Al-Baraa ibn Ma'roor (ra): He Made Two Good Mistakes

Long before the qiblah was officially changed, Al-Baraa ibn Ma'roor (ra) chose to pray facing the Ka’bah. What motivated this decision?

Known for his unwavering piety and eagerness to do good without being asked, Al-Baraa ibn Ma'roor (ra) was a devoted companion and an early supporter of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his call to Islam. His sincerity, foresight, and deep self-reflection made him stand out. He passed away before the Prophet ﷺ’s hijrah to Medina — learn what the Prophet ﷺ did upon visiting his grave.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Inshallah ta'ala, um tonight we are going to go to one of the firsts of the firsts. But again, uh, you know, a lot of these people get lost within history and they don't have the longer bios that we're used to. And subhanAllah, initially, I was just gonna do a biography about the son of this man that we're covering, but uh I couldn't help myself. The more that I dug, the more that subhanAllah, this personality just offers loads and loads of loads of lessons for us to sit with, inshaAllah ta'ala, and then we'll also transition and we'll go to his son. So we talked about Al-Bara'a ibn Azib, radiallahu tal an, right? So we had Al-Bara' ibn Azib, and before Al-Ba' ibn Azib, we covered another bara'at. Does anyone remember who that was? Anybody? The first bara'at we covered. Remember, we got a bunch of Zaids now? Al-Bara' ibn Malik, right? So we covered Al-Bara' ibn Malik, the brother of Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with them both. And we covered Al-Barah ibn Azib, radiallahu ta'anhu, the man who, as we said, if you're reading into the literature of seerah or the sunan of the Prophet, and you just hear Al-Barah, we're talking about Al-Bara'a ibn Azib. And he has over 300 ahadith. So there's a lot to cover from Al-Bara' ibn Azib. But the one that we're going to cover tonight is the least famous of the Bara's, the first one to become Muslim. The first of all of the Bara's to become Muslim. And that is Al-Bara'a ibn Ma'r. Al-Bara'a ibn Ma'rur. Radiallahu ta'ala anhu. And how much of a first is he? Um, Imam al-Dahabi Raheimallah Ta'ala, as well as Ibn Heban, they record about him. He was the first person to actually come up to the Prophet and take Baya with him to pledge with the Prophet in both of the aqabahs, in both of the pledges of Akaba. So let's give some context to this. And it's refreshing your memory, inshaAllah, a little bit about the serah. The first six people to embrace Islam from Medina were six young men led by Esadi bin Zurara, they saw the Prophet and Hajj calling the different tribes in the very difficult phase of the Messenger of Allah's life where no one would accept him. And the Prophet met these six young men. Asadi bin Zurara is the first Muslim from Medina. He's the first one from Medina to embrace the Prophet's message and to bring along that group. After six, you then have the two aqabahs, the two pledges themselves. The first of those two pledges were 12, and then you have 70 plus, the second aqaba, where a large group of people come to meet the Prophet the next year in Hajj and to embrace Islam with the Prophet from Medina and to officially pave the way for him to come to the Medina Munawara. In both of those incidents where you put your hand in the hand of the Messenger of Allah, the very first person to walk forward and to put his hand in the hand of the Prophet is this man named Al-Bara ibn Ma'rur, Radiallahu Ta'ala anhu, and he was the naqib, he was the chosen representative of the tribe known as Bani Salima. Bani Salima. Bani Salima is the tribe of Mu'ad ibn Jabal, Radiallahu Tara Anhu. It's the tribe of Jabir ibn Abdullah, Radiallahu Taraanhu. It's a very famous tribe from amongst the Ansar. He is the representative of that tribe. He's a very elderly man, but extremely respected amongst the people of Yathrib. Okay, Yathrib, of course, being the name of Medina before Al-Madina Munawarah, right? Extremely respected. And just to give you a visual, clearly, that on the night of Akaba, both nights, he's you know understood to be the first one that's going to go forward because of the honor and the respect that the Ansar have for him. He's the oldest of them, he's the most respected of them. Banu Salima is a great tribe amongst them. So just imagine the first man put forward both times to put his hands in the hand of the Prophet to embrace Islam. And he is, as Dahabi rahimallah says, Wahu