In our last lesson we began discussing the life of Abu Bakr RA, his lineage and background. Today we'll discuss what we know pre-Islam and his conversion story. As we said in the seerah, the Madani era even though it is only 10 years, and the Meccan is era is 53 years, we have double the amount of information for those 10 years th at the 53 years combined. If this is for the prophet SAW, how much moreso will b e for the sahabah. Therefore there will be very little information that has been preserved pre Islam. As we go on from sahabi to sahabi, information will be les s and less. For the bulk of the sahbah we only have their name, and for many of them not even their name has been recorded. More than 100,000 people saw the pro phet SAW but their names aren't even known. Even from the names we have around 5 000. From those 5000 we only have stories for around 100/150 - even that, to mak e a class out of probably 30/40. For the rest of them we might have interesting anecdotes such as so-and-so entered the camp of the prophet SAW as an emmis ary and something interesting happened. We know Abu Bakr was always curious and open minded. He was looking for the trut h as a young man, and he never worshipped idols. As-Suyuti reports in his biogra phy a story that Abu Bakr RA himself narrated. He said "once in the days of jahe leya I was sitting in front of the ka'bah and Zayd ibn Amr ibn Lufayl was also t here". Who is this Zayd? He is the most famous of the hunafa - the ones who neve r worshipped idols. And we discussed his story at the beginning of the seerah. T he prophet SAW met Zayd and asked him "Why do my people have a problem with you? " And Zayd said "I don't worship any of these false Gods, I only worship Allah a lone the God of Ibrahim - I don't eat the meat given to the idols etc". So he wa s very angry at idol worshipping; he had travelled the world to Syria etc and ha d rejected Judaism and Christianity and said "none of you are upon the religion of Ibrahim anymore". And Zayd ibn Amr ibn Lufayl is a first cousin of Umar ibn a l-Khattab RA, Umars name is Umar ibn al Khattab ibn Lufayl. So Khattab and Amr a re brothers and therefore Umar and Zayd are first cousins. But of course they ar e of different generations and there's a big age gap. So Abu Bakr is sitting with Zayd, and Ummayah ibn Abi-Salt was there. He was the most famous poet from the Thaqif tribe; he aswell met the prophet SAW as a prop het. And the prophet SAW asked him to recite some poetry, and the prophet SAW he ard his poetry and invited him to accept Islam. But ibn Abi-Salt basically said "let me think about it". And for the rest of his life he thought about it until he died in this state. So he didn't explicitly reject, but he didn't accept eith er, and because of this non-acceptance is automatically rejection in our religio n. And our prophet SAW said "As for Ummayah ibn Abi-Salt he was just so close to accepting Islam but Allah knows best why he didn't". Some say he wanted to embr ace Islam but he felt jaheleya problems of Quraysh vs Taqif and so he couldn't i t. Another reason given is that he lost his closest friends at Badr so he felt i t would dishonour them if he accepted Islam. The point is however he didn't acce pt Islam. Now ibn Abi-Salt was however a hanif like Zayd. He did not embrace idol worshipp ing. So Zayd, the most famous hanif of the Quraysh is there, as is ibn Abi-Salt, the hanif from Ta'if. The two of them meet in front of the ka'bah and Abu Bakr is there listening to their conversation. So ibn Abi-Salt says to Zayd "how are you doing etc? Have you found the truth yet?" And Zayd ibn Amr recited some poet ry back to him "Every religion is incorrect other than the religion of the hanif iya, the religion of Ibrahim AS". Then Zayd said to ibn Abi-Salt "this prophet w e are waiting for he will either come from my tribe or yours". So Zayd is tellin g ibn Abi-Salt this, and if you recall the story in the seerah: there was a grou p of people decided to travel in the world seeking the true religion of Ibrahim AS. So they went to Syria, Yemen etc. Zayd was one of these people. So Abu Bakr is narrating this story, and said "I had never heard this word 'nabi'" - this is another theological point; the concept of prophethood was unknown to Arabs, it
