Assalamualaikum wbt
Welcome to year 2018. This is my first blog for this year and I pray that all of us will be blessed with happiness. I want to relate this topic with the history of The
Battle of Tabuk. I’m sure maybe some of you have heard about this story. But
for me, I heard about this story at night before New Year and I can’t hold myself to write
what I feel about it and share with you guys. It will be a long post but you
can skip reading at some parts, never mind. Where is Tabuk? Tabuk is in northwestern Saudi
Arabia. Tabuk was the farthest place in which Prophet had travelled to join a
battle. However, in the end there was no battle happened in Tabuk but the story
behind it left so many lessons that Allah chose this story to be written inside
al-Quran at Surah At-Tawbah.
When Islam was rapidly expanded
in the Arabian Peninsula followed by the story of the bravery and sacrifices of
the Muslim warriors, the Roman Emperor felt that his empire will be in great
danger if this expansion keeps on going. So, he ordered his army to launch a
surprise attack on the Muslims with help of a well-equipped army to paralyze
the increase military power of Muslims. News about Roman soldiers reached the
Prophet when people of Madina not yet properly collected their produce (dates
and fruits). Then, the Prophet invited Muslims for jihad and also to ask
well-to-do Muslims to pay zakat for the expenses of war. This order is written
in Surah At-Tawbah verse 41.
Go forth, whether
light or heavy, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the cause of
Allah. That is better for you, if you only knew. (9:41)
At that moment, the weather was
very hot and people of Madina was ready to harvest the palm-dates. These are
the challenges that Prophet need to face especially when some of the Muslims
declined to join the battle. Most of them were the hypocrites (Munafik) that
refused to join the battle gave excuse that the weather was so hot that they
couldn’t bear to travel all the way to Tabuk. Then, Ka’b, Hilal and Mararah, the
three sahabah who had full faith in Islam that participated in jihad since the
Battle of Badar decided to join the Battle of Tabuk after collecting their
produce. On the way from Madina to Tabuk, the army of Islam was faced with
great difficulties but they welcomed all the hardships that came in their way.
However, when the army of Islam
arrived in Tabuk, there were no traces of the Roman army could be seen. It
appears that the commanders of Roman army became aware of the bravery of the
Muslim army and became so frightened. They recalled their army from fighting in
the battle. So, there was no war. Then, the army of Islam return to Madina to
revive its strength after facing all the difficulties while performing the
journey. When Prophet returned to Madina, the three sahabah (Ka’b, Hilal and
Mararah) were still busy in their trade and not kept their promise to
participate in jihad. These three sahabah welcomed the Prophet in Madina but
the Prophet reprimanded and ordered the people of Madina to cut off all
relations with them.
Social boycott by the people of
Madina lowered their spirits. Their nearest relatives cut off relationship with
them and refrained from visiting their houses. Then, they repented before Allah
SWT of their cowardly act. Allah SWT also accepted their repentance and
informed His Prophet that they had been forgiven. The Prophet immediately
terminated the orders to boycott the three sahabah.
From this story, I wanted to
highlight the three sahabah (Ka’b, Hilal and Mararah) who had been promised by
Allah SWT that they will enter His heaven as they had participated in Battle of
Badar, the first battle in Islam. However, as they gained so much respect from
other Muslims when Islam began to expand, during the Battle of Tabuk, they
chose to accumulate their wealth as it was the perfect time to harvest their
produce instead of participating in jihad. The reason why the Prophet punished
these three because he wanted to teach other Muslims that even though Islam was
at the top during that time, they should not neglected the jihad order and istiqamah
(consistent) to sacrifice for the sake of Him.
When I was a student in Japan, I joined a lot of
student activities and sometimes these events involved more than one students’
associations. And yes, my schedules were so hectic that I seldom have my own ‘me’
time. But I enjoyed every second when I joined these kind of activities. After
1 year, I started to feel tired and expect that if I didn’t join to help
the committees, there are still students that are willing to help. So, I slowly started to
skip some of the activities just to have my own ‘me’ time. However, after a while, I felt that I lost myself.
The old me.
The story of the Battle of Tabuk
and verse 41 of Surah At-Tawbah made me question myself what makes me feel so
heavy to istiqamah. Why on the first place I joined students’ association here? Is it just
to make people see me as an active student? Is it because of Allah? Then, I
realized that this is how Allah SWT test us just like in verse 41 of Surah
At-Tawbah, “Go forth, whether light or heavy”.
Then He continued in verse 41, “strive
with your wealth and your lives in the cause of Allah. That is better for you,
if you only knew.” Unfortunately, we don’t know. We don’t know if we can get
back the same amount of money that we spent for good. We don’t know if we
can have again the same amount of time that we spent for the sake of Allah SWT.
But He knew. All sacrifices that we have done for Him, He will never neglected
it and He had planned the right timing to reward His slaves. If only we keep on
going through light and heavy with full of patience. And also if only we stop making
excuses and keep on doing our works just for Him.
The story of three sahabah above
taught us that there are no big or small sacrifices. All sacrifices are
measured based on our intentions (niat). Only Allah SWT can judge our
sacrifices. Through thick and thin, through light and heavy, don’t stop
sacrificing for the sake of Him. And of course, do not expect any rewards from
other people because sacrifices are so expensive to be paid by them. Just
expect reward from Him either we get it here or later in heaven InsyaAllah. That’s
why He is God.