ibn Ammati, Sa'ad ibn Mu'av. He is the first cousin of the great Sa'ad ibn Mu'av, Radiallahu Ta'ala anhu. And he was the chief of his people, the first to give the Prophet. He was a man of great virtue, a man of extreme piety. Okay? Fadil usually represents a person who does a lot of good without being prompted. Right? So he's fadl. Taqi means he's extra cautious when it comes to sins. And what this yields is a very special term that you don't hear much. Faqihan-nafs. A jurist of the soul. What is a jurist of the soul? Imam al-Ghazir rahimallah uses this terminology frequently, by the way, in Tuskiah what is faqi al-nafs? Faqihan-nafs is someone that has studied his self so much, a scholar of the soul, and is so diligent and devoted to trying to purify the soul that they're naturally guided towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Like these are, you know, people that are able to diagnose inner realities very quickly, especially with themselves, right? They're not like gurus or people that do weird stuff. We're not talking about that. We're talking about a person who wants so badly to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and they're doing everything externally right. They're avoiding the sins and they're putting forth the virtuous things. And as a result of that, Allah makes them scholars of their own souls, people that are very insightful, that are able to diagnose things in a deep internal sense. Now, the scholars also mention about al-Bara'ah in this regard, the hadith of the Prophet, that Anna Suma'ad and that people are like precious stones, khiarakum fil-jhariyyah, khiaraqum fil-Islam, the best of you in the days of ignorance are the best of you in Islam, ida fakihu, if you have knowledge, if you have jurisprudence. What did the Prophet mean by that? That if a person was known for charity, if a person was known for good manners, if a person was known for integrity, if a person had all of these qualities before they became Muslim, the expectation is now that they become Muslim, they simply refine those qualities in the most beautiful way. So he is that man, or he's one of those types in Medina who has that type of a personality to where everything that's known about him is good, but at the same time, he doesn't live long enough in Islam for us to see his name become something within Islam. All right. And that's that is the reason why. When you ask, like, why is a person hidden? Name recognition is one. There are too many people named with the same name, or that person died too early in Islam. Either they died early in the life of the Prophet, or they died early after the Prophet, to where they couldn't record a hadith or record their story, and other people did not record their story sufficiently. So he's someone who dies early on in the seed of the Prophet, and because of that he gets lost. Okay? So he's an old man, comes forth to the Prophet, and he brings his family with him. Uh, very interestingly enough, his mother is a sahabiyyah as well. And she was a very elderly woman that he brought forth on that day. Her name was Ar-Rabab Al-Rabab bin Tunman. Al-Rabab bin Tunan. Uh uh Wakat Aslamat, Shaykhatan Kabirah, uh, that she came and she she took her shahadah with um uh with the Prophet and her bay'ah while she was a very old um woman. And he had two wives. Okay, some of them considered the second one to actually be two separate people, but the more correct historical interpretation is that they're one person. So the first one is a woman that we're going to talk about, especially as it relates to one of his kids, his most famous son. And her name is Khalida or Khalidah, Khalidah to bint khais. Khalida bint khais. Her nickname Umm Bishir. Umm Bishir. And this is a noble sahabiyyah of the Prophet in her own right, and she has a deep story with the Prophet. We cited her in the Barzak series, but without a biography. Okay, Umm Bishir. Okay, so he has his wife, Khalida, Umm Bishir, from her, very you know, easy to remember, Bishir ibn al-Bara, who we're going to do a full biography of, Bishr ibn Bara, the most famous son. And then he has another wife named Umm Mu Bashir. Um Mu Bashir. So Bishir, Mubashir, similar root. And this woman um also became Muslim, and he had multiple uh children uh from her. Uh Mu'bashir, he had uh three daughters named Hind, Sulafa, and Al-Rabab, named after his mother. So he had Mubashir, Hind, Sulafa, and uh Al-Rabab. Um, what's so interesting about this woman is that when Al-Bara'ah passes away, she