Firmness, Sujūd, and an Organised Jamāʿah

Some lessons to learn from the narrations. Number one, which really stands out, is the firmness and steadfastness of the Ṣaḥābah of Allah — they held tight to their principles. They didn't compromise, even when they knew they would be in danger. They went to An-Najāshī and said, "ʿĪsā is a servant of Allah." And as recounted above, they had said that they were going to speak the truth no matter what happened. So it's important to have that spirit — that we aren't here to protect ourselves, but we are here to protect our religion. Our religion comes first, even if we have to give up our lives in the process, and we would go through whatever pain and suffering we have to, to safeguard Islam. That is the first point.

A second point: they wouldn't give in to the local traditions that would contradict Islam. They would adopt local traditions and culture that doesn't contradict with the religion, but whenever they see a contradiction, they are willing to stand against it. It was the tradition of the Abyssinians to make sujūd whenever they would come to greet the Negus. And ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, when he went to An-Najāshī, he said, "Beware — when these people come in, they're not going to make sujūd for you." And when they came in, truly, they didn't, as ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ suspected — they didn't make sujūd, and An-Najāshī was angry, and he said, "How come you don't make sujūd to me like everybody else does?" They said, "We don't make sujūd to anyone but Allah." In our religion, we don't make sujūd for anyone but Allah. And they had pride, even though they were in a foreign land living through difficult situations — their pride in their religion is evident.

Number three: it might be said that the Muslims in Makkah had a jamāʿah and an amīr; someone who wants to argue against this concept can come back and say, "Well, obviously they had a jamāʿah and an amīr — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was there, what do you expect?" Well, what about in Abyssinia? With the Muslims living like we are today, loose, and everybody doing their own thing and going in their own direction? Or were they organised under one banner and a common leadership? This is one thing that stands out in all of the narrations, that the Muslims were organised — they were a group, and they worked together in a jamāʿah, and they had a leader, Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib. He was their spokesman, he was their amīr. So this isn't an optional thing; it is not something to be done only if one feels like it. Muslims, wherever they are, have to be in an organised fashion. This is an organised religion — it is not an individual spiritual thing done on one's own. It is a religion that has many of its ʿibādāt done collectively, to teach us the spirit of jamāʿah. Ṣalāh is done collectively, Ḥajj is done collectively. So Muslims living in the West have to organise; they have to come together in a movement, and they have to have a common leadership which they stand behind. The decision was made in Abyssinia that only one man would speak, and that they would not interfere with, or go against and contradict, what he said.