Background
During early post-shahada days, I listened to Sh. Hamza Yusef’s Capetown Muslim Events seerah series, and as rich and compelling as the whole series is, his relaying of some events is especially moving. One of those is the story of the lost necklace of a young Aisha radiyallahu anha*, her recovery of which resulted in her separation from and accompanied return to the caravan (upon the expedition of Sons of Mustaliq), and the slanderous and redemptive events that unfolded from that incident. Sayyida Aisha’s integrity was attacked with rumor whispering so offensive as to inspire direct revelation of the verses of Surat an-Nur which not only cleared her character, but fully reprimanded those who engaged in the falsehoods, underscoring their gravity in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, and established clear law around accusations of infidelity against chastity with severe penalties for unfounded slander and its spread. This post will not relay these events, but even to those already familiar, a refresh listen* is strongly encouraged.
The intimate nature of these rumors and their impact upon the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam and his wife Aisha r.a. made them dangerous for several reasons, considering the exceptionally high standard of his life in all aspects as exemplary for not only the companions of the time, but the entire ummah ever thereafter. That the Prophet ﷺ was put in a position which forced upon him such a questioning of one so dear to him must have been difficult for him in a deeply personal way, even as its addressing was by necessity so public. And we know from the accounts of Sayyida Aisha r.a. how devastating it was for her to learn of these accusations, compounded further by the shocking uncertainty they seemed to effectively stir in those closest to her – her loving parents and her beloved husband, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. We can only imagine the intensity of the encounter as related, the four of them gathered in her room, herself emerging from severe physical illness, just as she is asked about the truth of an incident which had become grotesquely disfigured by the sick of heart.
We know the outcome, and we understand the critical lessons in it for the companions and our ummah in posterity, how from a monstrous thing emerged a thing of great benefit, the value of which is clear and has been well expressed over time. The lesson of tawwakul – of firmness of faith, trust, and total reliance in Allah that Sayyida Aisha r.a. embodied during that pivotal questioning – is undeniably powerful, but there is a subtle aspect of it which occurred to me only upon reflection over time, a particular lesson related to misplaced attachments of the heart. What follows may seem a tangent but stay with me inshaAllah…
Girls and women are in some ways especially susceptible to misplaced attachments of the heart, because of the way we are acculturated from a very young age to orient ourselves (our needs) around, and secondarily to, the happiness (and needs) of others, in such way as our overall worth comes to be measured by the degree to which we serve, nurture, raise up, and fulfill the needs of those around us, our families, spouses, even our work teams and communities. Our ‘goodness’ as women is assessed and evidenced by the extent to which the successful aspirations of those around us are realized by way of our care. Unchecked, this solicits a sort of plucking out of our own core center as a vehicle of our own aspiration and transcendent connection and dropping it into someone(s) else who we then orbit in service around – a spouse, children, parents, etc for whom we take up caretaking responsibility. Or, seen another way, it begs a displacement of the space we are meant to hold and reserve in the core of our heart only for Allah SWT, to become devoted instead to serving the needs of His creation as manifest by these dunya-y relationships, which, important and invaluable as they are, were never meant to compete with our relationship with our Creator. This dynamic, though, is so pervasive among women in particular that it becomes the subject of so many of our talks, courses, personal development and spiritual healing practice (just ask the likes of Ustadah Yasmin Mogahed and those who do similar heart work).
Crucible
With that in mind, let us return to a teenaged Aisha r.a. in that crucible with her parents and her beloved Messenger of Allah ﷺ… Upon confirming from her peers the unassailability of her character and behavior, the Prophet ﷺ had gathered the people to address the situation publicly in her defense and in admonition of the maligning. And then privately in the intimacy of her room, her parents present, he expressed the likes of the following to her, ‘If you have done nothing wrong, then Allah will tell us, but if you did even the slightest of inappropriate things, if you ask Allah for forgiveness, and make tawbah to Him, then Allah will forgive you.‘
Aisha r.a. searched the faces of her parents imploring them/her father to answer him, unable to believe what was happening, and crushed by any suggestion of doubt. They offered nothing, uncertainty. She responded with the likes of, ‘If I say that I didn’t do anything wrong, and Allah knows, then you won’t believe me anyway because you’ve listened to all these people.‘ – ie., Just the fact that you’re asking, however gently, means that you’ve allowed this thing to affect you. – ‘And if I admit, which is seemingly what you want me to do, then I’m telling a lie and I cannot do that‘. In recalling much later, she says, ‘I was a young girl and I couldn’t remember much of the Quran, and I was trying to remember Yusef’s father’s name (Yacoub) and I couldn’t, so I could only say, “Like Abu Yusef said, ‘I can only be patient that Allah gives help over what you’re describing about me'”‘.