was something they were unfamiliar with, and that is why the Qur'an keeps mentio ning a nabi has come, as they didn't get a prophet before. And there are many ah adith which mention the Quraysh asking "what is a nabi?!" so Abu Bakr said he went to the most knowledgeable person in Mecca, Waraqah ibn Nawful. And he asked him "What is this thing called a nabi, for I heard saying Z ayd saying the nabi is coming?" Waraqah said "yes indeed my nephew, WE are indee d a people of knowledge, but we are all waiting for a prophet to come, who is th e best of the Arabs, and your people are the best of the Arabs so they will come from amongst us". So Waraqah knows the prophet will come from the Quraysh. Beca use the prediction was Banu Israeel, and the most presitigious of them is the Qu raysh. so Waraqah was even certain it cannot be from Taqif. Abu Bakr asked him " what is a nabi then?" And Waraqah says "a nabi is the one who tells others what he is told to say" meaning Allah is telling him what to say. And "he dosen't do injustice, and injustice is not done to him, and he dosen't support injustice". Abu Bakr then said "when the prophet SAW was sent, I immediately believed in him ". Meaning these types of conversations had prepared him for the coming of the p rophet SAW. This incident shows us the fact that he's sitting behind Zayd ibn Amr who was a taboo person (a deviant among the people), and he's listening to the conversatio n he has with ibn Abi-Salt, and then goes to Waraqah to ask more questions - all of this indicates Abu Bakr was open to searching for the truth. He isn't satisi fed with the jaheleya mannerisms. Another incident is that, one time many years after the prophet SAW began preaching, the prophet SAW asked the sahabah "who am ongst you remembers the statement of Qus ibn Sa'ida at Ukaadth". Firstly, Ukaadt h is the post-Hajj annual event for all the hujjaj where they would meet, buy an d sell and have poetry competitions. And the prophet SAW utilised Ukaadth for hi s dawah for many years. Before the dawah, the prophet SAW would go there like ev eryone else, and at one occasion the prophet SAW met Qus ibn Sa'ida. Qus ibn Sa' ida was another famous pre Islamic arabs. He only came once in the lifetime of t he prophet SAW for Hajj, and it is said Qus was the most eloquent of all the Ara bs of his time. And he was known for his 'nathr', or one could say rap - meaning , using words in a ryhmic manner which is like rap. And Qus ibn Sa'ida was known as a master of this style. And he was also a hanif - and he gave some phrases a t Ukaadth that the prophet SAW was impressed by. Qus was from the tribe of Banu Iyaad, and when this tribe came to embrace Islam many many years later, the prophet SAW immediately said to them "where is Qus ib n Sa'ida?" so the prophet SAW remembered Qus. So the prophet SAW is asking the s ahabah "who amongst you remembers the nathr Qus said that day?" Immediately Abu Bakr said "I do". So out of all of the sahabah Abu Bakr was the one who memorise d it, and he began to recite it: "Oh mankind, listen, and understand, and once y ou have understood then benefit. Whoever is going to live is going to die, and w hoever dies has gone, and everything that has been decreed will come to pass" an d he goes on. This is nathr: powerful phrases that are profound in meaning. As a side point this shows Abu Bakr had a great memory; for him to memorise all of t his after listening to it just once shows he had an amazing memory. It also show s he was very eager and he's paying attention. Because in this nathr, Qus also c riticises idol worshipping and mentions the religion of Ibrahim AS as the true r eligion. And Abu Bakr memorises all of it. So we don't know too much other than the fact that from these stories we derive the eagerness of Abu Bakr. Paying attention to theological discussions of his ti me. So he's waiting for the truth, and that is why when the truth came, Abu Bakr RA did not hesitate one bit. Unfortunately we don't have the details of the ori ginal conversation between the prophet SAW and Abu Bakr at the time he converted . There were only two people and neither discussed the conversion in detail. How ever we do know that Abu Bakr as Siddiq did not hesitate one bit, and this is pr oven by the hadith of the prophet SAW which we discussed in the previous episode
