Ali ibn Abi Talib
علي بن أبي طالبCompanion · Fourth Caliph
Biography
Cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet ﷺ, the first child to accept Islam.
Stories
The Angels at Badr: Hayzum, Abbas, Zubayr's Turban, and the Lesson of Tawakkul
spiritualDr. Yasir Qadhi narrates the miraculous angelic assistance at Badr, specific incidents witnessed by Companions, the theological framework behind it, a…
Read the full story →The Muslim Army Formation at Badr: Flanks, Flag, Wells, and Headquarters
militaryDr. Yasir Qadhi narrates the Prophet's ﷺ military organization upon arrival at the plains of Badr and two key decisions, the wells strategy and the he…
Read the full story →The Battle Begins: Umayr's Dates, the Prophet's Commands, and Fighting from the Tent
militaryDr. Yasir Qadhi narrates the opening moments of the Battle of Badr and the Prophet's ﷺ own role in the fighting, a topic that generated scholarly disc…
Read the full story →The Mobilization for Badr: Army, Leadership, and the Plan That Changed
militaryDr. Yasir Qadhi describes the Prophet's ﷺ mobilization for what would become the Battle of Badr, with the critical insight that it was *not* planned t…
Read the full story →The Mubarazah: The Pre-Battle Duels at Badr
militaryDr. Yasir Qadhi narrates the first casualties of Badr and the Mubārazah, the pre-battle duels that were the traditional Arabian opening to any major e…
Read the full story →The Dinner of the Banu Hashim: The First Open Preaching
storyWhen Allah revealed: وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ, "And warn your closest relatives" (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:214), the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم unde…
Read the full story →The Death of Abū Ṭālib, Deathbed Scene and Theological Lessons
storySpeaker introduction: Dr. Yasir Qadhi covers the death of Abū Ṭālib in full detail, working from the account in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, then addressing the…
Read the full story →Arriving at Quba and Building the First Masjid
story**Arrival Date** There is genuine scholarly uncertainty about the exact date the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Madinah. The 12th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal is frequent…
Read the full story →The Prophet Departs Makkah: The Noon Visit, the Belt, and the Farewell
storyThis is ʿĀʾishah's narration in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, her earliest memory of the Hijrah, told from the perspective of a girl of six or seven, sitting insi…
Read the full story →Umar's Public Hijrah: The Challenge at the Ka'bah
storyʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated: "I do not know of anyone who performed the Hijrah publicly except for ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb." Every other Muslim who emig…
Read the full story →The Prisoners of Badr: Abu Bakr vs Umar and the Quranic Correction
historicalThe Tribute to Mutim ibn Adi Before deciding the fate of the prisoners, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa-sallam walked among them surveying their fac…
Read the full story →The Two Executions at Badr: An-Nadr ibn Al-Harith and Uqbah ibn Abi Muayt
historicalThree Wisdoms of Allah's Correction on Prisoners The previous lesson established that Allah corrected the Prophet's decision to ransom the Badr priso…
Read the full story →The Status of the Badr Veterans: Jibreel's Question, Harithah's Mother, and the Hatib Precedent
spiritualThe Jibrīl Question Imām al-Bukhārī records a remarkable exchange in which Jibrīl came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked: 'How do you view the people of Bad…
Read the full story →Opening Phase of the Battle of Uhud
historical**Abu Dujana Takes the Sword** On the morning of the 15th of Shawwāl, as the sun rose on the Saturday, the Prophet ﷺ turned to the army to inspire th…
Read the full story →Fatimah Treats the Prophet's Wounds; the Ansari Women at Uhud
battleShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: By the time the Prophet (ﷺ) returned home to Medina, he had been bleeding from his facial wounds for hours, likely half…
Read the full story →The Expedition to Hamra al-Asad
battleShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Concerned that the retreating Quraysh might regroup and turn back to finish what they started, the Prophet (ﷺ) announced…
Read the full story →Zaynab bint Khuzaymah, Umm al-Masakin, and Her Remarkable Family
companion biographyShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: ZAYNAB BINT KHUZAYMAH Zaynab bint Khuzaymah al-Hilāliyyah, of the Banū Hilāl of Najd rather than Quraysh, was already k…
Read the full story →The Second Badr (Badr al-Maw'id)
battleShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: At the close of the Battle of Uḥud, Abū Sufyān had proposed the two sides meet again a year later at Badr to settle matt…
Read the full story →The Birth and Naming of Hasan ibn Ali
companion biographyShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The Prophet's (ﷺ) first grandson, born to ʿAlī and Fāṭimah, is most likely dated to Shaʿbān of the fifth year of the Hij…
