Ali Ataie – Belief in Prophetology (Nubuwwat) of Muhammad Prophetology Series (Part 9)
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the upcoming session of the messenger of Allah, focusing on compassion and mercy. They explain the importance of the prophet's graduation from the Bible and how it is related to his son's Jannah. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the w converse of Islam, citing examples like the use of the symbol" Amma" for all of humanity, and the importance of learning the language of Islam to express one's views and behave with others. They also discuss the use of praying in a lightened and pleasant way to avoid offense and the importance of being a great teacher to build upon previous lessons and answer questions. Finally, they emphasize the importance of being a great teacher and being a compassionate teacher to build upon previous lessons and answer questions.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome to another session
of,
acquainting ourselves
with the messenger of Allah
This is our 9th session out of 10.
Next week, is our final session.
Inshallah.
And we will end, next week, inshAllah, in
the blessed month of Ramadan.
So, I want to wish everyone,
an early Ramadan Kareem.
May Allah
make it a month of immense benefit,
for us and our families and for,
all of the Muslims around the world,
as well as all of humanity.
The trials and tribulations that we're all going
through,
due to the pandemic, inshallah will be,
lightened upon us,
by our Lord, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So we are,
part 1.
This is chapter 2. This chapter is called
the prophet's perfect qualities of
character.
And we're going to start here with section
17.
So in my translation
by Aisha Biyuli, this is page 64.
Section 17 is called compassion and mercy.
And of course, this is very important,
section,
encompasses
or epitomizes
the khuluq, the character or ethics
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. As I
mentioned in the past,
we call the famous hadith
Show,
that the most beneficent, the most compassionate, the
most merciful shows mercy to those who show
mercy.
Show mercy to those on the earth and
the one in heaven, and no anthropomorphic
sense will show you mercy.
And we said that this is the hadith
that children learn at 5 years old. This
is the hadith that sets the foundation,
for their, education,
Islamic education for this is the hadith that
first acquaints them with the prophet because
Rahma is a great,
virtue that we want to cultivate.
So it begins as for compassion,
qadi iyadar Rahimahumullah,
he begins section 17.
As for compassion, tenderness, and mercy to all
creation,
Allah said about him, and here he's quoting
again, and the translation here says Surah Yunus
128, but this is at Tawba.
This is the very end of Surah to
Tawba, those two beautiful verses at the very
end.
And he quoted these earlier. We quoted them
in the past.
He quoted them there for a different reason,
but these verses begin, verily, there has come
unto you a messenger from among yourselves, and
we said
is also read as
from the from the most noble among you,
and the latter reading is considered
a, Sha'id reading, it's not multiply attested, so
it's not recited in prayer.
It's not considered authentically Quran because it could
not be established through multiple channels, but has
the strength of a Hadith.
And then he says, Azizun Alehima Anitum.
So she translates,
grievious to him is what you suffer,
for it grieves him that you should perish,
that you should suffer. So the hymn here
refers to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And then it says,
Hari sunnahalaikum.
Hari sunnahalaikum.
Anxious for you or deeply concerned is he
about you.
Compassionate is he,
merciful to the believers.
Right?
So that's atobah verse 1,
28,
a beautiful,
ayah,
describing
the the the character, the mercy of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam.
Then Allah says he says here,
We only sent you as a mercy to
all the worlds, and we said in previous
sessions as well
that this is the quintessential
prophetological
verse in the Quran. This
is the equivalent of our John 316. Remember
we said that
whenever a Christian wants to make a convert,
very quickly, he wants to give him something
like, for example, if he's on the the
bar train or the subway, something like that,
and he wants to make some dawah to
a non Christian, he'll quote John 316, which
is basically,
Christian,
theology or Christology in a nutshell.
I would say this is comparable to that,
that this is a beautiful summation
of the the the very essence of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And we said that Allah describes him with
a noun saying rahmatan.
We did not send you except as a
mercy, not we did not send you except
that you might show mercy. He doesn't use
a verb.
He describes the prophet as Rahmatan,
and a noun or a Masdar. An Issam
in Arabic describes the very nature of that
thing that that's who he is, that he
is essentially mercy.
What
is lilaalamin?
There's difference of opinion as to what lila'ala
mean is. We did not send you as,
accept as a mercy to the worlds. What
does the worlds mean?
Some of the
say the meaning of this is
everything
other than God.
In other words, all of creation,
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
is created, but he is sent as a
mercy to the rest of creation, because he's
the best of creation,
that he's better than and this is by
consensus. He's he's
he's greater than the Kaaba. He's he's greater
than the low. He's he's better than the
arsh and the kursi.
He is the best of creation. He's better
than Jannah.
And then the question arises,
if he's better than Jannah, then what's his
reward?
Right? If he's better than Jannah, what's his
reward?
