Transcription
[Music]
Asalam everyone. Welcome to our series, People of the Quran, where every night I share with you a story about how our pious predecessors interacted with the Quran.
Since this is our first episode, I know that many people are probably expecting a story from Surah Al-Baqarah. However, many times we forget that the first Surah in the Quran is actually not Al-Baqarah, but Surah Al-Fatiha, which the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to call the seven frequently recited verses.
Though we recite it in every single prayer, this is the first Surah in the Quran. There are many different stories and narrations about how Surah Al-Fatiha was brought into the lives of the righteous, but I want to share with you one of my particular favorites to start the series off.
He says that once a group of companions were traveling and they came across a non-Muslim tribe. They asked this tribe to host them, but this tribe was pretty harsh with them. They told them that they weren't going to entertain them and that they weren't going to accommodate them. In essence, they told them to be on their way.
So Abu says that we felt kind of dejected. We took to the side, and we decided we were going to just camp out that night and then move on the next day. He said then the chief of that tribe was bitten by a snake. The people came to us and they said, "Do you guys have any medicine or do you have anyone that can offer some sort of cure for our chief?"
So Abu says that we responded and said to them, "You guys did not host us. You didn't entertain us." He says, "We're not going to do anything until you guys pay us." Meaning, had you hosted us and taken us in, we would have done this for free. But since you rejected us and we had to spend the night away from your tribe, and it was a difficult situation, then we'll do this only if you give us some money.
So they agreed. They said that if we did this, then they would give us a flock of sheep. One of the companions went to the chief. He started to read the mother of the Quran, the mother of the book, which the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam called. He kept reading and would spit into something and rub that spit on the wound. He kept on doing that until the chief started to feel better, and eventually, the chief was completely cured.
SubhanAllah, this is a non-Muslim chief. So we actually take a ruling here that it's okay to pray for the well-being of a non-Muslim, to treat a non-Muslim, to try to make them feel better, to give them medicine, and so on and so forth. This is taken from this Hadith.
So Abu says that after he did that and the chief was cured, they happily went and got a flock of sheep and gave it to the companions. But the companions said, "Well, wait a minute, is this Halal for us?" They said, "Look, we appreciate you guys offering this flock of sheep to us now, but we're not going to be able to take it until we go to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and ask him if it's permissible."
So Abu says we left them and went to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. We asked the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam about our situation. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam started to laugh. "How did you know that Al-Fatiha could be used to cure somebody?" Meaning, "I never taught you guys that Al-Fatiha could be used as a physical cure. How did you know to use Al-Fatiha to cure that chief?"
While he was laughing and smiling, he said, "You can go ahead and take that flock of sheep, and you know what? Assign me a share while you're at it." So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave them permission to take that flock of sheep as well.
Now, we take from this story that when it comes to Al-Fatiha, what makes Al-Fatiha unique is that the entire Quran is a shifa, it's a cure, but it's a spiritual shifa. Al-Fatiha is actually one of the few portions of the Quran that we can recite on ourselves when we're sick, recite on our children when they are sick, and we hope that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would bring about a cure through Al-Fatiha.
So we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to raise us with Al-Fatiha and to make us people of the Quran. I'll see you next time, inshaAllah, on People of the Quran.