Read the full story →The Prophecy of Hasan and the Fifth Caliph
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The Prophet's (ﷺ) affection for al-Ḥasan is recorded in multiple settings, famously interrupting a khuṭbah mid-sentence…
Read the full story →The Prophet Consults Ali, Usamah, and Barirah
companion biographyShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: While ʿĀʾishah remained at her parents' house, itself roughly a forty-minute walk from the center of Madinah, giving the…
Read the full story →Ali's Duel with Amr ibn Abd Wudd
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Despite gathering by far the largest army ever assembled against the Muslims, the Confederates suffered, and inflicted,…
Read the full story →Ali's Flag, the Siege of Qurayzah, and Failed Negotiations
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, sent ahead of the main force, planted the war banner outside Banū Qurayẓah's fortress, every Yahūd t…
Read the full story →Suhayl's Terms and the Arrival of Abu Jandal
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Suhayl, the ablest orator and negotiator of Quraysh (Khaṭīb Quraysh) and a member of its council, came with authority an…
Read the full story →The Terms of the Treaty, and the Two Camps of Arabia
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The treaty's terms, dictated largely by Suhayl and written by ʿAlī, were: a ten-year truce with no fighting between the…
Read the full story →Ali and the Banner of Khaybar
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: **TEN DAYS AT AL-NĀʿIM** The tribes of Khaybar locked themselves inside their separate fortresses, and therein lay thei…
Read the full story →The Prophet's ﷺ Consolation of Ja'far's Family
companion biographyShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: **FEED THE GRIEVING, DON'T BE FED BY THEM** The Prophet ﷺ ordered that food be prepared for Jaʿfar's household, iṣnaʿū…
Read the full story →Abu Sufyan Pleads for the Treaty in Medina
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Realising the treaty was broken, Quraysh sent Abū Sufyān to Medina to beg its renewal, the chief who for a decade had en…
Read the full story →Hatib's Letter to the Quraysh
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Once the Prophet ﷺ finally named Makkah as the destination, one of the Companions, Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah, moved to warn…
Read the full story →The Keys Returned to Uthman ibn Talhah
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The Prophet ﷺ still held the keys of the Kaʿbah in his hand. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib asked him to join the *siqāyah* and the…
Read the full story →Umm Hani's Protection, and the Duha Prayer
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Among the last converts was Umm Hāniʾ bint Abī Ṭālib, cousin of the Prophet ﷺ and full sister of ʿAlī, who accepted Isla…
Read the full story →Khalid's Error at Banu Jadhimah
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The greatness of the Conquest was marred by one companion's mistake. Khālid ibn al-Walīd, a Muslim of only weeks, was se…
Read the full story →Hunayn: The Ambush and the Rally
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: At twelve thousand, never so many before, a Muslim boasted, "How can we be beaten today?" The Prophet ﷺ rebuked it, tell…
Read the full story →Miracles with Inanimate Objects: Stones and Food That Spoke
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The first category is miracles with inanimate things, not animals, food, or drink, but stones and the like. In Ṣaḥīḥ al-…
Read the full story →Miraculous Healing: Qatādah's Eye and ʿAlī at Khaybar
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The seventh category is instantaneous healing, the sick cured on the spot, the wounded made whole. **Qatādah's eye at U…
Read the full story →Ali Left in Charge of the Prophet's Household
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: **Two responsibilities in Medina** The expedition would keep the army away more than a month, close to two, so the Prop…
Read the full story →The Christians of Najran and the Mubahalah
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The last incident, and one of the most interesting: the delegation of the Christians of Najrān, a famous province of Ara…
Read the full story →The Gift of Maria al-Qibtiyyah
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Today's lesson is a tangent, catching up on things in the life of the Prophet ﷺ that the five weeks of Tabūk and the yea…
Read the full story →The revelation of Sūrat al-Tawbah, barāʾah from the idolaters
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: As soon as Abū Bakr had left Medina, within a few hours, before he had even reached the *mīqāt* of Dhū al-Ḥulayfah, whic…
Read the full story →ʿAlī conveys al-Barāʾah, and the four proclamations at Minā
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: This ninth-year Ḥajj was the one and only time in all of history that Muslims and idolaters performed Ḥajj side by side,…