How can he be rewarded with something that
is inferior to him? And of course, the
answer from the ulama is,
well, he will get to Jannah, but he
will be in the presence
of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. You know, he
will enjoy the highest type
of union with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
So his Jannah is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and the Jannah of Jannah is actually the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam. That Jannah itself
is honored by having the Prophet within itself.
So another
opinion is that means
jinn and ins,
as they are called in the Quran. The
2 weighty things, jinn and ins.
So think about the 4 elements human beings
are made of the 2 elements,
water and and earth, if you will. And
then you have our counterpart,
the jinn,
wind and fire. Right?
So they can see us, but we can't
necessarily
see them. But we believe in their
in their existence,
and we believe in the,
hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam when
he tells us about the jinn.
So some, modern hermeneutics of the Quran that
want to sort of,
read the Quran through the lens of modern
science, there's a few things you can do
with this, but some people take it to
extreme measures and say, well, the jinn are
actually
microbes or something like that.
We'll leave these
weird opinions
of some of the modernists today
and,
say, salakAllahu
aladeem salakAllahu Rasool Allah. Allah and his messenger
know best and
Allah as well as the prophet
has described,
the jinn in numerous,
a hadith.
And that the jinn not only have sentience.
Right?
Like all,
living things,
sentience,
the Latin word meaning that they feel things.
They they can sense certain things. Right? So
even animals have sentience. They feel pleasure. They
feel pain.
They have senses.
But here, Al-'alameen
means,
the sentient as well as the sapiential
beings, sapiens,
which means wisdom or aqaal.
Right? So here
according to some of the exegetes means jinn
and ins. In other words, those created entities
that not only have sentience but have sapience,
they have intellect.
And that the revelation, the wahi, any wahi,
revelation from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is always
understood through the intellect. The intellect is primary.
That's why if if if somebody receives the
Quran and they don't have sound intellect, they're
not responsible
to believe in the Quran because you need
an intellect to understand
the Quran. So the prophet then
is the bridge, if you will, between a
basic awareness of God,
a basic awareness of the existence of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala which many philosophers and theologians
argue
is something that is innate, something that is
natural to the human being. Any human being,
using their intellect, using their mind will come
naturally to the conclusion that there is a
singular creator,
to everything.
So the prophet then is a bridge between
this,
this basic natural awareness of Allah
that every human being
possesses and a deep gnosis, a deep sort
of intimate knowledge or what we call of
Allah
The prophet is a bridge between that because
he brings us
the revelation that he is the means of
the revelation.
So in this sense, the prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam is because
he's giving us the wahi, the kitabullah.
He's teaching us
by example how to have a deep intimate
na'rifah, noesis of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And
as we said,
na'rifah leads to Mahaba,
to unconditional
love. And when one has unconditional love
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
then one is saved inshallah Ta'ala by the
grace of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Even if one has mistakes
in aqidah, now we try our best to
correct our aqidah, and this is something that
is important and we shouldn't downplay.
But
ultimately, we may say things, we may,
do certain practices
that are actually counter,
to
to our tradition out of ignorance.
And that's why we,
we ask we make tawba to Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, ask Allah to forgive our shortcomings.
And, ultimately,
it is our love of Allah and his
messenger,
that will save us. There's a famous hadith
of a man
who was a sinner and he died, but
before he died he instructed his 2 sons
by saying that when I die,
cremate my body
and then climb to the highest mountain top
you can find and scatter my ashes to
the wind.
And his son said, why would we do
that?
And he said, I don't want Allah to
be able to
reconstruct my body on the Yom Kiyama,
so that I won't have to stand judgment.
Now that is an incorrect belief.
If you believe that Allah
does not have
the power to reconstruct your body even after
it's been,
incinerated and scattered to the wind, then that's
kufur,
that's
technically infidelity.
Now
the hadith continues that
this man on the Yomul Qiyamah
he was reassembled by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is Al Qadr. He is omnipotent.
Allah
has power over all things,
so he reconstructed this man.
And when he asked, and Allah knows best,
this is for our own edification. Allah is
not asking a question because he doesn't know
something.
Wallahu bikudishayin alim Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is
certainly omniscient.
But when he asked the man, why did
you do that? Why did you instruct your
sons to do that? He said, I was
ashamed and Allah
forgave the man even though he had this
error in his in his aqidah.
So this is something that, it's it's obviously
important for us as Muslims to understand,
theology at a deep level
But we have to also understand that by
and large, the Awam,
you know, the masses of people, this is
not something that's a priority for them, and
we should keep the religion quite simple, and
Islam is is is a simple religion, not
not a
religion
for simple minded people, there's a difference here.
But Islam has a has a basic creed,
and salvation in Islam is not a difficult
thing. We'll get in more into that
later.
But the essence of our theology is Al
Ikhlas, and this is just a few verses
long.