. That when there was an issue between Umar and Abu Bakr, the prophet SAW said " everyone of you hesitated to accept Islam other than Abu Bakr." So we know the p rophet SAWs call to Abu Bakr was immediately accepted without any hesitation. An d A'isha narrates "when Abu Bakr was converted, the happiest person is all of Me cca was the prophet SAW". And there is no doubt that Allah chose the perfect com panion and helper to the prophet SAW. So many things in similarity; their nature , characteristics. Even their birth dates - they were of very similar age, and b efore the dawah begins they were the best of friends. And indeed, what a helper Abu Bakr RA was. Look at the list of early converts on e after the other. The most famous names of early Islam and late Islam converted at the hands of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq RA beginning with Zubair ibn al-Awwam, Uthma an ibn Affan, Talha ibn Ubaydhillah, Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas, Abdur Rehman ibn Awf. All of these are from those who are promised Jannah. So five of them at least A llah guides them through the hands of Abu Bakr RA. And of course others as well such as Bilal RA, and al Arkam ibn al Arkam, the one whose house the prophet SAW met in. Of course along with this, his entire immediate family converted to Isl am. His wife Umme Roman, his son and daughter from his previous marriage, Abdull ah and Asma, and then his son and daughter from the current marriage, A'isha (wh o will be born soon) and Abdur Rehman. A'isha was born in Islam, she said she ne ver remembered her parents except in Islam. And Abu Bakr servant, Amr. The only household in which everybody embraced Islam is the household of Abu Bakr. Now it is unanimously agreed amongst all the scholars Abu Bakr RA was the first adult convert from amongst the men. There is ikhtilaf when you discuss whether h e was the first between him and Ali RA - there is contraversy. Khadija RA was de finately the first convert because the prophet SAW came to her directly. Then th ere is a contraversy as to who was next. But walahi this is such an insignifican t matter. It's really one group of Islam who want to push their way (shia) and s ay 'he converted'. At the end of the day, it's truly irrelavant. It's just a mat ter of hours or days. If Ali RA was the first to convert of the children then th at is fine. Recall the prophet SAW told Abu Talib to give him one of the childre n so he could raise because Abu Talib was a poor man. So Ali RA grew up in the h ouse of the prophet SAW and this is a blessing we give and we give much more tha n this. There's a perception that we are stingy when it comes to praising Ali ib n Ali Talib. Walahi this is a lie - we praise him as deserves to be praised and give him every blessing that he deserves. OF the blessing, he grew up in the hou se of the prophet SAW. Maybe he converted before Abu Bakr or after, but at the e nd of the day he was just a child when he converted. And the conversion of a chi ld living in the house of two people who had converted is not the same as that o f an adult friend, who is only offered Islam. So Ali RA might have been time wis e an early convert, but Abu Bakr was the first male adult. Along with converting all of these people we discussed, Abu Bakr sacrificed much financially, and even of his own health and jihad for Allah. One of the most fa mous stories is that from ibn Ishaaq we learn, when Islam reached 38 men in daru l Arqam, Abu Bakr RA suggested to the prophet SAW it was NOW time to public. Thi s was during the private daw'ah phase. Everyone knew what was happening - it was n't a secret thing, but private. But here Abu Bakr is saying "let us go to the k a'bah and invite the people to Islam". At this point in time Allah had not revea led to the prophet SAW to go himself public. Should Abu Bakr go public or not? A n ayah won't come down for that. The prophet SAW was hesitant whether he should let Abu Bakr go or not, but Abu Bakr insisted. And Abu Bakr volunteered to be th e first khateeb ever in Islam. This is the first khutbah ever given in front of the masses. At this point Allah had not revealed to the prophet SAW to go public yet. As we know, prophets can not undertake a step until Allah gives them permi ssion. Abu Bakr wants to do it - initially the prophet SAW is hesitant but Abu B akr insists. So they agree at a certain time and place, and all the sahabah stat ion themselves in their tribal gatherings. Remember every tribe had a place in f ront of the ka'bah. And that was their safety net - surrounded by numbers. The a
