Daily Lesson 169


Virtue 6 – The Sun stood still for a Prophet

Al Quds and the surrounding lands of Al Aqsa have been blessed with many Prophets and many miracles.

One such miracle was the stopping of time in the time of Prophet Yusha عليه السلام!

Nabi Yusha عليه السلام, who was a descendant of Nabi Yusuf عليه السلام, was given the responsibility to march an army into Jerusalem and conquer it. They marched in on Friday and needed to conquer it before sunset as on Saturday they were forbidden to work or fight!

They were close to victory but so was the sun from setting.

So Nabi Yusha’ عليه السلام looked towards the sun and said that you are subservient to Allah and so am I. And then turning to Allah he said, ‘O Allah, stop it for me a little.’

His dua was accepted and the sun stopped for him until Allah granted him victory…” [Muslim]

Our Beloved Nabi ﷺ said regarding this incident:
“The sun was not held back for any person except for Nabi Yusha عليه السلام…..” (Ahmad)

This is another unique blessing bestowed on the lands which contain Al Masjid Al Aqsa!

How much would you pay for a dead goat?

Sayyiduna Jabir Ibn Abdullah رضي الله عنه reports an incident in the time of our beloved Nabi ﷺ.

He says once some companions were out walking with our beloved Nabi ﷺ when they passed by the marketplace. There, on the side of the road, they found a baby goat which was dead and had only one ear.

Our beloved Nabi ﷺ stopped and reached out to take the goat by its ear and asked the companions:
“Which one of you would like to buy this for one coin?”

The companions quickly replied saying who would buy such a goat? It is worthless. It has only one ear which means it was an abnormal goat and with this it is dead! What would anyone do with such a goat?!

Our beloved Nabi ﷺ asked again three times:
“Would anyone like to have it?”,
“Would anyone like to have it?”,
“Would anyone like to have it?”.

The companions each time replied saying. “No, by Allah, if it was alive we would not buy it as it has only one ear!” They continued to explain, “Being dead, it is even more worthless! How so if it was dead?”.

Our beloved Nabi ﷺ seeing they had truly released the value of this goat turned their attention to a very important matter and said, “By Allah, the worldly life is even less important to Allah Ta’ala than this goat is to you.”

Based on a Hadeeth in Al-Adab al-Mufrad

Moral:

From this story, we understand in reality how worthless this world is. No one will invest in a dead animal as it will bring no benefit to them. Worse still if the animal was defected.

Likewise no matter how wonderful this world and everything in it seems, in reality, it is just like that dead goat. When we reach the hereafter and see Jannah we will truly realise how worthless this world really was.

To read last week’s hadeeth lesson on ‘We are all travellers’ Click here