Two Guards Through the Night

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) appointed guards that night, and the two guards were ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir and ʿAbbād ibn Bishr. So they would alternate: ʿAbbād ibn Bishr would take his turn while ʿAmmār would sleep, and then vice versa. So while ʿAmmār was sleeping and ʿAbbād was the one guarding, he occupied himself with ṣalāh; he started praying. And while he was reciting, one of the enemy shot an arrow at him, but he didn't move. So he shot another arrow at him; he still didn't move. He shot the third arrow at him, and then ʿAbbād woke up ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir. So when ʿAmmār woke up and saw that ʿAbbād had three arrows sticking out of his body, he told him, Subḥānallāh, hallā nabbahtanī — "Glory be to Allah, why didn't you wake me up?" He said, Kuntu fī sūratin aqraʾuhā, fa-lam uḥibba an aqṭaʿahā; fa-lammā tābaʿa al-ramya rakaʿtu fa-ādhantuka; wa-aymu Allāh, lawlā an uḍayyiʿa thaghran amaranī Rasūlu Allāh (peace be upon him) bi-ḥifẓihi, la-qaṭaʿa nafsī qabla an aqṭaʿahā aw unfidhahā. He said, "I was reciting a sūrah and I didn't want to stop until I finished it. But when he kept on firing arrows at me, I made rukūʿ and then I woke you up. And in the name of Allah, if it wasn't that I would have been considered to be neglectful of my responsibility, which was given to me by the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), I would have rather died than stop my ṣalāh, or I would have finished it."

Now, this is an impressive story. It shows how much he loved the Qur'an. He didn't want to stop, and these arrows are striking at him, and even though he is suffering all of that pain, he still has the concentration and khushūʿ in ṣalāh to carry on reading the āyāt of the Qur'an. This is truly amazing, and it shows the level of īmān that these Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) had.

We also see here that he said, "I didn't want to neglect the responsibility given to me by the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)." So now he was weighing these two things: one, he wants to carry on with the ṣalāh; number two, he is responsible for guarding the Muslims, and he doesn't want them to be attacked from his side. And this word that he used, thaghr: thaghr means hole, so you can imagine it as if there is this hole, or this opening, which the enemy can come through, and he is responsible for that thaghr. And this word repeats a lot in Arabic — that every Muslim is on a thaghr, every Muslim is at this opening, and you don't want the enemy to approach the ummah from your opening. We need to imagine ourselves as if every one of us is standing next to an opening. Every one of us is responsible not to let the enemy approach us from that opening, whether the enemy is shayṭān or whether the enemy is the disbelievers, whatever the enemy is. You do not want to be the one who opens the door for the enemy to come through.

And every one of us has a responsibility, and we need to take that responsibility seriously. And your responsibility depends on the gifts that Allah (swt) has given you. So if Allah (swt) has gifted you with knowledge, then you want to make sure that you are responsible. If Allah (swt) has gifted you with physical strength, you want to take care of that responsibility. If Allah (swt) has gifted you with, or has blessed you with, wealth, you want to make sure that you are responsible and you don't allow shayṭān to attack us through your gate, and that is by withholding your money. So we ask Allah (swt) to make us understand what our responsibilities are and fulfil them accordingly.