And this is what we should teach people.
And,
unless you're going to be,
you know, a discursive theologian or a polemicist
or something like that,
or if you just simply have an interest
in studying theology at a deep level, which
is certainly,
possible,
You don't need to get into the debates
of the relationship between the vat of Allah,
the essence of Allah, and his sifaat, and
his attributes, and and the calam of Allah,
uncreated or created.
Really these these topics don't enter into don't
enter into the discourse of the vast vast
majority of human beings.
And,
the ulama as ulama, we should know, and
as professors, we should know that we should
know that, sometimes that we delve into these
things,
they could cause actually more confusion amongst the
people.
Now we should stick to broad based principles.
Say God is 1, Allahu Samad,
God is independent. He did not beget nor
was he begotten,
meaning he's not somehow caused
by something he doesn't he doesn't he doesn't
make an effect that's equal to him.
There's nothing comparable
unto Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So
as we said, the prophet
then is that bridge between the basic knowledge
of God, awareness of God that is innate
within all human beings,
just from the intellect, the mind,
and a deep marifa,
intimate knowledge, leading to Mahaba,
leading to unconditional love of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, and that's Nurun al Anur, according to
Imam al Razi and others when Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says Nurul Al Anur in Ayatul
Nur chapter 24 verse 35, I believe.
The meaning of this is naqal and aqal,
like revelation and intellect working together.
He continues to rakad I iyad, he says,
part of his excellence is that Allah gave
him 2 of his own names. So Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam 2 of his own names saying
Bil mumineen
ra'ufor Rahim.
And the ulama specify here many of the
mufasarin, they say this part of the ayah
is is Has, it's for the believers because
that's what it says, Bilbuminin o rufur Rahim.
But before that, the prophets concerned,
It grieves him that he should perish, deeply
concerned is he about you. This is more
universal. This is a Amma. This is for
all of humanity. This is all for for
all of jinn and ins. But then
this is for
the believers. This is a special type of
concern.
Merciful and compassionate is he to the believers.
And these are two names of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Allah is Ar Raouf, he's Ar Raheem. Now
notice with Allah, there's definite articles. He is
the most compassionate, he's the most merciful.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam however is a
reflection of these divine names
at a human level.
Right? So we should all try
to emulate as it were Allah
in his divine qualities doesn't make us divine.
It makes us
pious believers.
Right? This is a hadith. There's weakness in
the hadith that the Ulema quoted.
Adorn yourselves
with the qualities of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And we mentioned this before in the past
as well. Many, many ulama include including
Imam al Suyuti and even Hajiba
and Imam Al Ghazali. They've written commentaries on
the asma of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the
the glorious majestic names,
the majestic and beautiful names of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And they said that with all
of these names, there's a there's a there's
a human element that we can, there's not
not a human element. There's a there's a
there's a,
there's a, understanding of these names that we
could appropriate
into our lives at a human level.
Right? So if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
Ar Rahman and He is Ar Raheem,
you know, the infinitely
merciful, the infinitely loving and compassionate. We can
also be people of compassion, mercy, and love,
in a limited
human sense
in that way mirroring Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It is related that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said
none of you should come to me with
anything about my companions
for I do not want to go out
to you except with a clear heart. The
hadith is in Abu Dawood and at Tidmiddi.
That the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he wanted
us
to formulate
that sorry. He wanted him,
he wanted to formulate his own
opinions
about people.
Right? That he didn't like this, what's known
as,
he said, she said,
what we would call sort of gossip or
hearsay.
The prophet did
not wanna hear things about people without going
out and meeting them first and formulating his
own,
his own ideas about the person.
Part of his compassion, Qadhi Iyad continues,
Part of his compassion towards his community was
that he made things easy for them.
He disliked doing things.
He disliked doing certain things out of the
fear
that they would become obligatory for them. He
said,
if I had not been compassionate to my
community, I would have commanded them to use
the sea wax or the tooth stick, the
toothbrush, if you will, every time they did
wudu, the hadithas and bukhari,
and Muslims. So what he's saying here is
that the prophet
would sometimes leave certain practices on occasion
because he knew that if he that if
he was unwaveringly
consistent with those practices,
then future jurists, Muslim jurists,
the fuqaha,
would have considered them as farr, as obligatory.
So he wasn't totally consistent in those practices.
And this is from the mercy of the
prophet
So one of the things is the the
use of the sea wax or the or
the tooth stick, that he would use it
quite often, but not always.
Another thing, Ramadan that's that's mentioned here by
Khalid Iyad. Ramadan prayers, sometimes
he would do those
prayers, perform those prayers in his house and
sometimes in the masjid,
that he didn't fast every single day.
His dislike of entering the Kaaba
itself,
during the pilgrimage, lest it become obligatory and
become a hardship for the ummah.