mazing thing is, even in their hatred of Islam, tribalism remained supreme espec ially in early Islam. That's why they couldn't harm the prophet SAW for 13 years ; or the elite of the sahabah. And so they took their anger out on Bilal RA and Ammar and Yasir and Summayah. So Abu Bakr as Siddiq voluteered, he went to the middle of the ka'bah and began the first khutbah in the history of Islam. And he invited the people to give up their idols, worship Allah alone and believe in the prophet SAW. Of course every one knew there's a new message, but no one had gone public yet. So they surround Abu Bakr, they begin to curse him, they tell him to be quiet but he dosen't lis ten, until the first one of them, the infamous Utbah ibn Rabbiyah attacked Abu B akr. And he is the same person as being one of the seven whom the prophet SAW po inted at and mentioned by name 'Oh Allah I put you in charge of Utbah and...'. E veryone is worried who would be the first, but as soon as one starts everyone el se jumps. So Utbah ibn Rabbiyah took off his shoes and pounced on Abu Bakr with both hands and began beating him. That was the catalyst that the entire crowd ju mped on Abu Bakr and chaos began, so much so Abu Bakr fell into the crowd. And t he crowd began stomping and beating up on Abu Bakr RA until he lose conciousness , and his entire body was bloodied and bruised. Until finally his tribe the Banu Taym was informed - a sub tribe not as big as the Banu Hashim but still a good status - they come running and they protected Abu Bakr, and they had to carry hi m in a shawl. He was so injured they had to use something to carry him off. And his father thought he would die, so they announced "If Abu Bakr dies we will kil l Utbah ibn Rabbiyah". This shows us that jaheleya tendancies had some advantage s aswell - they were going to declare war against Utbah over this. Abu Bakr is c ompletely bloodied from head to toe, he opens his eyes up and says "How is Rasul aAllah SAW?" He does not know the rest of the muslims is fine; when his father h ears this, from tenderness and love he starts cursing and getting angry. This re ally shows us the bizzare nature of parental love: no matter what Abu Bakr has d one he's still a son. So when he's dying Abu Quhafa is like "wake up" but when h e wakes up and Abu Bakr mentions Islam all the hate comes back and he leaves Abu Bakr with his mother, Ummul Khayr. So Abu Bakr asks his mother "how is the prophet SAW?" - now his mother of course has much more love for their children. So his mother says "eat, drink" but Abu Bakr says "no until you tell me how the prophet SAW I won't". His mother says "w alahi I don't know what is his status!" So he says "go to Umme Jameel bint al-Kh attab" i.e. the sister of Umar RA "and ask her". Abu Bakr has to send his mother to another lady, of course not a man. So she puts on her garment and goes to th e house of the sister of Umme Jameel, the sister of Umar RA. Of course Umme Jame el is a muslim but no one is supposed to know that. It's secret. It's Darul Arka m stage - it's meant to be all secret. However Abu Bakrs mother goes to Umme Jam eel and says to her "my son is asking how is Muhammad ibn Abdillah doing". Now, Umme Jameel is now confused - is this a trap? A set up? She said "I neither know your son nor Muhammad ibn Abdhullah". Meaning, she is saying "why would I know about these people?" Abu Bakrs mother says "he is insisting I come to you!" So s he opens up a little bit and says "look I don't know anybody about the two of th em, what if I come back with you and speak with Abu Bakr directly?" So she goes to the house of Abu Bakr as Siddiq, and he is laying there falling into unconcio usness again - and his whole body is limped and bloody and bruised. When she see s his status she lets out a shreik and says "whoever has done this, may Allah cu rse him, may Allah get vengence on him, how can someone do this to such a noble person". So in her voice Abu Bakr is managing to open his eyes and immediately h e asks "how is rasulaAllah" and Umme Jameel says "your mother is here". Meaning, she can't answer this question. SubhanAllah look at the privacy and secrecy her e. But Abu Bakr says "don't worry we can trust her" - he knew she wouldn't betra y them. So Umme Jameel says "alhamdhulillah he is fine". Abu Bakr says "where is he?" And Umme Jameel says "in the house of Darul Arkam". So once he knows the prophet SAW is safe Abu Bakrs mother know says "okay now ea
