The Story of Barsisa of Bani Israel and Us
Hadith.one Editorial
লেখক ও গবেষক
Many of you might have heard the story of Barsisa. Barsisa was a renowned worshipper, a monk, and an ‘Abid’ (devoted servant of Allah) from the Children of Israel. He had his own monastery where he dedicated himself entirely to worship. Once, three men from the Children of Israel were planning to go to Jihad, but they were unsure of where to leave their only sister. They began asking around, "Where can we leave our sister? We cannot just leave her alone. Where is a safe place for her?" People told them, "The most appropriate place to leave her would be with that worshipper; he is the most religious and trustworthy man. Leave your sister with him; he will take care of her."
They went to the 'Abid, explained the situation, and asked, "This is our situation—we want to go to Jihad. Could you please take the trouble of looking after our sister?" He replied, "I seek refuge in Allah from you. Go away from me." Then, Satan tempted him, whispering, "Who will they leave her with? If you do not look after her, perhaps a wicked man will, and then you know what will happen! How can you let such a good deed slip through your fingers?"
Notice how Satan encourages him toward a good deed! So, Barsisa called them back and said, "Alright, I will take care of her, but she cannot stay with me in my monastery. I have another house; she will stay in that room." He told the girl, "You stay there, and I will stay in my monastery." The girl lived in a room in that house, and the monk would bring food for her every day, leaving it outside his own door. He wouldn't even go to her house; he just left the food outside his door, and the girl had to come out of her house to take it. He wouldn't even cast a glance at her. Then Satan came to him again and said, "What are you doing? Don't you realize that when she comes out of her room and walks all the way to your monastery, people will see her? You should go and leave the food at her door." Barsisa thought, "Yes, indeed."
Satan wasn't speaking to him face-to-face; he was whispering (waswasa) to him. The 'Abid then started taking the food right to the girl's door. This went on for a few days, after which Satan said, "She still has to open her door and step outside to take the plate, and someone might see her. You should take the plate inside her room." Look, Satan is telling him to do an even better deed! So, he began placing the plate of food inside the room, leaving immediately after putting it down. More time passed. Meanwhile, the brothers were delayed in returning from the Jihad. Satan approached him again and said, "Well, are you just going to leave her alone like this? There is no one to look after her or speak to her. She is locked up as if in a prison with no one to talk to. Why don't you take some responsibility for her? You could maintain a little socialization, go and talk to her so you can check up on her. Otherwise, she might go out and get involved with another man." Thus, he started talking to the girl while standing outside the room. The girl would speak from inside; they almost had to shout just so they could hear each other.
Satan then told him, "Why are you shouting at each other from such a distance instead of making things a bit more convenient? Why don't you sit in the same room and talk?" So, he began spending some time sitting in the same room with her. Slowly, they started spending hours together, and gradually, they grew closer. Eventually, it reached a point where this 'Abid, the monk, the devoted worshipper, committed Zina (fornication/adultery) with the girl. Consequently, she became pregnant.
The story does not end there. The girl gave birth to a child. Satan came to the monk and said, "What have you done! Do you know what will happen when her brothers return? They will kill you. Even if you say, 'This is not my child,' they will tell you, 'Even if it's not yours, she was under your care, so the burden falls on you. We don't care who the father is, you are responsible.' Therefore, there is only one way out: kill the child and bury it." Barsisa asked, "Will this remain a secret after I kill her son?" Satan replied, "Do you think she will keep it a secret? If you think so, you are a massive fool." Barsisa asked, "Then what should I do?" Satan answered, "You should kill the girl as well." So, he murdered the girl and the child, and buried them both under the floor of the same room.
Eventually, the brothers returned and asked, "Where is our sister?" He replied, "Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un (Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we return). She fell ill and died, and was buried over there," pointing them to a fake grave he had made up. They said, "Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un," prayed for their sister, and went back home.
That night, one of the three brothers had a dream. Who came to him in that dream? Satan. He said, "Do you believe Barsisa? Do you trust him? He lied. He committed adultery with your sister, then murdered her and her son. And the proof is that your sister is not in the grave he showed you; she is buried under the stone floor of her room." The brother woke up and told his siblings about the dream. They said, "We had the exact same dream; it must be true." The next day, they dug up the fake grave but found nothing. Then they went to their sister's room, moved the dirt, and found her dead body along with an infant. They grabbed Barsisa: "Liar! You did all this?" They dragged him away to take him to the king.