That he would shorten the prayer Qadhi Iyad
mentions if he heard a child crying
And that's a practice that he would do
to make things easier
for us
Aisha said the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wasallam
was never given a choice between two things,
but that he chose the easier of the
2.
Right? And this goes back to the hadith
we quoted, the beautiful hadith we quoted
a couple of weeks ago.
And we looked at some of the
rhetorical structure, the parallel structure
of this hadith and some other hadith as
well and how they're they're incredibly
composed, beautifully and exquisitely composed,
in in their syntax,
in their rhetorical power. So this hadith, the
translation is something like make things easy for
people
and don't make them difficult,
and give people glad tidings,
and don't scare people. Right? Don't use a
scare tactic.
Give people glad tidings. It doesn't mean, you
know, not to tell people the truth and,
you know, there's there's certainly things that we
should be concerned about,
the punishment in the grave and the Yomul
Qiyamah, right, the the adab al qabbar and
the Hissab and the Yomul Qiyamah and and
the fear of Jahannam and things like that.
That's true.
But generally, we should be giving people glad
tidings because ultimately,
the the knowledge of Allah
is a means of salvation for people, and
salvation for,
for,
our understanding of salvation is that is that
it never ends. Khali deenafeeha
abada. Allah says
in the Quran about the denizens of paradise,
about Jannah, that they will eternally abide or
perpetually, probably a better translation, perpetually abide therein
because nothing is
nothing is intrinsically
eternal, nothing has Al Qadim Adhati
except Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, but he gives
Jannah,
which
is a created thing, the quality of perpetuity
or immortality. So he will also give that
quality
inshallah
to our souls
in Jannah so that we will continue
in perpetuity
to live in Jannah
by the permission
and will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So he was easygoing, right? Sahilullahq
as his companions
have described him, easygoing,
disposition.
Ibn Mas'ud said, the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wasalam was careful when he admonished
us, fearing he would tire us,
and the hadith is Muslim and Bukhari.
According to the translator here,
Admonish means to teach or to advise
or to warn,
right,
that he did not want to overwhelm
his
students, the sahaba.
And this is a mark of a great
teacher. A great teacher is very patient.
A great teacher
will knows how to build upon,
previous lessons,
doesn't get to the conclusion of things
or to the answer of questions even. If
there if there are students in the class
that are asking questions,
that are not related completely to the topic
or,
if, you know, the the professor is or
teacher is speaking about
very basic things, introductory things, and there's a
student who wants to know advanced
things, then the teacher knows not to answer
the questions at that time. It doesn't mean
that the teacher doesn't know the answer.
It just means that it's not beneficial
at that particular time to reveal the answer,
and this is, again, part of the wisdom
of being a teacher.
So the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he was
very careful about
about tiring out certain the the the Sahaba,
when he was admonishing or teaching them. He
would give them things and dosages, if you
will, so he can digest them, think about
things, and then he'd give them more.
It was really an art form. Teaching is
is not an easy thing, and it must
be done very carefully.
Alright, and the Greek word obviously for teaching
a child is pedagogy,
kais meaning child, and
aago in Greek meaning to lead, so you're
leading a child.
Right?
So it's it's a very, very delicate process,
especially if they're children, because those those are
things that children don't forget if you're setting
a strong foundation.
He says here, Aisha
was riding an unruly camel,
which was recalcitrant,
and and she started to hit it repeatedly.
And the prophet
said you must have compassion. The Hadith has
been Bayd Haqqi.
Right? So here he's talking about a camel,
an animal.
Right? The Rahmatililil
Alamin. So
that the prophet said in another hadith
that don't take
the backs of your riding beasts, whatever they
are,
horses or camels, don't take them as being
pulpits.
In other words, don't just sit on your
animal and start,
you know, pontificating
and giving these long sermons because that's that
tires up the animal. That's
that's, that's that's putting undue stress
on the animal. So here he's talking about
animal rights. He censured the Sahaba ones because
they burnt an anthill.
He censured the Sahaba ones because they took
eggs from a mother bird, and the mother
bird started flapping its wings, and he said
return these eggs
to the mother bird, so he did not
approve
of of animal abuse. This doesn't mean that
we should all be vegans and, you know,
really interesting, some,
some modern people how
they prioritize certain things. I mean,
you know, it seems like the intention is
in the right place, but then you think
about
the the contradictions of some of their positions.
You have people that go
into, you know, restaurants
and and and, start yelling at people because
they're eating eggs
and saying, you know, this is a this
is a hue this is a a a
life, and you're you're eating something that's alive
and it had a name,
but some of these people are also completely
pro abortion,
even in the 3rd trimester. I mean, it
is very strange,
you know, save the chickens, save the whale,
save the trees, but kill the babies
because my body by choice, right, I have
bodily autonomy.
So this is, it's very interesting and it's
really a worship of the nafs. Right? They
couldn't control themselves. They they act irresponsibly.