t and drink". This is the mothers love here. And Abu Bakr says "walahi I will no t touch food and water until I see with my own eyes that the prophet SAW is fine ". He is sworn by Allah he won't eat anything. What do they do? The same day he' s been bloody and bruised he is saying he's not going to eat anything. He wants to verify the prophet SAW is fine. And so, bloody and bruised, when it goes dark , he put one hand on his mother, the other on Umme Jameel he is dragged by the t wo of them in the darkness to the house of al Arkam ibn abi-Arkam. And when he s ees the prophet SAW he falls onto him and starts crying in his arms; and the pro phet SAW is greatly moved and distressed, and Abu Bakr as Siddiq comforts the pr ophet SAW and says "walahi I am fine don't worry other than this gash etc" - eve n though he couldn't even walk. Imagine a crowd stomping and kicking him for 20 minutes, but still he is saying he is fine. And then he says "ya RasulaAllah her e is my mother and Allah has blessed you, call her to Islam and make dua she com es into Islam maybe Allah will save her from Jahannam". And so the prophet SAW g ives dawah to Ummal Khayr - and this is where she embraces Islam. SubhanAllah from this incident we see so many benefits: 1. The love Abu Bakr as-Siddiq has for the prophet SAW that he will not eat and drink until he physically verifies the prophet SAW is fine and safe. And vice ve rsa the love the prophet SAW has for Abu Bakr. 2. We also see the intellegance of Umme Jameel, the sister of Umar RA. She's try ing to understand "how much shall I say, how much shall I not say". Walahi it's a stroke of genius that she's saying "I don't know anything about these two peop le but let me speak to your son directly". How is she going to get information f rom him? She uses this line - that "let me listen to him directly". And indeed b it by bit the information comes out. 3. The usefulness of jaheleya - even if somethings go against Islam, you can tak e advantage as long as their not haraam. The tribalism, the asabeya, of the Banu Taym and also the Banu Hashim to protect the prophet SAW. Why did Abu Talib pro tect the prophet SAW? Abu Talib isn't a muslim, but there's this issue of MY nep hew and MY tribe. That "no one will harm my tribe". And there's nothing wrong of taking advantange of these issues and understandings. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq is not saying "no no I cannot take help from you because you're my tribe". No. And by the way the same thing applies with nation states and rights and privalleges. Th ere's nothing wrong with taking advantage of it and saying "it's my right to be treated fairly". SO Abu Bakr takes advantage of his right for safety - he's a me meber of the Banu Taym and his tribe protects him. 4. One of the most beautiful lessons is that, our of tragedies come great blessi ngs. Walahi we all know Abu Bakr would have done this 100 times if it would get his mother to embrace Islam. And this is what happened. After all of this, his m others heart was so softened she saw the reality of imaan. She saw what imaan do es, how much Abu Bakr believes, the akhlaak of the muslims, she saw the prophet SAW preaching for the first time etc. And so now after this tragedy she embraces Islam. Was it not worth the tragedy from Abu Bakrs perspective? So every single tragedy has within it more blessing as long we tawaqul in Allah, and have firm trust and belief. Another beautiful narration is mentioned and it's very pertinent because it's na rrated from Ali RA in praise of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. As we have said it's complet ely unfounded and ludicrous to claim Ali RA had ANYTHING against Abu Bakr and Um ar RA. There's not a shred of evidence and every single thing speaks against it. This is a myth people READ IN - that Ali RA and Abu Bakr and Umar did not get a long. Everything speaks out against it including this incident which is mentione d in numerous books such as Ibn Kathir. That once Ali RA, when he was the khalif ah, was giving a khutbah/sermon in Kufa and in the middle of it he asks them "wh o was the bravest of all people?" So they give various names until someone shout
s out "you are most braviest of all people". Ali ibn Abi Talib says "it is true I have never fought anyone except that I have won. But the bravest person was Ab u Bakr as-Siddiq". Then he said "I remember a day (so he's going back to early d awah when he was young) when the Quraysh surrounded the prophet SAW and began be ating him. And not a single one amongst us could do anything because of the shee r quantity". Now this must during the later Meccan period because the Quraysh on ly turned physical against the prophet SAW after really the 7th year of dawah. A nd with the death of Abu Talib that was when things really flipped. Abu Talib, A llah used him to be a BIG shelter and it's possible this incident happened after his death. Ibn Ishaaq said the amount of physical pain and suffering the prophe t SAW had after the death of Abu Talib was much more than before. This incident is narrated in ibn Ishaaq but now we're hearing it from tongue of Ali RA. So we're hearing it from an eye witness of a young child who was there a t the