Read the full story →The Farewell Ḥajj, the great gathering and the tamattuʿ
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: When exactly Allāh revealed the obligation of Ḥajj is a genuinely difficult question, tied to a classic point of fiqh: m…
Read the full story →The ḥadīth of Jābir, the rites of the Farewell Ḥajj
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: From the 8th onward the books of Sīrah and Ḥadīth carry hundreds of narrations of what he ﷺ did at each moment of the Ḥa…
Read the full story →Ghadīr Khumm and the honouring of ʿAlī
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: One final incident of the Ḥajj must be mentioned, for it is a major point of controversy between the Sunni and Shīʿa sch…
Read the full story →Abū Bakr is told to lead the prayer
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Around the fifth day of his sickness, six or seven days before he passed, he asked for buckets of water from a particula…
Read the full story →The burial, and the grief of Medina
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: So many elegies were written, *rithāʾ*, the poetry of mourning and praise for the departed, by Ḥassān ibn Thābit, poet o…
Read the full story →The Legacy of Abdul-Muttalib
'Abdul-Muttalib: We have already known that after the death of Hashim, the charge of pilgrims' food and water went to his brother Al-Muttalib bin 'Abd…
Read the full story →The Hijrah
The Quraysh, realizing the Muslims had found a new base, plotted to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. They selected a young man from each clan to strike him…
Read the full story →The Private Dawah: The First Muslims
storyThe first phase of the Dawah was not public. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم moved carefully, privately, speaking only to those who were closest to him…
Read the full story →The Night Before Badr: The Prophet's Vigil, the Rain, and the Dream
spiritualDr. Yasir Qadhi narrates the night before the Battle of Badr, a night of extraordinary spiritual intensity, Divine mercy, and Prophetic vigil. **The…
Read the full story →Historical context
Hijrah as Fard Ayn: The Quranic Verses, the Abrogation, and the Fiqh of Muslim Minorities
historical note**Hijrah Was Obligatory** At the time of the Hijrah, emigrating from Makkah to Madinah was not a personal choice for Muslims. It was *farḍ ʿayn*, a p…
Read the historical context →The Establishment of the Islamic Hijri Calendar
historical note**The Arab Calendar Problem** Before the Hijra, the Arabs had no unified calendar. Unlike the Romans and Persians who had developed centralized calen…
Read the historical context →The Islamic Calendar and the Virtue of Muḥarram
historical noteThis note was given in response to an audience question about the 10th of Muḥarram at the end of the lecture. It is a Fiqh and Islamic history note, n…
Read the historical context →The Custody Dispute Over Umarah bint Hamzah
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: **A CHILD RUNS AFTER THE CARAVAN** As the Muslims left Mecca, a girl of six or seven ran after them calling out to be t…
Read the historical context →Those Not Granted Amnesty
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Before entering, the Prophet ﷺ named a handful, the books give six to nine, who were not covered by the amnesty: "kill t…
Read the historical context →Nineteen Days at al-Hujun
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The Prophet ﷺ stayed in Mecca nineteen days (per al-Bukhārī). Asked where he would live, ʿAlī said, "Will you not return…
Read the historical context →Governors, Teachers, and the Idols Cast Down
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Through the remaining months, the Prophet ﷺ subdued the smaller tribes and, for the first time, organized the state on p…
Read the historical context →Destroying the Idols, and the Freedom of Worship in an Islamic State
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: In the roughly six months between the Siege of Ṭāʾif and the Expedition of Tabūk, the Prophet ﷺ sent out seven or eight…
Read the historical context →Why Surat at-Tawbah Has No Basmalah, and Who Ordered the Quran
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Before walking through the verses themselves, some background on the sūrah that carries the story of Tabūk. Sūrat al-Taw…
Read the historical context →The Grave of the Prophet ﷺ and His Two Companions
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The Prophet ﷺ was buried where he slept, Abū Bakr had reported that he ﷺ said the prophets are buried where they die, so…
Read the historical context →The Qirtas and the Question of Succession
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The death of the Prophet ﷺ and what followed is where the Sunnī–Shīʿah split begins, and one cannot treat the Qirṭās wit…
Read the historical context →Why the Fitna Among the Companions Is Left Alone
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Asked whether ʿAlī gave the bayʿah, and asked often to teach the Khulafāʾ al-Rāshidūn in detail, the shaykh explains why…
Read the historical context →