They do things. They fornicate, and then they
get pregnant, and then they want to justify
to themselves,
that
this is this is a moral thing I'm
doing because it's my body and I can
do whatever I want with it.
But they know deep down inside that,
there's certainly the the conscience side,
is is is bothering them, and you can
you can and this is something that you
can
see with with their testimonials,
and some of them are not bothered, and
you and you work wonder about their humanity.
Anyway,
so the prophet said, I should hear you
must have compassion.
That's the end of section,
18 sorry. 17
was brought to the prophet and sorry. This
this this section is called integrity, probity, and
contracts, and maintaining ties of kinship in the
highlights of the chapter of the sections before
the end of class
next week
And I said once when a gift was
brought to the Prophet
he said take it to the house of
such and such a woman.
She was a friend of Khadija.
She, she loved Khadija.
And Aisha said I was never jealous of
any woman the way I was jealous of
Khadijah
when I heard him mention her.
If he sacrificed a sheep, he would send
it to her friends.
Her sister,
Hala Bintuqawalid,
asked for permission to enter, and he was
happy to see her. A woman came to
him, and he received it with kindliness and
asked after her very considerately.
When she left, he said,
she used to come to us when Khadija
was with us, maintaining
ties as a part of belief, and the
hadith is
in Bukhari.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's first wife
Khadija passed away.
She was his first disciple. She passed away
in the Meccan period,
and Aisha was saying that
even as late as the Medina period,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would maintain
ties
with
relatives of Khadija,
as well as friends of Khadija. He would
continue to
honor them
and show them
kindness.
The prophet used to carry Umama, his granddaughter
by Zaynah on his shoulders.
When he prostrated, he would put her down.
When he stood up, he picked her up.
So
this also reminds me the famous story where
the prophet of the lord he wasalam was
standing on the pulpit and he was giving
a chutba on Jummah,
and his very young grandson, Imam al Hussain,
following his grandfather's voice
wandered into the masjid. And the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam descended
the minbar and picked up his grandson
and hugged him and went and then reascended
the the pulpit and finished his khutbah while
holding Imam al Hussain
in his arms.
This is a testament to
the merciful
and tender nature of the prophet,
with, with his you know, not only his
wives, his companions,
not only with animals,
but also with, with children. And as we've
spoken about in the past, the prophet
he continued to show
good character to even his enemies that were
trying to attack him, and this is what
was so astounding to Abu Sufyan ibn Uharib,
who,
just before the conquest of Mecca became Muslim,
and he was just absolutely smitten
that the the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
continued to speak to him with respect.
And and then he said to him, you
know, may my parents be your ransom. You
you still speak to me with respect after
all these years
where I've
try where I've tried to, you know, kill
you and
and, and led, you know, these military
campaigns
against you and
have killed many of your
companions in battle,
but the prophet
did not give up even on his
worst of enemies, he continued to show them
good character.
And there's a lesson in there
for us. Again, this is a difficult thing
to do, but he is our ideal, and
we should try to strive for this type
of perfection.
So the excuse of, well, that's the prophet,
and I just can't do that. He's just
so great. He's still a human being. I
mean, the prophet
he still got angry. He he became depressed
at times and, you know, when he met
Washi, the man who killed his beloved
uncle Hamza,
he the prophet,
he just he he he became very, very
angry, and he said, may I never see
your face
again? I mean, that's that's a human being.
Right?
And then eventually,
he welcomed Washi, and
and,
and, he he showed him kindness and and
and mercy as well.
So using this excuse of, well, that's the
prophet, and he's perfect, and he's immaculate,
and who am I? I'm nothing.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is also a
human being, and many of his,
many of his
reactions to certain situations
are are are very similar to what any
human being do
initially.
But
if we see how he
treats situations
eventually,
and his wisdom behind dealing with certain problems
in the society even within his own household,
that's certainly something that we can emulate
at a certain level
and strive towards this perfection. You're never going
to hit perfection. We're not going to reach
the Khurrukh
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, but that's
not the point. We strive towards it. It's
like an old football coach named Bill Walsh,
who was the coach of the San Francisco
40 niners in the 19 eighties when the
40 niners were a dynasty.
And,
he used to tell his quarterback,
Joe Montana,
he would say to him, when you throw
the ball to a receiver, aim 12 inches
right in front of the numbers.
And anything other than that is imperfect, and
you've missed the target now. 12 inches in
front of the numbers, can you imagine that
on a 40 yard pass?
Because that was perfection. You aim towards perfection,
and you're obviously going to come short, but
you might come close to
it.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is is
our perfect role model.
We should try our best to emulate his
character
and not make excuses and we fall short
we fall short and make tawba, but we
we keep trying
Now we say Abu Qatada said, a delegation
from the Negus, that's the king of Abyssinia
Najashi,
arrived and the prophet got up to serve
them.