time - so Ali RA says "everyone surrounded him and began beating him and n one of us could do anything. But one person stood up and jumped in, Abu Bakr asSiddiq. And he pushed them away, hitting that one, taking a blow from that one, and he kept on saying 'will you kill a man just because he says my Lord is Allah ?!'" Note this phrase is in the Qur'an aswell. So Abu Bakr kept on defending the prophet SAW and that's when the crowd abated away. So Ali RA is giving this ser mon and the images are coming back to him, and he began to cry so much that he h ad to lift up his cloak and cover his tears. And the entire audience began to cr y aswell. And then he said "who is better the mu'min of family of Firone or Abu Bakr? By Allah Abu Bakr is a million times better because the mu'min of al-Firon e kept his Islam secret but Abu Bakr made his Islam public". And this clearly sh ows us the respect and love that Ali RA had for Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. And of cours e aswell so many other mentions that demonstrates Ali RA respects for Abu Bakr. Of them is an interesting tidibt: Ali RA married Asma, who was previously marrie d to Ja'far and then Abu Bakr. And Asma had children from all three. Abu Bakr an d Ali have children that are step-brothers. So one of the sons of Ja'far and Abu Bakr began teasing their mother when Ali RA was present. And they said "who was the best husband you ever had?" Of course this a problem here because who can s he say? Look at the intellegance of Asma. She married Ja'far when she was young and Ja'far was was young. Then she married Abu Bakr and he was 60 plus years old. S o she said "of the young men, Ja'far was the best. And of the shayook (old ones) Abu Bakr was the best". So Ali RA said "what have you left for me?" Even this n arration, subhanAllah it shows the closeness so the claim there was animosity is just bizzare and wrong. If you read every single narration it's nothing but lov e and respect for each other. Abu Bakr as Siddiq therefore was the first to call to Islam; the first to suffer physically, the first to give his money, the first to advise the prophet SAW, t he first to free slaves and he freed over 10 of the early slaves who embraced Is lam, and Bilal RA is just one of them. And when he embraced Islam he cut down hi s business dealings and therefore the fact is he no longer had the source of inc ome he had in the days pre Islam. So from a limited amount of money he spent gen erously and freely and of course Allah gave him back because he had the trust in Allah. We'll mention one more important story, the story of ibn Dagina, and the Hijrah of Abu Bakr. In the 5th year of the daw'ah, the prophet SAW allowed the muslims to immigrate to Abyssinia. And one by one they began to emmigrate and Abu Bakr a swell decided to take advantage of this. So he packed his belongings and made hi s way outside Mecca with his wife and children. But Allah willed that the cheift on of the ahabish was there. The ahabish are considered to be the nomads around Mecca - the outer dwellers. They joined in the Quraysh during the battle of Badr , and especially during Ahzab where they gave 1000s of warriors in support of th e Quraysh against the prophet SAW. So the ahabish are the surrounding nomadic tr ibes and they have a strong relationship with the Quraysh. Of course there's thi
s notion that the Quraysh are superior to them. So Abu Bakr passes by ibn Dagina , the chiefton of the ahabish. And he sees all of the belongings and camels so h e said "oh Abu Bakr where are you leaving?" So Abu Bakr said "I am leaving my la nd to worship my Lord because the people have prevented me". So ibn Dagina says "someone like you - he can neither leave not be forced out of Mecca." And then h e listed the same things Khadija RA said about our prophet SAW. "You are good to your relatives, and you feed the orphan, and take care of the poor, and fulfill your promise etc". All of the descriptions - he used the same words Khadija RA used to describe the prophet SAW and he said "you're too good to leave Mecca". So they went back right there and ibn Dagina did tawaaf - this was the custom th at whenever you entered Mecca you do tawaaf and it's our shariah to this day asw ell. So ibn Dagina called the leaders of Mecca and said "would you agree and all ow me to give Abu Bakr the right and protection to stay in Mecca?" Remember many times we discussed this - the chieftons had the right to give visas and when yo u gave it, nobody could harm you. It's a matter of honour and pride. Even in nat ion states that if an