The story of Abu Dar(Zar)(RA)

[This story is adopted from a lecture of Imam Anwar Al Awlaki]
Abu Dar ( Ra ) stated that “Me, my brother and my mother left our land of Gifar because our people used to be disrespectful of the Ashru Hurm.” Al Ashru Hurm was the four month which Arba People considered to be sacered and they dont engage themselves in any warfare in these month. However the people of Gifar from where Abu Dar (Ra) belongs dont care about this rule. So Abu Dar (Ra) left Gifar. Unlike other Arab beduin Abu Dar don’t worship idols. And he worshipped Allah. Later He know about Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) and some of His teaching from his brother Unais. Unais also told him that people of Mecca tell him sorcerer and Magician. In reply Abu Dar told “You haven’t satisfied my hunger , I want to go and investigate the matter myself”. So he went to Mecca to meet Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) and that is what we muslim need to do. We need to verify ourselves.
So Abu Dar went to Mecca and asked a people of Mecca about Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam). That man started calling the Quraish and together they start beating him until he fell unconcious. By the time he woke he was covered with blood from head to toe. So he went to Zamzam washed himself and drank water then he went to Al Kaaba and stayed there for thirty days without any food except the water of ZamZam. Later he met Muhammad (Sallallah Alaihi Wa Sallam) and Abu Bakr (Ra). Rasul (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam ) asked him where he belongs and surprised to know that he is coming from Gifar only for searching the truth. So Abu Dar (Ra) embraced Islam and he was told by Muhammad (Sallalllahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) to keep it secret. But the next day he publicly “AshaduAllah Al La Ila Illallah Wa Ashadunna Muhammadur Rasulullah”. So he doesn’t care about the consequences. The people started to beat him so bad that he was gonna die until Abbas Bin Abdul Mutallib told them he is from Gifar. Then they ran away from him. The next day same thing happened again with a new group of people until Abbas Bin Abdul Mutallib told them he is from Gifar. The ran away because they thought that if they killed Abu Dar (Ra) his tribe from Gifar would attack their Caravan. The same things happens for a few days. In the mean time Abu Dar (Ra) know a few Ayah from Rasul (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) and he was told by Rasul (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) to convey the message to the people of Gifar. He lived with Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) for a quite a short term. Probably he doesn’t learn a lot about Islam just a few Ayah, hadith and some basics of Islam. He went back to his people in Gifar and giving them dawah slowly and slowly they become muslim. At time of Hizrah half of them become Muslim and other half promised to be Muslim when the Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) arrived and meet with them and later they did.So the whole of tribe become Muslim. There was a rivalry between Gifar and Aslam. When the people of Aslam heard about the Gifar become Muslim they came to Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) and also became Muslim. All of it started because of one man’s(Abu Dar) work and that time he was not a scholar. Later on he learned a lot about Islam but at that stage he just spent a few days with Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) and learn a few things about Islam.

So from this story we can learn that

1. The one who search for guidance Allah will give it to them.

2. Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) says “Convey even one verse from me”. So it is not necessary that we need to be a professional Dayeh or a Scholar to give Dawah to people rather we can share what we learn with our brother and sister. However we have to remember we can’t tell our own word and we have to tell the people about Quran and Sunnah.

3. We have to be couregious Muslim.

4. We have to verify the truth we cant blindly beleive what people say we have to verify Allah has given us mind, Allah has given us intelligence which we need to use. Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) said “Don’t be an Immaa” and when he asked about the meaning of Immaa he said that Immaa refers to someone whenever people say yes he say yes and whenever people say no he say no.

5. Everything good is significant whereever it is little or huge. For example Abu Dar (Ra) lerned very little in his earlier Muslim and all he wanted is to propagate the message and ended up to become making two tribes of Arab muslim. So if we throw the seed of good, then Allah will make it grow.

Allah knows the best.