His companion said, let us do it for
you,
and he said they were generous and honored
my companions,
so I will do the same for them.
So
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam,
was himself
serving the people,
right, that he was doing that himself.
In a hadith of Khadija, she told him
may Allah,
may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
So Khadija says to the prophet rejoice by
Allah, Allah will never bring you grief. You
maintain
connections with kinsfolk, You bear all, and you
give help to those who are in need.
You're hospitable to the guests, and you help
people
to get what is their due.
And,
this was after the
the, the context of this statement of Khadija
is after the descent
of the initial wahi,
later to Qadr in Mecca.
So the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam this is
something else that's astonishing about the prophet, sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, again,
showing his humanity
that he didn't know initially what had happened
to him. He's nabi'ul Ummi. He doesn't have
this formal education
in religion. He's not familiar with Ahlul Kitab
and their beliefs
necessarily.
He's an unlettered prophet, and he has his
experience in this cave,
and he is very very sincere
thinking that maybe something bad has happened to
him, maybe he's been possessed by a jinn
or something,
like that. This is a very honest reaction
and this is something that's
pointed out.
For example, this book by Leslie Hazleton. It's
a very good book. She wrote non Muslim
as far as I know. She wrote on
the psychology of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi salam,
saying that this reaction shows the great sincerity
of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi salam,
that a a charlatan of some sort would
not have this type of initial reaction if
someone's trying to pull the wool over your
eyes and claim to be a prophet when
they're not.
They they would come down the mountain with
their chest out in the air and proclaiming
that he that, you know, I am a
prophet,
and and you must obey me, and but
the prophet's reaction was one
of distress.
So he went to his wife Khadija tul
Kubra radiAllahu ta'ala Anha, his wife,
and it was Khadija who reassured him
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would not humiliate
you,
by this type of demonic possession
or mental illness or something
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
knows, certainly knows
that you maintain ties of kinship. You're good
to the orphans,
that you're good to the guests, that you
provide things to people who need things. But
here's the thing also is that she's no
expert in matters of religion.
So what do they do? They go to
an Alem, and this is the proper
method.
Alright. Allah says
ask the people of Advikr
ask the people of Adzikr here probably means
revelation,
revelation in general.
You know the Quran in particular, of course,
the Quran is a revelation,
but as the people of Revelation if you
don't know,
right, so she's not an alima, but Warakah
bin Naufal, her cousin, a Christian scribe.
He was an alim.
So they go to Warakah and the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam recounts
what had happened in the cave
and Warakah
he says
This is his judgment about as to what
happened to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in
the kit indeed the great namus,
the great nomos.
Nomos is the Greek word for Sharia
or sacred law. The great law has come
to you.
Others say
or is that others say
that here is actually the Arabic of,
which means the great spirit has come to
you, the spirit of inspiration
just as it came to Musa alaihi salaam.
Right? And of course we have the famous
prophecy
of Deuteronomy 18/18 that a prophet will come,
from the brethren of the Israelites who will
be similar to Musa alaihi salaam.
Deuteronomy
18
verse 18,
that sounds like a
a valid part of the Torah.
We cannot confirm nor deny, but certainly there
is a prophecy in the Torah that sounds
like it finds its fulfillment
with the prophets of the Lord
So that's the end of section 18. Now
section 19 is called his humility.
In spite of his high position and exalted
rank he was extremely humble and not in
the least proud, says Kavi Arayed.
There is proof enough of that in the
fact that he was given a choice between
being a king prophet
and a slave prophet,
and he chose to be a slave prophet.
Right? The prophet, Subhanahu alaihi salam
lived in a state of self imposed poverty.
Right? He could have been a King Prophet
like Dawud alaihis salam, suleiman alaihis salam. Huge
palaces,
servants.
Right? But he chose to be a slave
prophet,
because the majority of his people, all of
his people were living well, actually, most of
his people were not were not affluent people,
and he was a man of the people.
So the body of sallam
So he lived among his people. He was
a man amongst men
When he did that, Iswafil said to him
Allah has been generous to you because of
your humility to him
You are the master of the children of
Adam on the day of rising and the
first for whom the earth will open up
on the day of rising and the first
to intercede, Abu Nu'ayim.
So famous hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
sallam
Remember this hadith, it's
a beautiful hadith
that is has incredibly
incredible ethical
import
that whoever humbles themselves before God, Tawada'a
before God, rafa'ahullah,
Allah will raise
whoever humbles themselves before God Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala will raise rank.
And whoever
right this form 5 verb,
the meaning patterns
of form 5
is is to consider, it's considerative.
Whoever considers
oneself
to be to be kabeer, to be great,
to be high and mighty,
wada'ahuullah
Allah will debase and humiliate.