will be one of those widows that marries Zayd ibn Haritha. So you can start to see how the weaving starts to come. Zayd ibn Haritha will marry her in Al-Madina, and she narrates um a few ahadiths. She had several children through uh Zayd um Radiallahu Ta'an, or rather, Zayd had several children through her that almost all became scholars of the religion. All right. Uh her two most famous ahadiths, I'll just mention it. This is Ummmu Bashir because we're not going to bring her up um again. And Jabir, being from the tribe of Ben U Salima, is the primary narrator from Ummmu Bashir. Uh, is a famous hadith that you might have heard. It's it is a very beautiful hadith that uh Jabir narrates from Ummmu Bashir that she heard the Prophet um say, that there is no Muslim who plants a seed or who puts forth the smallest contribution. And from that, a human being or a bird or a wild beast eats from it, except that it is a charity. She's also a narrator of the hadith of Bay'at al-Rudwan, where the companions took the pledge with the Prophet under the tree. Again, you have the narration from Jabur through her. That the Prophet said that no one from those that took the pledge under the tree with me will enter into the hellfire. Hafsa said, What about Ya Rasulullah wa in minkum illawaridwaha? That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, every single one of you will touch the fire. The Prophet responded and he said, The ayah that comes after, that we will save those who were pious, and we will leave the oppressors to dwell uh within it instead. So this is this is Ummu Bashar. So again, you have Al-Bara'ab bin Ma'rur, the first man to come to the Prophet from Medina to take the bay'ah twice in both of the incidents. His elderly mother, two wives, and his children all taking their shahadah. So, what do we know about this man? And why don't we know more about him? I'll tell you what we do know about him. It's one of the most interesting things, and I don't think there's another sahabi that has this particular distinction. When he became Muslim, he started praying with the Ka'bah Aziz Qibla. He immediately turned and started praying towards the Ka'bah Aziz Qibla. Now, the Prophet was praying towards what Aziz Qibla at that time? Masil Aksa. Right? The change of qibla will not come until 16, 17 months after the hijrah of the Prophet in Medina, as Anashiallahu ta'a anhu says. But remember, this man is Faqih al-Nafs. Like he's someone who has such a pure and beautiful soul. He never even met the Prophet up until that point. He just knew that we have some form of salah. Obviously, the salah is still being developed, by the way, at this point. The very uh fundamentals of the prayer is being developed. But he just knows like Mecca is the home where Ibrahim built a house dedicated to the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's a special place. And he says, I can't imagine myself putting my back towards the Ka'bah. Now, when the Prophet was in Mecca, this is an interesting lesson by the way, when the Prophet was in Mecca and he would position himself in salah, he would face Jerusalem but put the Ka'bah between him and Jerusalem. So technically, the Prophet was getting both qiblas in the process. Faces the Ka'bah, but faces towards Al-Mazid al-Aqsa. May Allah liberate Allah Ma'amen. But when you're in Medina, you can't do that anymore. Right? So he just, you know, Islam is still very new here. Fundamentally, the deen is kerimatulheed at this point. You don't have Hajja, you don't have Ramadan, the salah is still being developed, you don't have zakah, right? Still very early on in the religion. And he says, you know, I'm gonna pray towards the Ka'bah, the house that was built by Ibrahim a. That's what I feel inclined towards doing. So then they made their way to Mecca. And this is when he's gonna meet the Prophet for the first time. And so this is a long narration of the Habi Raheim Allah Ta'ala captures that some of those companions that went out with al-Bara um they said that they went with him and they got to the Mikat of Dul Qalayfa, which is where we go by the way, till now when we leave Medina to go towards Mecca. And he said, um, I'm sorry, Al-Bayth. That the he said that you have seen that I will not put this house between, you know, behind my back, and I only see that it makes sense for me to pray uh towards it. Okay? Actually, one narration says, Al-Beyinah, and one of them says Al-Bayt. Very interesting. Had al-bait or uh right, so this proof being the Ka'bah