At that moment, Satan came to Barsisa. This time, he didn't come as a whisper in the mind; he appeared in human form. He said, "Barsisa, do you know who I am? I am Satan. I am the one who got you into all this trouble. And I am the only one who can save you from this danger now. I caused all these events, and I have the solution. It is up to you now. If you want to die, fine. But if you want me to save you, I can." Barsisa pleaded, "Please save me." Satan said, "Prostrate to me." Barsisa prostrated to Satan. But what did Satan say then? He said, "Thank you very much, it was nice meeting you," and Barsisa never saw him again. Barsisa prostrated to Satan, and that was the very last act of his life, because shortly after, he was executed.
So, the final act of his life was committing shirk by prostrating to Satan. He was the worshipper who had been upon the straight path, but because he decided to take a turn from that path—even though it was a very, very tiny turn initially, seemingly trivial, done in the name of convenience and religious benefit (maslahah)—the deviation was minuscule at first, but look at his ultimate end! This is the danger of following one's own desires; we become too overconfident in our knowledge, the Quran we know, our worship, etc. SubhanAllah! We should always remain apprehensive about ourselves. We must never become overconfident, but rather remain continuously concerned. That is the true fear of Allah; that is what 'knowledge' truly is. Allah says: "Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge." (Surah Fatir 35:28).
Let us now look at the lessons we can extract from the story of Barsisa:
1. Notice the strategy Satan employed with Barsisa. If Satan had approached Barsisa directly and said, "Prostrate to me," would Barsisa have ever done it? No, never. Satan adopted a 'step-by-step' policy to turn him away from the religion. This is Satan's very job—he will spend his entire existence chasing after you and me. His sole purpose in life is to misguide humanity, tear them away from faith, and make them die in a state of polytheism (shirk). SubhanAllah, we can realize this from Barsisa's tragic end! Here, the time of Imam Ahmed's passing can be mentioned. Abdullah ibn Imam Ahmed said that when his father was drifting into unconsciousness, he kept saying, "La ba'ad, la ba'ad" – "No, not yet. No, not yet." Hearing this, Abdullah became extremely worried! Imagine hearing your father say "No, not yet" on his deathbed. How would you interpret it? It sounds like, "No, not yet, I don't want to die yet," right? When Imam Ahmed regained consciousness, a worried Abdullah asked his father, "O my father, why were you saying, 'Not yet, not yet'?" Imam Ahmed replied, "Satan was standing right beside me, biting his fingers and saying, 'O Ahmed, you have slipped through my hands! O Ahmed, you have escaped me!' So I was telling him, 'No, not yet, not until I actually die. The war between you and me is still ongoing; only when I die will I truly be safe from your grasp.'" Imam Ibn Taymiyyah says, "The reason for this is that Satan realizes this is his absolute last chance with you. If you escape his grip this time, you are free from him for eternity. Failing to misguide you at your final moments means he could never catch you. That is why Satan pays special attention to the final moments of your life and intensifies his efforts against you." SubhanAllah! May Allah grant us the ability to realize how hard Satan is working just to misguide us and drag us into a faithless death. May Allah have mercy on us, Ameen.
2. The most apparent lesson that comes to mind from Barsisa's story is the "Fitnah (trial/temptation) of women." To understand the severity of this fitnah, we must realize why the Prophet (PBUH) said, "I have not left behind any fitnah more harmful to men than women." The Prophet (PBUH) also said, "Whenever a man is alone with a woman, the Devil makes a third." Not only that, but Allah Himself states in the Holy Quran, "and mankind was created weak" (referring to the attraction towards women) [Surah An-Nisa: 28]. When this verse is cited regarding weakness towards women, even knowledgeable brothers and sisters are often surprised! But the Tafsir explicitly mentions this weakness. Furthermore, in Surah Ali 'Imran, verse 14, when listing the things that distract people from striving in the path of Allah, Allah mentions first: "Beautified for people is the love of that which they desire - of women..." [Surah Ali 'Imran: 14]. SubhanAllah! For those of us who identify as practicing Muslims, spreading Dawah on Facebook, blogs, or the virtual world, it is a very sad truth that we often forget these Hadiths and Quranic verses about gender fitnah, or in many cases, we don't even know them! We freely engage in casual mingling, joking, and exchanging witty comments between boys and girls. And Allah alone knows the state of the inboxes. Outwardly, I might appear so pious, but just think about how it would look if people saw me winking at a non-mahram girl, making faces, giving a subtle smile, laughing out loud, or drawing a red heart for her! Wouldn't I look like a hypocrite? Exactly, I would be considered a hypocrite. SubhanAllah, this is the exact hypocrisy our Muslim brothers and sisters are openly engaging in. With the tap of a finger, emojis of making faces, winking, laughing out loud, and smirking are being dropped on Facebook statuses and photos! SubhanAllah! Just because it is the internet, does a non-mahram suddenly become mahram for you, dear Muslims? Or do you consider yourself completely safe from all fitnah? Or are you walking around with a guaranteed ticket to Jannah in your pocket? Allahu Akbar! Death is very close, brother, very close! Be conscious of your faith. With all this Islamic knowledge, Dawah, and worship, do not let your end be like Barsisa's! May Allah have mercy.
