Unlike father, unlike son

At the battle of al-Yarmouk, the Muslims army of 90,000 met the Roman army of a quarter of a million. Subhanallah, if you want to read up about epic battles, this is definitely one you need to look at. Before the armies had even got to the battlefield, the Romans were terrified: they chained together a lot of their foot-soldiers into groups of 10, so if one wanted to run away, they couldn’t; they even picked the battlefield to be one where retreat was difficult, with a wide front and a narrow rear.

So basically you have this intense battle raging, and a Sahabi (RA) collects together 400 Muslim fighters, and they make a vow to die: They make a vow to not leave the fighting until they die, or are injured so totally that they cannot fight. Alhamdulillah, most of them achieved martyrdom, and of the remaining of the 400, they lay on the battlefield. You’ve probably heard this story before – a Muslim carrying a pitcher of water came to one of the brothers. He was about to drink it until he saw another Muslim in pain, and refused to drink before the other brother had a sip. So the water-carrier goes to the second brother, who sees a third and refuses to drink. So the water carrier goes to the third but finds that he has already left this dunya. The water carrier turns to the first fighter and sees that he too is now a martyr, and the same for the second.

But the main point that I want you to think about is this: think about the Sahabi RA who had the strength of Eeman to stand up in the middle of a raging battle and motivate 400 people to dive in and fight to the death, fight to defend Islam against a superpower of the time. What was the name of this noble Sahabi?

His name was Ikrama (RA). His full name was Ikrama ibn Abi Jahl – he was the son of Abu Jahl, the enemy of Islam. Such an evil father, such a great son!

And look at us. Were our fathers like Abu Jahl? Were our mothers like the wife of Abu Lahab, who is spoken against and cursed in the Qur’an? What sort of parents do we have, compared to them? What excuse do we have for the way we are? What excuse will we have when we are judged by Allah?

May Allah purify our hearts,
Brother A. Hussain