itself, or this home being the Ka'bah itself. Like I've resolved, I can't turn my back towards it, I need to pray towards it. We said to him, don't do it. You know, you you won't do this. And they said, We only heard from our Prophet that he prays towards the direction of Hasham. So, Qibla Tahu, we're not in a position where we can uh betray her, we can pray to a qibla other than his. So he you know, they said that we saw him, either halatis salah, you sali il al-Kaaba. Anytime the salah came, he prayed towards the Kaaba, everyone else prayed towards Jerusalem. Very interesting. So it started to become a problem. So we you know we got mad at him and we started to find fault with what he had done. And he refused to pray except towards Mecca until we got towards Mecca. So he said, Yabna Akhi, O son of my brother, shaita. He said, I'm I've been doing something while I'm traveling, and I don't know if it's the right thing to do. He's admitting, he's like, Look, I'm doing this on something that's within my heart. I find in my soul that the Kaaba is a place that was set up for the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and it should be our qablah. So I don't know if this is the right thing to do. So let's go towards the Prophet and let's ask the Prophet about what I'm doing. Let's ask the Prophet if what I'm doing is correct. And this is so powerful. We didn't actually know how the Prophet looked. So we went out looking for him. This is how early this all is for them. So we went out and we found at an area called Al-Abtah, a man, and we asked him about the Prophet. And we asked him, Do you know who he is? And he said, No. And then we said to that man, Do you know Al-Abbas? Al-Abbas, so they said, or this man said, Na'am, yes, I know Al-Abbas. And the narrator says, We knew Al-Abbas because Al-Abbas was a merchant. And this is of course known about Abbas. So we knew him in Medina and we knew how he looked, and other people knew him because he was a merchant. He used to travel. So, you know, we said, point him towards a point us towards Al-Abbas. So they pointed them towards Al-Abbas, and they went and they saw Al-Abbas and they saw him sitting in the area of the haram. So they asked a person, they said, Who is that man? Uh, or do you know who Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is? So they saw Al-Abbas, they said, Do you know who Muhammad is? They said, Who are Rajulu? He is the one, Aladija'arisu ma'al Abbas. He's the one that's sitting with Al-Abbas. So you can go and you can see both of them at the same time. So the Prophet is sitting with Al-Abbas, and Al-Bara uh continues that we went towards the Prophet and Al-Abbas, and we said salam, and we sat down. When we sat down, the Prophet said to Al-Abbas, Manhadaniam, who are these two, O uncle? Can you introduce these two people, O uncle? Alright. So Al-Abbasad, this is Al-Bara ibn Ma'rur Sayyid du Q, the leader of his people, being Banu Salima, Wahhada Ka'ab ibn Malik. And this is Ka'ab ibn Malik. So this kind of shows now the narration that the two men are Al-Bara and Ka'abi ibn Malik. Faqala Rasulullah, a sha'et, the poet. Ka'ab ibn Malik was a poet. Ka'ab was so happy that the Prophet knew who he was. Right? The poet? So the Abbas said, yes, the poet. So Al-Bara, his first conversation with the Prophet about this issue, he says, Ya Rasulullah, uh qat sala qeda waqadah. I just want you to know that I've been doing it this way. I've been praying towards the uh the qibla of Mecca rather than the qibla that you've been praying to. And I want some advice from you. I want you to tell me if what I'm doing is wrong. So the Prophet said, Qadkunta ala qiblatin, you had been on a valid qibla, if only you'd be patient with that qibla. You'd been facing towards a valid qibla meaning al-aksa if only you had remained upon that qibla. Faraja ila qblatihi. Okay, so we went back towards, praying towards Al-Aqsa, until obviously the Prophet received the instruction from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala later on to change the qibla towards Mecca. The interesting thing, subhanAllah, about this entire situation is that the reason why the verse was revealed, that Allah will not let your faith go to waste, is that the sahaba worried when the qibla changed from uh Mecca or from Jerusalem to Mecca, that all those sahaba who died before getting to pray towards Mecca, was their salah valid? That's actually what the context of that verse is. Ya Rasulullah, all those people that died praying