Inviting His Family to Islam

After becoming the Nabi of Allah Ta‘ala, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) invited people to Islam in secret for three years. After three years, Allah Ta‘ala revealed the following verse of the Qur’aan Majeed to Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam), commanding him to openly invite people to Islam. Allah Ta‘ala said:

فَاصۡدَعۡ بِمَا تُؤۡمَرُ وَ اَعۡرِضۡ عَنِ الۡمُشۡرِکِیۡنَ ﴿۹۴﴾

Allah Ta‘ala also revealed verses commanding Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) to invite his family relatives to Islam. Allah Ta‘ala said:

وَ اَنۡذِرۡ عَشِیۡرَتَکَ  الۡاَقۡرَبِیۡنَ ﴿۲۱۴﴾ۙ

After this verse was revealed, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) called Hazrat Ali (radhiyallahu ‘anhu) and asked him to bring some grain, the shoulder of a goat, and a bowl of milk. Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) then told him to go and call all the children of Muttalib, because these were his close relatives. When Hazrat Ali (radhiyallahu ‘anhu) called them, then forty people came. Among these people were his uncles, Abu Taalib, Hazrat Hamzah (radhiyallahu ‘anhu), Hazrat Abbaas (radhiyallahu ‘anhu) and Abu Lahab.

Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) broke the meat into pieces, placed it in a bowl and presented it before his family to eat. He gave them the meat and said, “Take the name of Allah Ta‘ala and start eating.” Allah Ta‘ala placed so much of barakah in the meat that even though it was just the shoulder of one goat, all forty people ate from it and there was still some left over!

Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) then served the milk to them, and even though it was only one bowl of milk, there was so much of barakah that all forty people drank from it until they were full!

After they had eaten, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) wanted to speak to them and invite them to Islam. However, at that time, his evil uncle, Abu Lahab, addressed the others and said, “O people! Wake up and leave! Muhammed (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) has cast a magic spell on the food today, and we have never seen a spell like this before.” As soon as Abu Lahab said this, the people woke up and went away, and Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) did not get a chance to speak to them.

The next day, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) again prepared food and called his family relatives. This time, after they had eaten, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) addressed them and invited them to Islam saying, “What I am going to present before you is so excellent and good that no person has presented anything better than it to his people. I have come to inform you about this world and the next world.”

From this incident, we learn that just as we must try to be good Muslims, we must also worry about other people, especially our family and relatives. We must speak to them about Allah Ta‘ala, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) and deen. By doing this, our imaan will become strong and their imaan will also become strong.

We also learn that if people do not want to listen to us when we talk to them about Allah Ta‘ala and deen, then we must not give up. We must keep trying, because this will make Allah Ta‘ala happy. Insha Allah, one day, Allah Ta‘ala will change their hearts so that they will listen and will become good Muslims.