American is mistreated then all of America should get invo lved. Similarly that's basically the amanah - instead of a passport you had the chiefton promising safety. So this implies a time had come that Abu Bakrs father and the Banu Taym chiefton said "you're no longer welcome with us". So ibn Dagi na says "will you honour my protection?" If they say yes, then they'll be in tro uble if they break their word. There'll be a war between the Quraysh and the aha bish because it's about honour and pride. THe Quraysh said "that is your right b ut our one condition is he cannot read Qur'an out loud in public, nor pray in fr ont of the ka'bah, because we find the hearts of our children and women are sway ing". Aisha RA is narrating and said "Abu Bakr would always cry when he's reading the Qur'an and the people would be mesmerised by this". So Abu Bakr RA agreed - and he decided to build a small chamber where he could worship Allah. Like a small s hed, and of course space is limited. So the direction of the shed is the directi on of the road; so he would pray and read Qur'an in this shed, but people starte d gathering around that little chamber crying with the crying of Abu Bakr. So th e Quraysh sent an emmissary to ibn Dagina that "tell Abu Bakr to destory the she d or get rid of your protection!" So ibn Dagina is put in this akward situation so he sends a messenger (or goes himself) and tells Abu Bakr "either go to the m iddle of your house or I have to withdraw my protection". So Abu Bakr RA said "I take away my protection from you and I put Allah as my protector". After this, he along with the prophet SAW, who both of them did not have any protection - fo r a few weeks Abu Lahab gave the prophet SAW protection but he withdrew eventaul ly - but it's amazing out of all of the sahabah so many similarities between the prophet SAW and Abu Bakr; they both lived without protection. One final thing which is the Hijrah which we don't discuss in detail here as we' ve already done so in the seerah. We discussed the fact that Abu Bakr wanted to migrate and the prophet SAW kept on saying "wait perhaps Allah has chosen a part ner for you". He never imagined he would be given that privallege. Aisha RA said "walahi I never believed someone could cry out of happiness the day I saw my fa ther crying when the prophet SAW told him he can migrate with him". This is one of her first memories. And we discussed the fact that Abu Bakr had two camels pr epared, his son Abdullah participated, Asma broke her belt into two; his servant Amr is in on the plot. Really Abu Bakr and his whole family engineer the entire Hijrah and we conclude on an ayah in the Qur'an: "If you do not help the prophe t SAW, then know Allah has already helped him. When the kuffar kicked him out, t he SECOND OF THE TWO..." So Abu Bakr as-Siddiq has been called "one of the two". And by text of the Qur'an, Allah has used Abu Bakr to help the prophet SAW. All ah calls Abu Bakr the prophet SAWs partner: "thaani athnain", the 'second of the two'. "When the two of them were in the cave, when he (the prophet SAW) said to his sahib (COMPANION) 'don't worry Allah is with us'. So Allah sent his sakeena (peace) down upon them and Allah helped them with an army you cannot see". Now
this verse is one of the most explicit verses testifying to the praise of Abu Ba kr as-Siddiq. 1) Allah is explicitly saying Abu Bakr has been used by Him to help the prophet SAW: "none of you helped, but I helped when the TWO OF THEM". So Allah is puttin g Abu Bakr with the prophet SAW 2) Allah calls Abu Bakr "sahib" meaning companion. No other sahabi has been call ed this in the Qur'an other than Abu Bakr. It's a special privallege. Anyone who denies Abu Bakr is a true sahabi has rejected the Qur'an. So Allah has confirme d Abu Bakrs companionship for the prophet SAW 3) Allah demostrated the prophet SAW cares for Abu Bakr: the prophet SAW said "d on't worry" and this shows a care and love the prophet SAW has for Abu Bakr. 4) The prophet SAW himself said "Allah is with the TWO OF US". Can there be any praise higher than this? The prophet SAW says "Allah is with US" and therefore t his praise is the highest praise given to Abu Bakr. Imagine how beautiful and po werful this is. Allah is telling us the prophet SAW is saying "Allah is with us" so the prophet SAW is putting Abu Bakr together with him. 5) When Allah sent down his sakeena and help Abu Bakr is there and he is being u sed as the help. Therefore this verse in surah Tawbah is a verse of full praise of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq RA.