towards Jerusalem and they never got a chance to pray towards Mecca. Did their salah count? Did it all go to waste? Allah Azza will not let your uh faith go towards waste. And here you have Al-Barabin Na'ur, who's the opposite, right? He's someone that was insisting upon praying towards Mecca until the Prophet told him to be patient with the qibla that you are on until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decrees otherwise, and indeed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would decree otherwise, and this is a sign of the soundness of his heart and the soundness of his soul that something was going to come. And this is, you know, when a person is upon this pursuit of rightful guidance, they start to incline towards things. And this was, of course, the situation with Sayyidina Umar, Radi Allahu Ta'ala anhu, uh, that he always inclined towards the truth even before the revelation would come. So, what happened to him next? So Al Barah was there in both of the two aqabas and The first one to give uh bayah, and he brought his son Bishir, his son Bishir, his oldest son, to take bay'ah as well. He goes back to Medina, and this is where the story gets subhanAllah very interesting, and why you don't hear about him. He dies in the month of Safar, one month before the Prophet makes hijrah. So he didn't get to receive the Prophet in Medina. SubhanAllah, can you imagine? He came to Mecca, he took Bay'a with the Prophet twice, and he is one of the core reasons why you know Islam is taking hold in Al-Madina Murawara, but he doesn't get to live to see the moment to receive the Prophet in Al-Madina. So he dies one month before the Prophet uh arrives. And there's something else so beautiful uh about him in this regard, and it's it's all that we have from him that his wasiyya, okay, his wasyah was one third of everything he owns. To the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So osla bi thuruthin, uh fi sabirilla, wa osa bi thuruthin, linnabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa osa bi thuruthin, li wa'ladhi. He gave one third of his inheritance to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He said, one third of my inheritance, use it, fi sabirilla. And he said, one third would go towards his family. And when the Prophet came, and you got it, you have to imagine the sentiment, subhanAllah, what a righteous man, what a noble sentiment. The Prophet returned his wasyah to his family, right? Because this isn't an equation that's acceptable. So the share that he gave to the Prophet, the Prophet gave it back to his rightful inheritors. The irony, subhanAllah, is that both of the things that are mentioned as virtues for him are mistakes, right? In his biography. Both of the things that he did that are virtuous are mistakes, but because they were well-intentioned and corrected, obviously and rectified, um, they're taken in the spirit of how they are recorded. And we speak about him with such praise, radianhu, as being this first person to take that bay'a with the Prophet. We also have what's narrated that when the Prophet came to Medina, the Prophet asked about him and they told the Prophet that he died. So the Prophet, Sa'ala an kabrihi. He said, Take me to his grave. So they took him to the grave. The Prophet went to it and he lined up and he pronounced Takbir. Now here's the thing about what it says here, kabbara. Salatul Janaza is also still not legislated in the full sense. So what is it that the Prophet did? And this is where the ulama actually debate, did the Prophet pray an actual Salatul Janaz on him, or did the Prophet say, Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, do something that resembled what was to come of Salatul Janaza? Well, we know for sure is the Prophet, he did either the Salatul Janaz or what would resemble the Janazah, and he said, Allah makfirhu, waathilhul jannah, O Allah, forgive him and have mercy upon him and enter him into paradise. And in one narration, the Prophet says, and you have done so. Okay? So Allah maqfirlahu, waathilhul jannah, waqqat fa'alt. O Allah, forgive him and have mercy upon him and enter him into Jannah, and indeed you have uh done so. So this is Al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur, radiallahu ta'ala anhu, the first person to give bay'at to the Prophet, the chief of Banu Salima, a noble first that goes down in history, but subhanAllah did not get to be there to receive the Prophet in al Madin almara. But Allah Azza writes down what he writes down.