And we find an echo of this statement
as well in the new testament gospels and
the synoptic tradition,
that whoever is whoever is is low will
be made high, whoever is
high will be made low, this type of
thing.
Have mercy,
have liberty with Allah
and Allah
will raise their rank.
But if you deem yourself big and high
and mighty,
then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
will debase and humiliate you.
And we see that with people like
Nimrud,
very interestingly.
Nimrod,
which according to the ulama was the first
man ever to claim to be Allah The
first one whoever made a claim to deity
was this king of Babylon at the time
of Ibrahim alaihis salam.
And according to the Exodus,
Allah sent his servant a mosquito or a
gnat or something that flew up his nose
and bit him,
and the pain was so intense that Nimrod
would have his servants come into the room
and and beat him over the head with
their shoes
as a way of sort of dulling the
pain, you know, going into sort of a
a daze,
and then the pain one day was so
intense that he ordered his servants to beat
him harder and harder until they beat him
to death.
This is the end of the man who
claimed to be God.
Right? Allah sent a tiny servant. If you
look at the world today, as one of
our teachers said recently in an amazing talk
that
the king of the world today is this
coronavirus,
this thing that you can't even see,
a servant of Allah Subhanahu Wa'ala. Everything is
in everything
is is
in in in service and a servant subservient
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
That is just,
you know, it's it's put us all on
time out as it were.
We have to think deeply about these things,
the state of the human
the state of the human mind, the state
of the human heart
when it comes to Allah
What's happening in the world?
What's happening with with religion, with faith?
I mean, something like this should
should
should provoke deep
contemplation within ourselves as to why these things
are happening and how we can approve improve
ourselves
And that's you know, the prophet
was very very deeply reflective person
and the urnima and the aulia and the
Sahaba were very deeply reflective,
and they were also very,
self centering,
that they were constantly trying to
work on their faults. They they were not
people that were satisfied with themselves, and they
would turn the finger inwards.
And if something would happen in their lives,
a trial or tribulation of some sort,
they would take it as
a means by which they can make toba
and
improve their character
and improve,
their relationship with Allah
And come back into the good graces of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Of course when things like this happen to
a prophet, it's never a type of punishment.
The prophets are not punished because they can't
perform conscious sin. It's always a way of
raising their rank. But even with believers,
it could also be a means of raising
our rank. Now it could initially be a
type of punishment.
Right? But then we recognize that, and we
try to rectify our behavior. And by doing
that making tawba and making that rectification, it'll
be a means inshallah
by which Allah
will raise our ranks
as well.
And that's why the Prophet
said the affair of the Mu'min is always
good
It's always good. Even if there's some sort
of disaster or trial or tribulation, we understand
why,
things like that happen. We live in the
dunya, but we try to learn from those
things and these types of things should provoke
a type of Tawba and return.
You know, Tawba Taaba means to turn, to
reorient ourselves towards Allah
To the end of the day, everything is
good for us.
He said sallallahu alaihi salam, I am a
slave. I eat as a slave eats and
I sit as a slave sits.
Alright. And,
there's a story mentioned that he was sitting
on his knees one time and he was
eating something and a Jewish woman passed by
him,
and she started to mock him
and say, look at your prophet. He he
eats like a slave. I mean, this is
how he's sitting on the ground eating something
and the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam He said
alastudiabdam
I not a slave?
Right? Am I not a slave?
Of course, he's a slave of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. He's a servant of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala,
and he is,
he is a servant that has this
beautiful tawadur, this beautiful humility
with Allah
He's not doing these things out of ostentation.
And that's another thing we should check our
intentions when we do certain things,
you know, that,
why are we doing things? Is it is
it simply is it simply for the pleasure
of Allah
or are there other things that are operating
within us? So we have to really take
ourselves to a task and and be honest
with ourselves, very difficult for us to be
honest with ourselves.
There's a saying of, Ibn Ata'ilah secondari,
a very beautiful saying that I'll mention here.
It's not mentioned here by Qadhi Iyad,
but,
ibn Ata'ilahi said an act of sin that
leads to humility,
like, tawadu
and brokenness,
intisar,
like brokenness,
what Catholics would call contrition. It's a beautiful
word
contrition, to be contrite
is one of the,
the prerequisites
of of Tawba, of repentance and Catholicism,
is to feel a sense of brokenness. The
word contrition means to be broken.
A sin, an act of sin that leads
to humility and brokenness before God
is better than a good act that leads
to arrogance
It's better than a good act that leads
to kibru,
to arrogance, and there was actually a debate
amongst the ulama as to which state is
better if you believe this or not, which
which state is better?
The state of a person who never sinned,
or the state of someone who did sin
but made Tova,
Right? Now, ultimately, they said the former
because that's the that's the,
that's the,
the way of the prophets that they don't
sin consciously. But the fact that there was
a debate on this issue is quite telling
that that,
that human beings sin by nature.
