Bahairah- The Monk who met
The Messenger Of Allah (Peace and blessings be upon him).
Abu Taalib would often travel to Ash-Sham (Syria and
surrounding regions) and elsewhere for business purposes. On
one such journey, he took the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) along with him; also
accompanying them were Makkah’s chieftains.
When their caravan overlooked the monastery of the monk Buhairah, they
made camp and began to unload some of their supplies.
Meanwhile, to their surprise, Buhairah was coming out to meet
them. What was so surprising was that though they had
frequently stopped beside his monastery on previous business
trips, he would never come out to meet them or even pay any
attention to them at all.
As they were removing some of their things, Buhairah began to
walk among them, until he reached the Messenger of Allah (Peace and blessings be upon him)
when he stopped, took the Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) by the hand, and
exclaimed, “This is the chief of ‘Alaameen (i.e., mankind, jinns,
etc.).
This is the Messenger of the Lord of all that exists. Allah will
send him as a (form of) mercy to all that exists’ The chieftains of
the Quraish said, “And what makes you know this?” He said,
“When you overlooked (this place), as you were arriving from
‘Aqaba, every single tree and stone (in the area) fell down in
prostration, and they do not perform prostration for anyone except
a Prophet. And indeed, I know him from the seal of Prophethood
that resembles an apple (in shape) and that is located below his
shoulder blade’
He returned to his monastery for a while in order to prepare food
for them. When he returned with the food, the Messenger of Allah (Peace and blessings be upon him) was busy watching over their camels. Buhairah requested that
they call him to join them in their meal. He came to them, and there
was a cloud above him giving him shade. When he arrived, he
found that everyone else had beaten him to the shade of the tree;
nonetheless, when he sat down, the shade moved towards him and
covered him. Seeing this, Buhairah said, “Look! The shade of the
tree has moved to cover him’
Buhairah told Abu Taalib and the other chieftains that they
should return with the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) to their homeland; he
particularly pleaded with them not to take him to the lands of
the Romans, for if the Romans were to know about him and were
to see the signs of his Prophethood, they would certainly kill him.
As he was explaining this to them, he turned around and saw
seven Romans approaching. He went to them and asked them
what they wanted. They said, “News has reached us that the
(awaited) Prophet is coming out during this month. Every road
has been blocked with guards, and we were sent to watch over
this road’ Buhairah said to them, “Suppose Allah wants a matter
to be fulfilled; can any person prevent that from happening?”
They said, “No.” He said, “Then pledge allegiance to him.” They
then joined the chieftains of the Quraish and did no harm to the
Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him)
But by this point, Buhairah was becoming very
worried; he had managed to convince these guards to leave the
Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) alone, but there was no telling whether more guards
were on the way or whether the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) would be identified at
a Roman checkpoint. And so he said to the chieftains of the
Quraish, “I insist that you tell me who his guardian is.” They said,
“Abu Taalib is his guardian.” Buhairah then continued to plead
with Abu Taalib until the latter finally took his advice to heart and
sent the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) back home to Makkah”
The story of Buhairah provides us with many insights into the life
of the Prophet(Peace and blessings be upon him)
First, we learn that not all priests and rabbis distorted their
revealed books. There were some among them, albeit very few in
number, who were sincere and truthful, and who openly
acknowledged that Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) was indeed a Messenger to
all of mankind; they knew this from the signs and descriptions
that they found in their revealed books.
Second, by the command of Allah, inanimate objects would
honour the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) , a fact that is established in various
narrations. Some narrations describe how a particular stone
would greet the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) , one particular narration describes
how a tree wept when the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) stopped delivering sermons
beside it; and the above-mentioned narration describes how trees
and stones performed prostration to the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) as a way of
honouring him.
Third, as precocious as he was by inherent nature, the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him)
also benefited from accompanying his uncle on business trips and benefited from the
experiences and knowledge of wise men from both the Quraish
and foreign tribes.
Fourth, Buhairah knew that if the Romans found out about the
Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) they would kill him. This was significant because, at
the time, the Roman Empire extended into the lands of the Arabs,
particularly Ash-Sham (Syria and surroundings regions). And so
the Romans knew that the awaited Messenger, who was to come
from the Arabs, would bring an end to their imperial control over
the region. Since the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) was a threat to the interests of
their empire, Romans both feared him and ardently desired to
first find him and then kill him.
”Indeed,Allah and His angels send blessings on the Prophet: O you who have believed, Send ye blessings on him, and salute him with all respect” [33:56]
