqabah near Minā (year 12) — from the tribes Aws and Khazraj. Its terms (the well-known wording): to associate nothing with Allah, not steal, not commit zinā, not kill their children, and to shun major sins. The Prophet ﷺ then sent Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmair (RA) back with them as teacher (see section 7).

DECK The Second Pledge of al-ʿAqabah — 622 CE (a deck section title and date).

VIDEO The next year (prophethood year 13) about 73 people — 71 men and 2 women — came from Madīnah and pledged in a secret night meeting in a mountain pass near Minā, during the Days of Tashrīq. Its clauses: to hear and obey in ease and hardship; to spend in Allah's path; to enjoin good and forbid evil; to stand for Allah fearing no critic; and to protect the Prophet ﷺ as their own — in return, Paradise.

VIDEO — the twelve nuqabāʾ: the Prophet ﷺ did not leave the 73 as a loose crowd. He divided them into 12 groups under 12 leaders (nuqabāʾ, sg. naqīb) — nine from Khazraj, three from Aws — each leader personally training his ~six. When the Quraysh learned of the pledge they tried their utmost to stop it and failed.

DECK The Prophet ﷺ sent Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmair to Madīnah as a teacher and dāʿī; his wisdom and character spread Islam rapidly, several leading men embraced Islam through him, and this began Islam's firm foundation in Madīnah.

VIDEO Sent after the First Pledge to spread Islam and survey Madīnah as the land for the Hijrah; he lodged with Asʿad ibn Zurārah (RA). His strategy: go to the tribal leaders — when a leader accepted, his whole tribe tended to follow — so that scarcely a house in Madīnah went untouched. He later gave the Prophet ﷺ a detailed report on Madīnah's people, numbers and character — two ḥikam: get knowledge first, and gather your data before acting.