Is is needs a nuance, meaning there that
it's it's not including the the prophets.
All of the children of Adam are sinners,
and the best of sinners
are are those who make Tawbah, Tawwabun,
those who reorient themselves
back towards Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
One of my teachers said there are 2
kinds of people,
in the world.
The one who enters a room and says,
salaam alaykum to the people in the room,
and when they don't answer him,
he thinks to himself what's wrong with these
people
that they're not answering my salaam. That's one
type of human being. Another type of human
being is the person who enters into a
room and says, salaam alaykum, and the people
don't answer him,
and then he thinks to himself, what is
wrong with me
that these people are not answering
my salaam? What did I do? Did I
wrong them?
Did I break decorum of some sort?
Did I show bad adab of some sort?
Right?
Two kinds of people.
The prophet used to ride a donkey and
would have someone ride behind him on it.
He would visit the very poor and sit
with the poor. Again, these very difficult things
to do.
You know, we we read these things in
books, and
we think, well, I know
how many times have I sat with the
poor?
We should strive to do these things.
He answered
the invitation of the slave and sat among
his companions.
Mixing with them, He would sit down among
whichever part of the company he came to
so that
You know, if you walked into a room
and the prophet will say you you wouldn't
even know
which one was the prophet, you know, it's
not like the one sitting on the throne
or the pulpit or the
you know,
the the fancy green cushion or
Something like that. He was just he was
amongst the people. He's amongst the men. He
was a man among the men,
as I said
In a hadith written by Umar, the prophet
said do not lavish praise on me as
the Christians lavish praise on the son of
Maryam, alaihis
alaihim
So this hadith is in Bukhari. It's mentioned
that Imam al Tirmidhi in the Shima'il,
I believe as well
that,
don't you know, the translation says lavish praise
on me, but really flatter me
in terms in which Isa alaihi salaam,
kama in terms of or similar just
as Isa alayhis salam,
was flattered or given titles
that he did not merit or that breached
the
parameters
of acceptable theology,
because there really is no way of overpraising
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Right?
Praising the Prophet had is limitless.
The the poet said, Fa'ina Fa'ina Fa'ina Fa'idullah
Rasulillahi
lai salahu had
There really is no end
Right? And this is what this will come
what did the Christians do? We have to
ask this question. When we read this hadith,
you know, what did the Christians do with
Isa alaihi wasalam? Some of our brethren, they
say, well, you're celebrating the birthday,
the moad of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam.
This is what the Christians are doing. And
is that is that what he's talking about,
celebrating,
a birthday? And,
I mean, that,
I think that's a pretty, weak argument.
The point here is
not to make him more than what he
is.
Right? The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, you know,
when he entered Medina and he realized
that or he was told that the Jews
were fasting on Yom yahushura, he says we
should fast too,
you know, this
this this certainly doesn't mean,
you know, that, you know, oh, you know,
he's he's imitating what the Jews are doing,
and, I mean, this is the prophet himself
giving the command to the Muslims. We have
a greater claim on Musa, alayhis salaam, he
said.
Right?
The prophet, salaam, is by consensus greater than
Isa, alayhis salaam.
Surat Maryam is basically a molded. It's a
narrative of the birth of Isa alayhi wasalam.
Allah is praising the birth of Isa alayhi
wasalam. How much more should we praise the
birth of the best of creation, sallallahu alayhi
salam?
If if Musa, alayhi salam's exodus from Egypt
is is commemorated by the Jews, how much
more should we commemorate
the Hijra of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
or the command of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam? So that's not what he's talking about
here. He's talking about giving the Prophet a
rank or a station of some sort that
that
is outside the bounds of
acceptable theology. So what did the Christians do
with Isa alaihis salaam? That made him into
the literal Son of God?
And what does that mean?
That means that they said that Isa alaihis
salam,
his essence that the that the essence of
is divine.
That when
he was a human being is really what's
known as hypostatic union of 2 persons,
the human Jesus of Nazareth, but also the
logos or the son of God who has
an eternal
who has an intrinsic pre eternality.
So they're ascribing to Isa Alaihi Salam a
divine quality.
So don't do that with the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. Don't say the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam
has an inherent
divine quality that he's all hearing, he's all
seeing,
he's all powerful,
this type of thing.
This is what the Christians did with Risa,
alaihis salam, and this is what we're told
to avoid.
We're not giving any divine qualities
to the prophets of Allah alaihi sallam.
Everything that he has is from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala who is the ontological
source of everything, period.
So this is a good place to stop
We are in section the middle of section
19.
Inshallah,
next week,
we'll finish,
Inshallah.
I think there's 24 sections in this chapter
if I'm not mistaken.
25 sections. It it'll be a bit difficult,
but maybe we can manage it.
So