3. Another notable point from Barsisa's story is the trap of "good intentions." Satan traps us with the comforting thought, "I am doing this for a good reason." If we look closely, we see Satan repeatedly whispered to Barsisa under the guise of the girl's well-being. "If you don't do this, that will happen to her," or "If you don't do that, she will suffer"—this was the waswasa. And every single time, Barsisa stepped into that trap, eventually suffering the ultimate consequence! We should observe this very carefully. There is a common tendency among us: rather than focusing on practicing Islam ourselves, we want to become Da'ees (preachers) overnight. With just a little bit of knowledge, we go around intensely preaching to people. Because we lack an understanding of Satan's whispers and the fitnah of women, there are countless examples of people falling into haram relationships under this guise. A girl posts a status: "Wow! What a beautiful moon!" A boy goes there, explains the Islamic virtues of the moon, and starts a massive Dawah session! What is Satan's whisper here? "I am just giving Dawah." A girl posts: "I am feeling very sad." A boy floods the comment box with fatwas from IslamQA on what to do when sad, how one shouldn't despair, how these things happen in life but Muslims must do this and that! A grand Shaykh (only for girls)!! The girl is overjoyed: "Brother, you know so much, you have the answers to everything, you are a genius, blah blah blah." Now, what is the guarantee that Satan won't drag this conversation into the inbox?! SubhanAllah! What we must keep in mind is that Dawah has rules and regulations. There is a necessity of learning and practicing first. There is a need to understand Satan's traps. You must remember that Satan will naturally attract you to the opposite gender, so do not step towards someone you are attracted to using the excuse of "Dawah"! You are not responsible for giving Dawah to everyone. There is no reason to think that if you don't give Dawah, everything will be ruined. Rather, the real ruin happens when you step into Satan's trap. The ruin happens when you get entangled in fitnah! Therefore, before handing your desires over to Satan, you should think from a very deep perspective. Barsisa's story is right in front of us as a reminder!
4. The final lesson we can take from Barsisa's story is the danger of asceticism or isolation. Think about it—if the girl had been Barsisa's wife, or if Barsisa had a family, perhaps Satan wouldn't have found such a wide-open opportunity to misguide him. I really like this saying: "What you do when you are alone is your true character!" Isolation gives Satan the greatest opportunity to execute his plans. That is why brothers and sisters wanting to stay on the path of the Deen should always surround themselves with motivation and good company. In Barsisa's case, Satan took advantage of this isolation! He gave him whispers that Barsisa could not fend off. Satanic whispers during moments of isolation very easily lower a person's level of Taqwa (God-consciousness). May Allah forgive us. May He have mercy on us.
Conclusion: A thought that has been troubling me a lot lately is that Islam is entirely about realization! That is why you will see many knowledgeable brothers and sisters being completely negligent about acting upon their knowledge, despite knowing so much about Islam. We pray for those brothers and sisters whose acquired knowledge hasn't brought any change to their perception of life. Those who have studied the Quran, acquired vast Islamic knowledge, and shown it off, yet it has left no reflection on their own lives. May Allah forgive us. May Allah grant us the ability to correct our mistakes and hold fast to the truth.
The story of Barsisa I narrated might be known to many of you. But perhaps you haven't thought about it from this perspective. The lessons extracted from here can, Insha'Allah, be used to purify the inseparable parts of our daily lives. A human being accepts their mistake and repents for it, whereas Satan remains steadfast upon his mistake and makes excuses for it. We are Ashraful Makhluqat (the best of creation); we will ask Almighty Allah for forgiveness for our mistakes, Insha'Allah. If there is something worth realizing in this text, may Allah grant us the ability to comprehend it. May He wipe away our sins. May the mistakes of our past days become the inspiration for purity today, Insha'Allah! May the teachings and realizations of Islam help us become travelers on the path to Jannah. May Satan not drag us into the severe fire of Hell like the unfortunate Barsisa. We seek Allah's help in all circumstances. May Allah have mercy. May Allah forgive. Ihdinas siratal mustaqim (Guide us to the straight path), Ameen.