(Per Sh. Hamza’s recounting,) A true mu’mina, Aisha r.a. didn’t defend herself, but actually turned on her side, away from the Messenger ﷺ and her parents, and toward Allah. And the revelation came right then, as she lie in a pure state of recognition of sole reliance upon Allah. She’d given up all hope in the creation and turned to the Creator. This was her annihilation. And this is when Surat an-Nur came down to the Prophet ﷺ. Afterward he relayed the content of this momentous revelation to her, in response to which her father encouraged her to get up and thank Rasoolallah. She replied sincerely, ‘I give thanks to no one but Allah‘, so intense was her immersion in the divine presence, and in tawheed in that moment. It was not a negation of her love for the Messenger ﷺ, but an assertion of the primacy of her faith in Allah.
Let us take a step back and consider the exceptional nature of Sayyida Aisha r.a.’s conviction throughout this episode, and what it has to teach us. Here is a very young woman who has only ever substantively known one man outside her formative family – her beloved husband, who showers his sweetest favor upon her, who also happens to be the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and with whom she could not be more in love, a man whose closest, most trusted and longstanding companion is also her own loving father. As if that weren’t enough, because he is Rasoolallah, he is not only the leader of her community, her society, but also the primary conduit and vehicle of the deen – every exposure to and bit of knowledge she has ever acquired of Allah SWT, the nature and practice of His faith in its purest form. This is true for her and everyone she knows. As the most beloved to Allah SWT of all creation, he is as ideal and near-perfect a man as could ever be. If there were ever a more compelling circumstance to lose oneself in or by which to give oneself over to creation as the object of one’s love and devotion – worship even – eclipsing and displacing all else, it’s hard to imagine it. When, as aforementioned, women several times her age and more are chronically beleaguered by this pitfall of misplaced attachment in far less compelling circumstances, were she to have allowed her attachment to him to take root in the core of her heart, who could have faulted her?
And yet she did not allow it. When in her crucible she felt doubted and abandoned by her only worldly sources of love and faith, unassailable as they were in their own right, with stakes so incredibly high, she put her trust in her Rabb. When so many others in her position, and those far more technically mature than she, would have been overcome by a broken heart and a potential shattering of their faith given the exceptional nature of her questioner and his relationship to her Lord, yet and still she held firm in turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala alone as her sole point of reliance for salvation and redemption. Subhanallah.
Truly, la illaha il Allah – there is none worthy of worship but Allah.
Truly, You alone we worship, You alone we ask for help.
Truly, whoever puts their trust in Allah, He alone is sufficient for them.
That Sayyida Aisha r.a. was able to keep Allah directly in the core of her heart, unwaveringly in the face of this calling into question by none other than his very Messenger ﷺ, would seem a huge and powerful lesson to us all from Allah SWT. It really could not have been just a young girl’s natural inclinations, but nothing less than a divinely imparted gift. A gift to the woman and leader and luminary Sayyida Aisha r.a. was written to become. But also a gift to our ummah, so that we might learn and remember that there is no occasion, no circumstance, to allow any illah but Allah to take up residence in the core of our heart, for His is the firmest hand-hold.
And yet, there’s still more…
Light upon light
Surat an-Nur contains not only the verses which clear the name of Sayyida Aisha r.a. and sets clear law forth as a result, but also those for which it is more literally named…
It cannot be accidental that this beautiful verse in all its effusive, evocative radiance follows those revealed by the above-related events. And so we arrive at the thing underneath the thing. Only when our hearts are clean and cleared of dunya-y attachments through total submission and tawwakul can the guiding light of Allah truly illuminate them. Indeed this illumination is our heart’s very design.
Allah is sufficient for me. There is none worthy of worship but Him. I have placed my trust in Him. He is the Lord of the Mighty throne.
Alhamdhulilah for our beautiful hearts and the Light by which they are rightly guided. Alhamdhulilah for Everything.
* Link provided is a youtube excerpt from this seerah series, which can be found in its entirety on SoundCloud (see segments 33-34 beginning here)