Mu'min Al Yasin was a righteous man who lived in a village in the
Levant, said to be Antioch. He is mentioned without being named in the Quran:
"And there came running from the farthest part of the town, a man, saying,
'O my people! Obey the Messengers'" (Surat Yasin: 20)
God described the state of the village where this believing man
lived: "And put forward to them a similitude; the (story of the) dwellers
of the town, [It is said that the town was Antioch (Antakiya), when there came
messengers to 13 When We sent to them two messengers, they belied them both, so
We reinforced them with a third, and they said, "Verily! We have been sent
to you as messengers." 14. They (people of the town) said, "You are
only human beings like ourselves, and the Most Beneficent (Allah) has revealed
nothing; you are only telling lies." 15 The Messengers said, "Our
Lord knows that we have been sent as messengers to you. 16 And our duty is only
to convey plainly (the Message). 17 They (people) said: "For us, we see an
evil omen from you; if you cease not, we will surely stone you, and a painful
torment will touch you from us." 18 They (Messengers) said:
"Your evil omens be with you! (Do you call it an 'evil omen') because you
are admonished? Nay, but you are a people. Musrifun (transgressing all bounds
by committing all kinds of great sins and by disobeying Allah 19” (Surat Yasin:
13-19) In these verses, God tells us that He sent two messengers to the people
of a town, calling them to worship God alone and to abandon the worship of
idols that can neither harm nor benefit them. The townspeople immediately
rejected them, so God reinforced them with a third messenger. When the
disbelieving townspeople uttered their denials, their messengers told them,
"We are God's messengers to you. If we were lying to Him, He would have
punished us severely. But He will give us victory and support us against you,
and you will soon know to whom the ultimate reward belongs." However, the
townspeople persisted in their transgression and began to take these messengers
as omens, saying, "If any harm befalls us, it is because of you. If you do
not desist, we will stone you, and you will suffer a severe punishment from
us." Their messengers replied, "Your pessimism will be turned back
upon you. You only confronted us with such words, threats, and intimidation
because we reminded you and commanded you to worship God alone and to be
sincere in your worship of Him. Indeed, you are a transgressing people."
Because of your pessimism, disbelief, and corruption.
And God provided these messengers with someone to defend them. A
man came from the farthest part of the city, striving to support them from
among his people. When his people plotted to kill the messengers, he came to
them and admonished them in the best possible way, reminding them of God's
right to be worshipped and glorified. They killed him, but his soul departed
only to Paradise, which he entered. Regarding this, God says to him, "It
was said (to him when the disbelievers killed him): "Enter Paradise."
He said, "Would that my people knew!'" (Surat Ya-Sin: 26). When he
entered Paradise and witnessed the honor God bestowed upon him for his faith
and patience, he said, "Oh, if only my people knew that the reason my Lord
forgave my sins and made me one of those whom God honored by admitting me to
His Paradise was my faith in God and my patience in Him until I was killed in
His cause. Then they would believe in God and enter Paradise." This is
God's promise to those who strive in His cause: Paradise, where they live and
are provided for. "Think not of those who are killed in the Way of Allah
as dead. Nay, they are alive with their Lord, and they have provision (Surat Al
Imran 3:169).
Allah Almighty said, "And We sent not against his people
after him a host from heaven, nor do We send (such a thing). 28. It was but one
Saihah (shout, etc.), and lo! They (all) were silent (dead-destroyed). 29 Alas
for mankind! There never came a messenger to them but they used to mock him. 30
Do they not see how many of the generations we have destroyed before them?
Verily, they will not return to them. 31 And surely, all, every one of them,
will be brought before Us” 32 (Surat Ya-Sin: 28-32). The verses show that their
destruction and ruin did not warrant the descent of angels from heaven. Rather,
it was a single cry, whether earthly or heavenly, or from Gabriel, peace be
upon him, by which they lost both this world and the Hereafter and were
transferred from the punishment of this world. And their torment is likened to
the punishment of the Hereafter and its Hell. This is to humiliate them. So
where is their threat, where is their warning, and where is the triumph of
falsehood and the flourishing of the wrongdoers?
The story of the believer from the family of Yasin serves as a
guiding light for preachers on how to persevere in their mission, enduring
hardships for its success and its delivery to people, even if the price is
self-sacrifice. The believer from the family of Yasin sacrificed himself for
the sake of the mission, not content with calling his people to Islam while he
was alive but hoping for their guidance after they killed him.
The story also shows that the fate of believers and disbelievers
does not differ from one people to another, nor from one era to another.
Believers view this world as a place of testing and a transient station on the
way to the Hereafter, focusing on God's pleasure, while disbelievers see this
world as the ultimate goal, drowning in its pleasures and desires, and
neglecting the reality of the Hereafter. Believers find in seeing God in this
world a form of knowledge. And love, and they will see it in the Hereafter as
an unparalleled bliss, while the deniers see that their hearts have been veiled
by the sins they have committed, preventing them from seeing it in the Hereafter.
Therefore, the believers sell themselves and their wealth to God, content and
reassured that Paradise is theirs. Martyrdom in the cause of God is the
ultimate goal they ask of Him.
The story clarifies that many people think that one who dies in bed, surrounded by his wife and children, dies a comfortable death, as if he experiences only a slight throe of death. They believe that one who is killed in the cause of God, the Exalted, experiences the throes of death intensely. In reality, it is the one who dies in bed who experiences the most severe pain. It is authentically narrated: “The martyr does not feel the pain of being killed except as one of you feels the touch of a pinch.” (Narrated by Abu Qatada; Source: Sahih al-Jami’; Authenticated by al-Albani). It was also narrated that Ali ibn Abi Talib used to urge people to fight, saying, "Fight, for if you do not fight, you will die in your beds. By Him in whose hand is my soul, a thousand sword blows are easier than dying in bed." There is no way to escape the throes of death except by being granted martyrdom. Indeed, the rank of martyrdom with God Almighty and the status of martyrs are qualities that every believer desires. Our master, the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, enumerated these qualities in what was narrated on the authority of Al-Miqdam bin Ma’di Karib, who said, “The martyr has six qualities with God: he is forgiven with the first flow of blood, he sees his place in Paradise, he is protected from the torment of the grave, he is safe from the Great Terror, a crown of dignity is placed on his head, a single ruby of which is better than this world and all that is in it, he is married to seventy-two wives from among the houris, and he intercedes for seventy of his relatives.” (Source: Sahih Al-Tirmidhi; Summary of the Hadith scholar’s ruling (Al-Albani): Sahih).
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